Title 32, Wills

No witness to a holographic will is necessary, but the signature and all its material provisions must be in the handwriting of the testator and the testator's handwriting must be proved by two (2) witnesses.

(a) A nuncupative will may be made only by a person in imminent peril of death, whether from illness or otherwise, and shall be valid only if the testator died as a result of the impending peril, and must be:(1) Declared to be the testator's will by the testator before two (2) di…

(a) A will executed outside this state in a manner prescribed by §§ 32-1-101 — 32-1-108, inclusive, or a written will executed outside this state in a manner prescribed by the law of the place of its execution or by the law of the testator's domicile at the time of its execution,…

Sections 32-1-101 — 32-1-108, inclusive, shall not apply to wills executed in this state on or before February 15, 1941, or to wills offered for ancillary probate in this state that have been admitted to probate in the state or country of the testator's domicile.

No last will or testament executed on or before February 15, 1941, shall be good or sufficient to convey or give an estate in lands, unless written in the testator's lifetime, and signed by the testator, or by some other person in the testator's presence and by the testator's dir…

A paper writing, written on or before February 15, 1941, appearing to be the will of a deceased person, written by the deceased person, having the deceased person's name subscribed to it, or inserted in some part of it, and found, after the deceased person's death, among the dece…

(a) Married women, after February 15, 1941, may dispose of their property by will according to §§ 32-1-101 — 32-1-108. (b) Wills executed on or before February 15, 1941, by married women twenty-one (21) years of age or over, are valid to dispose of their realty or personalty, leg…

(a) With respect to a testator who is living, any will in writing, being enclosed in a sealed wrapper, and having endorsed thereon the name of the testator, the testator's place of residence and the testator's social security number or driver license number, if any, and the day w…

(a) Any person or corporation who has possession of or discovers a written instrument purporting to be the last will and testament of a decedent shall mail or deliver that instrument to the personal representative named in the instrument as soon as the person or corporation has k…

(1) A will or any part thereof is revoked by:(1) A subsequent will, other than a nuncupative will, that revokes the prior will or part expressly or by inconsistency;(2) Document of revocation, executed with all the formalities of an attested will or a holographic will, but not a …

(a) If after executing a will the testator is divorced or the testator's marriage annulled, the divorce or annulment revokes any disposition or appointment of property made by the will to the former spouse, any provision conferring a general or special power of appointment on the…

Wills shall be proved and recorded and letters testamentary granted in the probate court of the county where the testator had the testator's usual residence at the time of the testator's death, or, in case the testator had fixed places of residence in more than one county, in eit…

(a) Except when a will is before the court awaiting the determination of any controversy, an original will must remain in the clerk's office of the county where the will is proved or exhibited, or other suitable facility as provided in subsection (b), and any person may have acce…

Whenever any will has been proved and recorded for six (6) months in any county of this state, as required by §§ 32-2-101 — 32-2-104, and the will is required to be proved out of this state, the judge of probate may, on the application of the executor, so stating, duly sworn to a…

(a) Written wills with witnesses, when not contested, shall be proved by at least one of the subscribing witnesses, if living. Every last will and testament, written or nuncupative, when contested, shall be proved by all the living witnesses, if to be found, and by such other per…

(a) Any last will of any person in the military or naval service of the United States, made outside this state, or at sea while in military or naval service, may be admitted to probate by the probate court of the county where the testator was domiciled, upon the certificate of th…

(a) No nuncupative will shall be proved until fourteen (14) days after the death of the testator, nor until process has issued to call in the surviving spouse or next of kin, or both, if conveniently to be found, to contest it. (b) If the surviving spouse and next of kin, or any …

The probate of wills in the probate courts shall be sufficient evidence of the devise of real estates.

Attested or certified copies of wills, or the records thereof, by the proper officer, may be given in evidence in the same manner as the originals.

(a) When any fraud is suggested to have been committed in the drawing or obtaining of any last will, or any irregularity in the executing or attestation of the will, the party making the suggestion may insist upon the original will being produced to the court, if the original is …

Any or all of the attesting witnesses to any will may, at the request of the testator or, after the testator's death, at the request of the executor or any person interested under the will, make and sign an affidavit before any officer authorized to administer oaths in or out of …

Regardless of the date of the person's death and any limitation on the time for admitting a will for probate, any will when duly proven, whether of a resident or nonresident decedent, may be admitted to probate for the limited purpose of establishing a muniment of title to real e…

A will shall be construed, in reference to the real and personal estate comprised in it, to speak and take effect as if it had been executed immediately before the death of the testator, and shall convey all the real estate belonging to the testator, or in which the testator had …

Every devise shall convey the entire estate of the testator in the lands, unless the contrary intent plainly appear from the words and context of the will.

