Witnessing the Will

Most states require that a will be witnessed by at least two disinterested persons. "Disinterested" means that the person does not inherit anything under the terms of the will—they may be very interested on a purely personal level. A witness should not be someone who stands to benefit under the terms of the will because of the inherent conflict of interest involved. The witnesses, like the testator, must be of sound mind and body and be at least 18 years old.

It doesn't hurt to include an extra witness. If fact, it is highly recommended that you do so. Being a will's witness is not a mere honorary role. Instead, a witness may be called on to testify or otherwise support the authenticity of the will. As such, it's always good to have a spare witness to rely on in case the other witnesses become unavailable.

In a similar vein, the witnesses of your will should be clearly identified in the will itself. In addition to their signatures, their printed names and addresses should be listed. It doesn't do much good if you have a witness, but can't tell who it is from an illegible signature without a printed name.

Tip It is recommended that each witness, the testator, and any person signing on behalf of the testator all be present during the entire proceedings for executing the will. State laws may differ on this issue, but each witness must generally either see the testator sign the will or hear the testator acknowledge that the signature they are seeing is that of the testator.

To ensure the authenticity of a will's contents, attorneys commonly number the pages of the will consecutively (e.g., 1 of 10, 2 of 10, etc.). The testator and the witnesses then initial each of the pages after they are bound together. This is not a legal requirement, but it helps prevent will pages or provisions being slipped in after the fact.