May I deposit my Will with the Court before I die? Part 3
Full Question:
May I deposit my Will with the Court before I die? Part 3
12/28/2016 |
Category: Wills and Es... ยป Filing Will ... |
State: ALL |
#28971
Answer:
See also
Part 1 - https://answers.uslegal.com/wills-and-estates/filing-will-before-death/28969/
Part 2 - https://answers.uslegal.com/wills-and-estates/filing-will-before-death/28970/
Vermont
"14 V.S.A. § 2. Deposit of will for safekeeping; delivery; final disposition-
(a) A testator may deposit a will for safekeeping in the probate division of the superior court for the district in which the testator resides on the payment to the court of the fee required by 32 V.S.A. § 1434(a)(17). The register shall give to the testator a certificate of deposit, shall safely keep each will so deposited and shall keep an index of the wills so deposited.
(b) Each will so deposited shall be inclosed in a sealed wrapper having inscribed thereon the name and residence of the testator, the day when and the person by whom it was deposited, and the wrapper may also have indorsed thereon the name of the person to whom the will is to be delivered after the death of the testator. The wrapper shall not be opened until it is delivered to a person entitled to receive it or until otherwise disposed of as hereinafter provided.
(c) During the life of the testator that will shall be delivered only to the testator, or in accordance with the testator's order in writing duly proved by oath of a subscribing witness, but the testator's duly authorized legal guardian may at any time inspect and copy the will in the presence of the judge or register. After the death of the testator it shall be delivered on demand to the person named in the indorsement.
(d) If the will is not called for by the person named in the indorsement, it shall be publicly opened at a time to be appointed by the court as soon as may be after notice of the testator's death. If a petition to open a decedent's estate is filed in a district other than where the will has been kept, the will shall be delivered to the executor therein named or to the person whose name is indorsed on the wrapper or shall be filed in the other court, as the court may order.
(e) Except as provided herein, wills deposited for safekeeping or any index of wills so deposited are not open to public inspection.
(Amended 1961, No. 122, eff. May 16, 1961; 1971, No. 105, § 1; 1985, No. 144 (Adj. Sess.), § 11; 2009, No. 154 (Adj. Sess.), § 238a, eff. Feb. 1, 2011; 2011, No. 33, § lib.)
"
14 V.S.A. § 108. How proved, when uncontested-
If a person does not appear to contest the allowance of a will at the time appointed, the court may allow the will on the testimony of only one of the subscribing witnesses, if the witness testifies that the will was executed as provided in chapter 1 of this title. If the allowance of the instrument is consented to in writing by the surviving spouse of the deceased, if any, and by all the heirs at law and next of kin, it may be allowed without testimony.
4 V.S.A. § 114. Petition and hearing on
(a) When a will has been allowed in any other state or country, as provided in section 113 of this title, an executor or other person interested may file a petition for ancillary administration. The petition shall contain:
(1) A duly authenticated copy of the decedent's will and the allowance thereof (where probate is required by the laws of such state or country) or
(2) A duly authenticated certificate of the legal custodian of such original will that the same is a true copy and that such will has become operative by the laws of such state or country (where probate is not required by the laws of such state or country) or
(3) A copy of a notarial will in possession of a notary in a foreign state or country entitled to the custody thereof and duly authenticated by such notary (the laws of such state or country requiring that such will remain in the custody of such notary).
(b) After receiving a petition for ancillary administration, the probate division of the superior court shall schedule a hearing, and notice shall be given, as provided by the rules of probate procedure.
(Amended 1985, No. 144 (Adj. Sess.), § 21; 2009, No. 154 (Adj. Sess.),
Washington
RCW 11.20.020 (1) Applications for the probate of a will and for letters....
(1) Applications for the probate of a will and for letters testamentary, or either, may be made to the judge of the court having jurisdiction and the court may immediately hear the proofs and either probate or reject such will as the testimony may justify. Upon such hearing the court shall make and cause to be entered a formal order, either establishing and probating such will, or refusing to establish and probate the same, and such order shall be conclusive except in the event of a contest of such will as hereinafter provided. All testimony in support of the will shall be reduced to writing, signed by the witnesses, and certified by the judge of the court. If the application for probate of a will does not request the appointment of a personal representative and the court enters an adjudication of testacy establishing such will no further administration shall be required except as commenced pursuant to RCW 11.28.330 or 11.28.340.
(2) In addition to the foregoing procedure for the proof of wills, any or all of the attesting witnesses to a will may, at the request of the testator or, after his or her decease, at the request of the executor or any person interested under it, make an affidavit before any person authorized to administer oaths, stating such facts as they would be required to testify to in court to prove such will, which affidavit may be written on the will or may be attached to the will or to a photographic copy of the will. The sworn statement of any witness so taken shall be accepted by the court as if it had been taken before the court.
Wisconsin
853.09 Deposit of will in circuit court during testator's lifetime.
(1) Deposit of will. Unless provided otherwise by county ordinance, any testator may deposit his or her will with the register in probate of the court of the county where he or she resides. The will shall be sealed in an envelope with the name and address of the testator, and the date of deposit noted thereon. If the will is deposited by a person other than the testator, that fact also shall be noted on the envelope. The size of the envelope may be regulated by the register in probate to provide uniformity and ease of filing. A county board may, by ordinance, provide that wills may not be deposited with the register in probate for the county. Wills deposited with the register in probate prior to the effective date of that ordinance shall be retained by the register in probate as provided under sub. (2).
