Walk It Through: The Will on the Kitchen Table
A handwritten will, a typed one with witnesses, a will torn up, and a widow left out.
A grandmother writes out her will entirely by hand at the kitchen table and signs it.
Two things a person in this spot might do. Picking one shows what the law says about it.
One person's wills and a surviving spouse's choice. Will contests, lost wills, and how a will is admitted to probate are not part of this walkthrough.
A practice walkthrough, not a prediction of how any real one will go. Legal information, not legal advice.
Words this turns on
Terms with a legal meaning that is narrower than the everyday one. Each links to the definition and the authority behind it.
- IntestateDying without a will, so the estate passes in the order the statutes set: the spouse, then children, then parents, then brothers and sisters.
- Handwritten willA will written wholly in the maker's own hand and signed, which needs no witnesses.
- Self proved willA will signed with the maker's acknowledgment and the witnesses' affidavits before an officer who administers oaths, on the form the statute gives.