Wills: signing your will

To be considered legally compliant, you must sign your will in the presence of two witnesses.

The witnesses are required to sign the will to verify you signed of your own free will, and were not under duress or the influence of another person when signing.

When selecting your witnesses, it is critical that they are:

1. Over the age of 18 years old
2. Not a beneficiary in your will
3. Not a married spouse or civil partner of a beneficiary

If the will is not correctly signed it will not be considered legally valid.

If a beneficiary (or spouse of a beneficiary) is used as a witness, the will is still legally valid, but the individual is excluded by law from receiving any inheritance from the will.

Additional recommendations

• Don’t ask your executor to be a witness; however, this is allowable if you do not have any other witnesses available.
• Don’t have anyone who is a beneficiary of the will in the room when you sign and it is witnessed. This will help protect them from any suspicion of duress or influence

In the email we sent you confirming your will had been approved and was ready for printing and signing, we attached a detailed guide. We recommend you print this out to use as a helpful guide when you are meeting your witnesses to sign your will.