What is a Deathbed Will?

When someone is staring death in the face, they may decide to draft a will, or tear up their old will and sign a new one. This is often referred to as a “deathbed will".

Does a Will need to be Notarized to be considered Legal and Valid?

No. However, if a will-maker wants to speed up the probate process, they need to make the will “self-proving” and in order to do that, the will-maker, along with the witnesses, need to have it notarized. With a self-proving will, the probate court can accept it without contacting the witnesses who signed the document.

Sometimes, a terminally ill person felt that creating a will was morbid, or they meant to do it but never got around to it. Others prepared a will, but circumstances in their lives changed and they don’t want to bequeath their assets to the same beneficiaries, or they want their assets distributed differently than they did before. Or, a will-maker may realize that their will is out dated and they want to revoke it and write a new one.

After the person’s death, if there is any question if the decedent was under duress or unduly influenced by a beneficiary, the probate court will call the witnesses to court and have them testify under oath about what they saw when the person signed the deathbed will. Was the decedent aware of what they were doing? Did the decedent know what he or she owned and who the beneficiaries were? These are the types of questions the court will ask of the witnesses.

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