Signing and Witnessing Wills

In order for your Will to be valid and legally enforceable it must be signed and witnessed in the correct manner. Your Will can be witnessed by almost anyone – it does not have to be a solicitor, court official or other professional person – it does have to be someone who can be relied upon.

For that reason it needs to be signed by someone who is aged 18 or over and who is 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),
• lacking the necessary mental capacity.

However, the witnesses do not need to be independent of each other. Thus a married couple or business partners could witness the Will.

The testator should, before signing, read through the Will and ensure that he or she understands it, that the gifts made are correct and given to the right people, that 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, also, a number of formalities to the way in which the Will needs to be signed and witnessed. These include:

• The person signing the Will and both witnesses must be present in the same place at the same time as the Will is signed;
• The testator must sign the Will in the presence of both of the witnesses – it is not enough 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 Scotland and some other jurisdictions), if the Will is more than one page long then ideally the testator should sign at the bottom of each page to show that nothing has been added at a later date. The Will must also be dated with the date that it is signed and witnessed.

Under no circumstances attach any other documents 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 allowed 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.