Have you ever seen a film or television show in which a late-grandparent uses a video or has a lawyer read their estate plan intentions to their family? Some movies that come to mind are: Little Big League, Gran Torino, and Rain Man.

Well, unfortunately, this does not make your will legitimate in the real world! There are steps and requirements you must follow in order to make your will valid.

As a side note, Illinois recently passed legislation concerning electronic wills, which are not the same as a traditional paper will. I'm only going to talk about traditional wills in this post. I'll discuss electronic wills in another post.

Here are the requirements needed for your will to be recognized by the court.

There needs to be a testator present

A testator is a legal term for the person who is making the will, that is YOU!It's the person who has something to leave behind and has made a will to do so. It is very rare that you would use this term in conventional conversation. The term “testator” is typically only used in legal documentation.

The testator must have capacity

By law, the person creating the will (the testator) must have capacity. Capacity will often require that the person is of minimum age and is of sound mind and capable of making decisions.

The will must be written on Paper

A will must be in writing in order to be valid. It cannot be verbally said to someone in a video – like in the movies. Verbal wills are not recognized under the law. Can your will be handwritten? As a matter of fact, it can! As long as your will is in writing, it will be considered valid.

The will must be signed

Your will must have your signature on it. On occasion, there may be a special circumstance where you cannot physically sign the document. In these instances, your will must be validated using a different process.

Your signature must have witnesses

In Illinois, we require two witnesses at the time of signing. And the witnesses must be uninterested. "Uninterested" means that they can't be someone who is a creditor of the person making the will. Some examples of witnesses are friends, neighbors, and coworkers -- someone that knows you but will not receive anything from the will.

There is also a rule that the witnesses must physically use their eyes to see the signing of the will. As a result of COVID, we have seen drastic changes to how we communicate. There has been a considerable rise in online and virtual communication. This change brought about the new law regarding electronic wills that was recently passed in the summer of 2021. In Illinois, this law allows the use of electronic wills; however, there are not a ton of attorneys ready and willing to use them because it is so new.

Sum It Up

In order for your will to be considered valid:

You must have capacity when you create it
It must be in writing
It must be signed in front of witnesses

And that’s it! It’s pretty straightforward.

If you have any questions, please let me know! I'd be happy to answer them.

And if you don't mind giving me a quick, like, or subscribing to my YouTube channel, I'd greatly appreciate it. Feel free to reach out and we can chat more about what you would need to put in place for your estate plan.

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