New York Will Requirements
What each state’s probate code requires to execute a valid will: the minimum age, how many witnesses must sign, whether a notary is needed, whether handwritten wills count, and where electronic wills are authorised. Sortable, every cell cited to the statute and dated when it was read.
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Estimate only — not legal advice. This is the published math for New York will execution requirements, shown as a range. Your actual outcome depends on facts, evidence, and decisions this page cannot see.
- Minimum age to make a will
- 18
- Witnesses required at signing
- 2
- Notary required to make the will valid
- No
- Self-proving affidavit
- Permitted
- Handwritten (holographic) wills
- Limited
- Electronic wills
- Authorised from 2027
- Small-estate threshold
- $50,000
N.Y. EPTL §3-2.1
New York adds requirements the other large states do not. Both witnesses must attest within a single thirty-day period (rebuttably presumed satisfied); the testator must declare to each witness that the instrument is their will; and the witnesses must sign and affix their residence addresses at the end of the will — though failing to affix an address does not invalidate it. A disposition to an attesting witness is void unless at least two other attesting witnesses take no beneficial disposition.
N.Y. EPTL §3-2.1
Notarisation is about making a will self-proving, which saves witnesses a trip to court later. It is not what makes the will valid.
N.Y. EPTL §3-2.1
Recognised but with no statutory form supplied. SCPA §1406 lets the attesting witnesses swear an affidavit before any officer authorised to administer oaths, stating facts that would if uncontradicted establish the will's genuineness; the court accepts it unless objection is made.
N.Y. SCPA §1406
Far narrower than usually described, and it EXPIRES. A holographic will is valid only if made by a member of the armed forces while in actual military or naval service during a war or other armed conflict, by a person serving with or accompanying such a force, or by a mariner while at sea. It becomes invalid one year after discharge, one year after ceasing to accompany the force, or three years after it was made in the mariner's case — tolled while the testator lacks testamentary capacity.
N.Y. EPTL §3-2.2
The New York electronic wills act (L. 2025 ch. 637) was signed on December 12, 2025 but is NOT operative until December 12, 2027 — every section carries that annotation, and EPTL 3-2.1 currently exists in two versions, one effective until that date and one after it. Note the enacting bill originally set a 545-day delay, which a February 2026 chapter amendment replaced with two years; anyone reading only the original bill would publish an effective date six months too early. Until December 2027, a will executed electronically in New York is relying on a statute that has not started.
N.Y. EPTL art. 3 pt. 6, §§3-6.1 to 3-6.9 (L. 2025 ch. 637)
Voluntary administration is available where the gross value of the decedent's PERSONAL property is $50,000 or less, exclusive of property set off under EPTL 5-3.1(a). Real property does not count toward the figure and is not covered by the procedure.
N.Y. SCPA §1301(1)
New York has enacted an electronic wills act that is not yet in force. Until its operative date, a will executed electronically here is relying on a statute that has not started.
These are execution requirements — what the probate code says a will must satisfy to be valid. They are not instructions for writing one, and this page does not tell you whether a will or a trust fits your situation. If you want to think that question through, the will-vs-trust quiz shows its reasoning, and an estate attorney licensed in New York answers it properly.
Compare against every verified state, or see which states allow electronic wills.
Verified 2026-08-02 against New York Estates, Powers and Trusts Law §§3-1.1, 3-2.1, 3-2.2, 3-3.2 and article 3 part 6, with SCPA §§1301 and 1406 (effective 2026-08-02)
Source of record
🎓 Understand this tool
What it is
A state-by-state table of what a probate code requires for a will to be validly executed: minimum age, witnesses, notarisation, self-proving affidavits, handwritten wills and electronic wills. It reports requirements. It does not explain how to write a will and does not supply language.
How it works
Each cell is transcribed from the state’s own probate code and carries that citation, plus the date someone read it. The categories are the ones states actually legislate on. Witness counts are near-universal at two, with Pennsylvania the outlier at none for validity. Notarisation is widely misunderstood: in almost every state it makes a will self-proving — meaning it can be admitted without tracking witnesses down years later — rather than making it valid. Louisiana is the exception, requiring a notary and two witnesses to execute. Roughly half of states recognise holographic wills, handwritten and unwitnessed, and a few recognise them only for armed-forces members.
Getting the most from it
- Find your state. Every figure links the statute it came from, so you can read the provision yourself.
- Read the witness row carefully — “none required” is a real answer where it appears, not missing data.
- Check the electronic column against the tracker, which separates statutes in force from statutes enacted with a future start date.
- Note the small-estate threshold if your state publishes one. It is the figure that decides whether full probate is likely to be involved at all.
Reading your result
These are execution requirements — the conditions a will must satisfy to be valid. Meeting them does not make a will a good one, does not mean it says what you intend, and does not resolve how an estate should be arranged. Requirements also change: a legislature can amend an execution rule or start an electronic wills act, which is why every cell carries the date it was verified.
What it can't tell you
This cannot draft a will, review one, tell you whether yours is valid, or tell you whether a will or a trust suits your situation. It does not cover revocation, amendment, undue influence, capacity disputes, or what happens when a will is contested. An estate attorney licensed in your state answers all of that.
Frequently asked questions
Two in almost every state, signing in the testator’s presence. Pennsylvania is the notable exception: a will can be valid there without witnesses at execution, and witnesses matter instead when the will is offered for probate. The table shows each state’s figure with the statute beside it.
Related calculators
Electronic Wills
Which states authorise electronic wills, which have passed an act that has not started yet, and which authorise nothing. The distinction matters: a post-dated statute is not law today, and signing under one before its operative date relies on a rule that has not begun.
Will vs Trust
Seven questions covering the factors estate planners commonly treat as reasons to look past a simple will — property in two states, a business, incapacity planning, contest exposure. It shows its scoring as you answer and cites your state’s small-estate threshold rather than hiding the reasoning.
Change alerts — when a state revises the guideline or deadline behind this page
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