Under New York law, there are some strict requirements about signatures and witnesses for wills. To ensure that your will is a valid legal document, you should follow these requirements carefully:

• Age and capacity: You must be 18 years old or older and of sound mind and memory when you sign your will.
• Writing: Except for very rare situations where the testator is at war or at sea, a New York will must be in writing.
• Signature: You should sign your will at the end of the document or direct someone to sign it for you. If someone signs the will for you, that person must sign their own name and write their complete address on the will. This person does not count as one of the witnesses.
• Witnesses: There must be at least two witnesses to your will. You must declare that the will is yours and sign the will in front of them or acknowledge your signature in their presence. You may sign or acknowledge your will to the witnesses either separately or together. Within a 30-day period of witnessing your signature or acknowledgment, both witnesses must sign at the end of your will. In addition to signing, they must also write their residential addresses.

Yes, a New York will is valid without being notarized. But it’s a good idea to ask your witnesses to swear to a self-proving affidavit. This will require a notary public’s services.

A self-proving will contains proof of its own validity. This means that your witnesses may not have to testify that your will is authentic in front of a probate court. Instead, the court can automatically accept that the will is yours.

To make your will self-proving under New York law, you and your witnesses need to swear to an affidavit in front of a notary public. The self-proving affidavit will establish that you and your witnesses know that you are signing your will and that it is really your signature. By taking this extra step, you can potentially save time and legal fees for your beneficiaries down the line.

Unwitnessed, handwritten wills (holographic wills) and oral wills (nuncupative wills) can be valid in New York under rare circumstances. However, they are not advisable.

A nuncupative will is spoken and unwritten. So, New York law requires that two witnesses must have been present to hear the testator declare their will.

A fully handwritten, unwitnessed will is called a holographic will. Because a holographic will does not have witness signatures, it must be entirely handwritten. Both holographic wills and nuncupative wills must also follow other strict requirements under New York law.

New York law lists several other formal requirements for handwritten and oral wills. For both, the testator must have been a member of the armed forces at war, in armed conflict, or at sea. If they were not a member of the armed forces, they must have been accompanying the armed forces when they made the will. Further, the law provides time limits on the validity of these types of wills.

To relieve your loved ones from the legal hassles and delays that can result from a handwritten or oral will, you should sign a printed will in front of two witnesses instead. FindLaw can help you create a will with our easy step-by-step process. Best of all, you don’t even have to leave home to get your New York will.

You can change your will by creating a new will or writing an amendment (a “codicil“) to the will. Whether you write a codicil or a new will, you should sign it in front of two witnesses just as you did with your original will. A codicil is sufficient for making minor changes to a will.

Under New York law, you can completely revoke your will in the following ways:

• Write a new will. The new will should state that it revokes all prior wills.
• Create a new writing that declares your intention to revoke your will. This writing must be signed and witnessed with the same formalities as the original New York will.
• Burn, tear, cancel, cut, or otherwise physically destroy your will with the intention to revoke.
• Direct someone else to physically destroy your will for you. This should occur in the presence of two additional witnesses.

Whenever you create a new will or codicil, you should inform your loved ones and give a copy to your executor. This will help to assure that the probate court follows your most up-to-date wishes.