(2) Duty of register in probate. The register in probate shall issue a receipt for the deposit of the will and shall maintain a registry of all wills deposited. The original will, unless withdrawn under sub. (3) or opened in accordance with s. 856.03 after death of the testator, shall be kept on file for the period provided in SCR chapter 72; thereafter the register may either retain the original will or open the envelope, copy or reproduce the will for confidential record storage purposes by microfilm, optical disk, electronic format or other method of comparable retrievability and destroy the original. If satisfactorily identified, the reproduction is admissible in court for probate or any other purpose the same as the original document. Wills deposited with the county judge under s. 238.15, 1967 stats., shall be transferred to the register in probate and become subject to this section.
(3) Withdrawal. A testator may withdraw the testator's will during the testator's lifetime, but the register in probate shall deliver the will only to the testator personally or to a person duly authorized to withdraw it for the testator, by a writing signed by the testator and 2 witnesses other than the person authorized.
History: 1977 c. 449; 1981 c. 146; Sup. Ct. Order, 136 Wis.2d xx (1987); 1993 a. 172, 486; 1995 a. 27.
856.17 Missing will, how proved.
If any will is lost, destroyed by accident, destroyed without the testator's consent, unavailable but revived under s. 853.11 (6), or otherwise missing, the court has power to take proof of the execution and validity of the will and to establish the same. The petition for the probate of the will shall set forth the provisions of the will.
856.15 Proof of will and proof of heirs where uncontested.
(1) Generally. The court may grant probate of an uncontested will on the execution in open court by one of the subscribing witnesses of a sworn statement that the will was executed as required by the statutes and that the testator was of sound mind, of full age, and not acting under any restraint at the time of the execution thereof. If an uncontested will contains an attestation clause showing compliance with the requirements for execution under s. 853.03 or 853.05 or includes an affidavit in substantially the form under s. 853.04 (1) or (2), the court may grant probate without any testimony or other evidence.
(2) Proof outside the county. Upon request of the petitioner, the petitioner's attorney or, if the petitioner is in the military service, the petitioner's attorney-in-fact, the court in which the estate is pending may by order direct that proof of heirs or proof of will, if uncontested, may be taken in open court in any county in this state, or by a judge having probate jurisdiction in any other state or territory of the United States, for use in the court in which the estate is pending.
(3) Removal of will for proof outside the county. If a will filed for probate is removed from the court in which the estate is pending so that it may be proved outside the county, it shall during its absence be replaced by a photographic copy or a certified copy thereof.
(4) Will and proof to be returned and filed. After a will is proved in a court other than the court in which the estate is pending, the will and the proof of will shall be sent to the court in which the estate is pending. If no contest develops at the time fixed for proving the will in the court in which the estate is pending, the will and proof of will shall be filed as though made in the court in which the estate is pending.
(5) When no competent subscribing witness in state. If no competent subscribing witness resides in this state at the time fixed for proving the will or if none of them, after reasonable diligence can be found in this state, the court may admit the testimony of other witnesses to prove the competency of the testator, the execution, proof of testator's handwriting and that of one of the subscribing witnesses.
Wyoming
2-6-205. Proof; wills not self-proving.
(a) If the will is not self-proving, proof of a will may be made by the oral or written testimony of one or more of the subscribing witnesses to the will. If the testimony is in writing, it shall be substantially in the following form, executed and sworn to contemporaneously with the execution of the will or at any time thereafter, whether before or after the date of death of the testator:
In THE District Court of Wyoming
In and for ____________ County
In the Matter of the Estate of ) Probate No. _________
__________________ Deceased ) Testimony of Subscribing
State of __________________ ) ss Witness on Probate of Will
___________________ County )
I, ____________________, being first duly sworn, state:
I reside in the County of _____________________, State
of ____________________; I knew the testator on the __________ day of
________________ (year), the date of the instrument, the original or
exact reproduction of which is attached hereto, now shown to me, and
purporting to be the last will and testament of the said _______________;
I am one of the subscribing witnesses to said instrument; and on the said
date of said instrument, I knew ____________________, the other
subscribing witness; and said instrument was exhibited to me and to the
other subscribing witness by the testator, who declared the same to be
his last will and testament, and was signed by the testator at
____________________, in the County of ____________________, State of
____________________, on the date shown in said instrument, in the
presence of myself and the other subscribing witness; and the other
subscribing witness and I then and there, at the request of the testator,
in the presence of said testator and in the presence of each other,
subscribed our names thereto as witnesses.
Name of witness __________________
Address ____________________
Subscribed and sworn to before me this ________ day of ________, (year).
Notary Public in and for ____________________
County of ____________________
State of ____________________
(SEAL)
(b) If it is desired to prove the execution of the will by deposition rather than by use of the affidavit form provided in subsection (a) of this section, upon application the clerk shall issue a commission to some officer authorized by the law of this state to take depositions, with the will annexed, and the officer taking the deposition shall exhibit it to the witness for identification, and, when identified by him, shall mark it as "Exhibit ___________" and cause the witness to connect his identification with it as such exhibit. Before sending out the commission the clerk shall make and retain in his office a true copy of the will.
(c) If all of the witnesses are deceased or otherwise not available, it is permissible to prove the will by the sworn testimony of two (2) credible disinterested witnesses that the signature to the will is in the handwriting of the person whose will it purports to be, and that the signatures of the witnesses are in the handwriting of the witnesses, or it may be proved by other sufficient evidence of the execution of the will.