Handwritten Wills  

Darren Findling of The Probate Pro discusses whether handwritten wills are valid.
(833) PROBATE
www.TheProbate...
Free Forms: www.TheProbate...
Facebook: / theprobatepro
LinkedIn: / the-probate-pro-plc
Instagram: / theprobatepro
Twitter: / the_probatepro
_________________________________________________________________
Addresses:
Michigan Office:
414 W. Fifth Street
Royal Oak, Michigan 48067
Illinois Office:
1525 East 53rd Street, Ste 439
Chicago, Illinois 60615
Florida Office:
941 West Morse Blvd., Suite 100
Winter Park, Florida 32789
Please Call - (833) PROBATE
_________________________________________________________________
Legal Disclaimer:
This video is for educational purposes only and is not to be considered legal advice.
Please note that these communications are not a consultation with a lawyer about the possibility of forming a client lawyer relationship with respect to a matter and do not establish an attorney-client relationship. None of the information should be considered legal advice.
The Probate Pro, PLC, QuietTitle.com and any other entities of The Darren Findling Law Firm, PLC do not claim to be an “expert” or “specialist” in their legal practice areas.
Can you handwrite your Will? Can you just write out on a little loose-leaf piece of paper your intentions and declare that to be a Will? Hi, I'm Darren Findling of The Probate Pro and in Michigan there is no requirement for a will to be typed out whether it be by typewriter or computer and in fact it contemplates that many people will actually handwrite a will you can imagine scenarios in which this occurs quite often it occurs quite often with suicide notes it occurs among elderly who don't have access or familiarity with a computer and it often occurs in rare circumstances where somebody is trapped like a person trapped in a cave or a mine where they're writing out their last wishes on for example the walls of a cave we've seen Wills scribbled on inside Bibles we've seen Wills scribbled on uh envelopes and then other loose pieces of paper there are some requirements that must occur for the will to be valid first it must be in writing it must be signed by the testator or in the testator's name by some other individual in the testator's conscious presence and by the testator's direction so imagine if somebody was unable to actually sign but it is being done by another person in their conscious presence and in the testator's direction it must be signed by at least two individuals each within a reasonable time that it's being witnessed now there are exceptions to these strict compliance requirements for the execution of a will so for example you may have heard of a term called a holographic will a holographic will is a will that is substantially in the writing of the person that's signing the will it loosens the requirement of witnesses so as long as it's dated and signed holographic will can also be valid and then there's this great catchall statute that Michigan has it says although a document or writing is not executed in compliance with those strict requirements that I've just said a writing is treated as if it had been executed in compliance with the statute if the proponent meaning the person advancing the will to the probate court establishes by clear and convincing evidence that the decedent intended the document a writing to constitute a will so imagine if the document doesn't have two witnesses but it's typed out doesn't meet the objectives of a holographic will but clearly on its face you can show that it was intended to be a last will in Testament so the idea is that intended documents to be uh aren't going to be thrown out of court simply because there is a mistake in how the document is executed it serves public policy that people's intentions should be fulfilled now there's a whole body of Law and cases that have addressed this issue recently Michigan addressed a case in which a suicide note was done on somebody's cell phone and there have been other cases in which the document actually wasn't even signed but was about to be signed by the seller so all different types of situations you've got questions about probated issues visit us at theprobatepro.com or call us at 833 PROBATE.