(a) A child born after the making of a will, either before or after the death of the testator, inclusive of a mother-testator, not provided for nor disinherited, but only pretermitted, in the will, and not provided for by settlement made by the testator in the testator's lifetime…

Where a bequest, devise, conveyance, transfer or gift is made to a class of persons subject to fluctuation by increase or diminution of its number in consequence of future births or deaths, and the time of payment, distribution, vestiture or enjoyment is fixed at a subsequent per…

(a) Whenever the devisee or legatee or any member of a class to which an immediate devise or bequest is made, dies before the testator, or is dead at the making of the will, leaving issue that survives the testator, the issue shall take the estate or interest devised or bequeathe…

(a) (1) A devise or bequest, the validity of which is determinable by the law of this state, may be made by a will to the trustee or trustees of a trust established or to be established by the testator or by the testator and some other person or persons or by some other person or…

(a) A contract to make a will or devise, or not to revoke a will or devise, or to die intestate can be established only by:(1) Provisions of a will stating material provisions of the contract;(2) An express reference in a will to a contract and extrinsic evidence proving the term…

(a) (1) IF,(A) A decedent dies after December 31, 1981;(B) Leaving a will executed, or a trust created, before September 12, 1981, that contains a formula expressly providing that the spouse is to receive the maximum amount of property qualifying for the marital deduction allowab…

Any court of record having probate jurisdiction has concurrent jurisdiction with chancery courts for the construction or interpretation of wills, or parts thereof, and for establishing lost, spoliated or suppressed wills.

(a) This section applies only to powers of appointment exercisable by will. (b) Capacity of holder of power. A power of appointment by will that is not subject to an express condition that it may be exercised only by a holder of a greater age may be exercised by a holder who has …

(a) A specific legatee or devisee has a right to the specifically gifted or devised property in the testator's estate at death or if the property has been disposed of and a contrary intention is not manifest during the testator's lifetime:(1) Any balance of the purchase price, to…

If the residue of the decedent's testamentary estate or the residue of a revocable trust created by the decedent that becomes irrevocable at the settlor's death is devised to two (2) or more persons, the share of a residuary devisee that fails for any reason passes to the other r…

(a) (1) A will or trust of a decedent, who dies after December 31, 2009, but before January 1, 2011, that contains a formula referring to the “unified credit,” “estate tax exemption,” “applicable exemption amount,” “applicable credit amount,” “applicable exclusion amount,” “gener…

To achieve the testator's tax objectives, the court may modify the terms of a will in a manner that is not contrary to the testator's probable intention. The court may provide that the modification has retroactive effect.

(a) (1) Notwithstanding the requirements of a holographic will, a will may refer to a written statement or list to dispose of items of tangible personal property not otherwise specifically disposed of by the will, other than money, evidences of indebtedness, documents of title, s…

(a) If the validity of any last will or testament, written or nuncupative, is contested, then the court having probate jurisdiction over that last will or testament must enter an order sustaining or denying the contestant's right to contest the will. If the right to contest the w…

(a) If the legatees or devisees, or any of them, are adults, and have notice that the probate of the will is contested, the court shall require them to enter into bond, with surety, in the penal sum of five hundred dollars ($500), conditioned for the faithful prosecution of the s…

Persons may be permitted to have an issue made upon any will, either as plaintiffs or defendants, in the form prescribed for paupers.

After the filing of the certificate of the contest and the original will, in the office of the clerk of the appropriate court for trial, pursuant to § 32-4-101(a)(2), an issue or issues shall be made up, under the direction of the court, to try the validity of the will.

(a) Upon the trial of the issue in case of a written will with witnesses, it shall be proved by all the living witnesses, if to be found, and by such other persons as may be produced to support it. (b) Upon the contest of a holographic will, if the holographic will was written wi…

If the original will is lost or mislaid so that it cannot be produced on the trial of the issue, but the paper has been copied into the pleadings, or spread upon the minutes of the court, the court may proceed with the trial of the issue in the same manner as if the original were…

(a) The issue may be tried by a jury, and their verdict, and the judgment of the court upon the validity of the will shall be certified to the court having probate jurisdiction over the will to be recorded together with the original will, if established. (b) If the issue was trie…

All actions or proceedings to set aside the probate of any will, or petitions to certify a will for an issue of devisavit vel non, must be brought within two (2) years from entry of the order admitting the will to probate, or be forever barred, saving, however, to persons under t…

Any court of record that has probate jurisdiction, whether a chancery court or other court of record established by private or public act, has concurrent jurisdiction with the circuit court to conduct a trial upon the validity of a will, in the manner and to the extent prescribed…