Published on: 10th January 2017

Signing your Will is straightforward providing you follow certain rules...

There are specific rules that must be followed to ensure that signing your Will is straightforward and correct.

The Will has to be in writing. This includes "typing, printing, lithography and other modes of representing or reproducing words in a visible form." Saying this, it doesn't actually have to be on paper - a Will was once accepted written on a wall, and another written on an eggshell!

The person making the Will (the testator) must sign the Will. The testator's name that they sign doesn't have to be their real name, provided that it can be established as the name they use, although the testator signs with their usual signature in most cases.

The testator must sign in the presence of two witnesses. And then each witness should sign in the presence of the testator and the other witness.

There are possible variations on the above but best practice is for the Will to be written on paper and for the testator and the two witnesses to sign, in ink, using their usual signatures whilst all three are together throughout the process.

The witnesses should be independent from the testator. They should not be family members and not be executors or beneficiaries of the Will nor related to anyone mentioned in the Will. If a beneficiary acts as a witness they disinherit themselves.

Casey & Associates offers a number of attestation (the process of witnesses signing the Wills) services:

• An "at home" attestation service. Two Casey & Associates staff visit our client (the testator) in the comfort of their home and act as the witnesses.
• An "in office" attestation service. Our client comes to our offices and two Casey & Associates staff act as the witnesses.
• A checking service for clients who decide to arrange the signing of their Will themselves. Once our client has signed their Will in front of two independent witnesses and the two independent witnesses have each also signed (whilst in the presence of the testator and the other witness) then our client sends the Will to us for us to check. We strongly recommend that our client hand delivers the Will to us or sends it to us using Royal Mail Special Delivery. We will then check that the Will appears to have been signed correctly by all three parties.

If you decide to arrange the signing of your Will then please click here for a copy of the instructions which we send out with every Final Will.

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