Signing and Witnessing a Will
Wills Factsheet No.8
For a Will to be valid and, therefore, legally enforceable, it needs to be signed and witnessed in the correct way.
A Will can be witnessed by almost anyone - it does not have to be a solicitor, court official or other professional person provided that they are aged 18 or over and not:
- Referred to in the will as a beneficiary, executor, trustee or guardian;
- Likely to benefit under the will, even if not directly named (for example the children or grandchildren of a beneficiary);
- the spouse, civil partner, or other partners of anyone named in the Will;
- blind (otherwise they cannot witness the Will being signed); or
- lacking the necessary mental capacity.
Witnesses do not, however, need to be independent of each other so a married couple or business partners could witness the Will.
Before signing a Will, the person making it should read it through and make sure that he or she understands it, that the gifts made are correct and given to the right people, and that to the best of their knowledge all names and addresses are correct. The witnesses, however, do not need to read the Will - merely to witness that the testator has signed.
There are a number of formalities as to how the Will should be signed and witnessed including:
- The person signing the Will and both witnesses must be present in the same place and at the same time as the Will is signed;
- The testator must sign the Will in the presence of both of those witnesses. It is insufficient for the testator to sign the Will not in the presence of both of them (for example before they have both arrived at the place where the Will is to be signed) and then confirm that it is his or her signature;
- Each witness must then sign the Will in the presence of the testator and the other witness.
Although there is no legal requirement in England and Wales to do so (the situation is different in some other jurisdictions), if the Will is longer than one page then ideally the testator should sign at the bottom of each page to show that nothing has been added at a later date.
Having been signed, the Will is then dated with the date it is signed and witnessed.
It is imperative that no other documents are attached to the Will - especially using paper clips, pins or other fasteners. This applies even if it is only temporary - for example a covering letter or a memo. If it appears that a document has been attached to the Will and that document is no longer attached, then it could call the Will into question if it is believed that there may have been a Codicil made after the date upon which the original Will was signed but that Codicil has been removed for fraudulent purposes.
If the testator is blind or partially sighted, or for any other reason unable to read the Will, then one of the witnesses should read the Will out loud to the testator, in the presence of the other witness. The witness doing the reading should add an additional statement to the Will confirming that this has been done and that the testator appeared to understand the terms of the Will. If the testator is also unable to sign the Will then another person can sign on their behalf but the Will would need to be amended to reflect this fact.