Mass. General Laws c.190B § 2-504

Self-proved will

This is an unofficial version of a Massachusetts General Law.

(a)

A will may be simultaneously executed, attested, and made self-proved, by acknowledgment thereof by the testator and affidavits of the witnesses, each made before an officer authorized to administer oaths under the laws of the state in which execution occurs and evidenced by the officer's certificate, under official seal, in substantially the following form:

I, [Name of testator], the testator, sign my name to this instrument this [Day] day of [Month], and being first duly sworn, do hereby declare to the undersigned authority that I sign and execute this instrument as my will and that I sign it willingly (or willingly direct another to sign for me), that I execute it as my free and voluntary act for the purposes therein expressed, and that I am 18 years of age or older, of sound mind, and under no constraint or undue influence.

[Signature of testator]
Testator

We, [Name of witness], [Name of witness], the witnesses, sign our names to this instrument, being first duly sworn, and do hereby declare to the undersigned authority that the testator signs and executes this instrument as [his] [her] will and that [he] [she] signs it willingly (or willingly directs another to sign for [him] [her]), and that each of us, in the presence and hearing of the testator, hereby signs this will as witness to the testator's signing, and that to the best of our knowledge the testator is 18 years of age or older, of sound mind, and under no constraint or undue influence.

[Signature of witness]
Witness

[Signature of witness]
Witness

The State of [Name of state]

County of [Name of county]

Subscribed, sworn to and acknowledged before me by [Name of testator], the testator, and subscribed and sworn to before me by [Name of witness], and [Name of witness], witness, this [Day] day of [Month].

(Seal)

(Signed) [Signature of officer]
(Official capacity of officer)

(b)

An attested will may be made self-proved at any time after its execution by the acknowledgment thereof by the testator and the affidavits of the witnesses, each made before an officer authorized to administer oaths under the laws of the state in which the acknowledgment occurs and evidenced by the officer's certificate, under the official seal, attached or annexed to the will in substantially the following form:

The State of [Name of state]

County of [Name of county]

We, [Name of testator], [Name of witness], and [Name of witness], the testator and the witnesses, respectively, whose names are signed to the attached or foregoing instrument, being first duly sworn, do hereby declare to the undersigned authority that the testator signed and executed the instrument as the testator's will and that [he] [she] had signed willingly (or willingly directed another to sign for [him] [her]), and that [he] [she] executed it as [his] [her] free and voluntary act for the purposes therein expressed, and that each of the witnesses, in the presence and hearing of the testator, signed the will as witness and that to the best of [his] [her] knowledge the testator was at that time 18 years of age or older, of sound mind, and under no constraint or undue influence.

[Signature of testator]
Testator

[Signature of witness]
Witness

[Signature of witness]
Witness

Subscribed, sworn to and acknowledged before me by [Name of testator], the testator, and subscribed and sworn to before me by [Name of witness], and [Name of witness], witnesses, this [Day] day of [Month].

(Seal)

(Signed) [Signature of officer]
(Official capacity of officer)

(c)

A signature affixed to a self-proving affidavit attached to a will is considered a signature affixed to the will, if necessary to prove the will's due execution.

Comment

A self-proved will may be admitted to probate as provided in Sections 3-303, 3-405, and 3-406 without the testimony of any subscribing witness, but otherwise it is treated no differently from a will not self proved. Thus, a self-proved will may be contested (except in regard to signature requirements), revoked, or amended by a codicil in exactly the same fashion as a will not self-proved. The procedural advantage of a self-proved will is limited to formal testacy proceedings because Section 3-303, which deals with informal probate, dispenses with the necessity of testimony of witnesses even though the instrument is not self-proved under this section.

A new subsection (c) is added to counteract an unfortunate judicial interpretation of similar self-proving will provisions in a few states, under which a signature on the self-proving affidavit has been held not to constitute a signature on the will, resulting in invalidity of the will in cases where the testator or witnesses got confused and only signed on the self- proving affidavit. See Mann, Self-proving Affidavits and Formalism in Wills Adjudication, 63 Wash. U. L.Q. 39 (1985); Estate of Ricketts, 773 P.2d 93 (Wash. Ct. App. 1989).

Massachusetts comment

The language of paragraphs (a) and (b) of this Section is basically the same as clauses (ii) and (iii) of G.L. Chapter 192, § 2, which itself was adapted from the Uniform Probate Code. Paragraph (c), however, is new. It would permit the signatures affixed to a separate self-proving affidavit attached to an unsigned will to be considered as signatures affixed to the will in order to establish due execution. Proof of the will upon testimony of one of the witnesses (clause (i) of § 2) is codified in section 3-405 and section 3-406.