Virginia 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 Virginia 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
- Statutory form
- Handwritten (holographic) wills
- Recognised
- Electronic wills
- Not authorised
- Small-estate threshold
- $75,000
Reached by negative implication — the statute says an unemancipated minor is not capable of making a will, so the exception is emancipation rather than a fixed lower age.
Va. Code §64.2-403
Two competent witnesses who are present at the SAME TIME and subscribe in the testator's presence. No particular form of attestation is necessary. Interest does not make a person incompetent to testify about the will.
Va. Code §64.2-403
Notarisation is about making a will self-proving, which saves witnesses a trip to court later. It is not what makes the will valid.
Va. Code §64.2-403
§64.2-452 prescribes a certificate form; an official seal is not required. §64.2-453 covers acknowledgment by the witnesses.
Va. Code §64.2-452
A will wholly in the testator's handwriting is valid without further requirements — no date is needed — but at probate the fact that it is wholly handwritten and signed must be proved by at least two disinterested witnesses.
Va. Code §64.2-403(B)
The complete section list of Title 64.2 chapter 4 (§§64.2-400 to 64.2-458) contains no electronic wills provision; its Article 4 is the Uniform INTERNATIONAL Wills Act, which is a different thing. Virginia's UETA (§59.1-481) separately excludes the law governing creation and execution of wills.
The decedent's entire personal probate estate as of the date of death, wherever located, must not exceed $75,000.
Va. Code §64.2-601(A)(1)
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 Virginia answers it properly.
Compare against every verified state, or see which states allow electronic wills.
Verified 2026-08-02 against Va. Code §§64.2-401, 64.2-403, 64.2-405, 64.2-452, 64.2-453 and 64.2-601 (effective 2026-07-01)
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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