The safest place to store your will in New York is a location that is secure from loss, fire, and tampering yet readily accessible to your executor immediately after your death — for most clients that means a fireproof home safe with the original entrusted to a record system your executor knows about, your attorney’s secure document storage, or, increasingly,
A will is invalid in New York whenever it fails to satisfy the formal execution requirements of the Estates, Powers and Trusts Law (EPTL) §3-2.1 — most commonly because it was not signed at the end by the testator, was not witnessed by at least two attesting witnesses, or was not properly “published” (declared by the testator to be their
Yes — after you marry, divorce, or welcome a new child in New York, you should update your will, and in most cases you should do it promptly. A will is a snapshot of your wishes at the moment you signed it, but your family is not a snapshot. When the people you love, the people you trust, and the
To make a will legally valid in New York, you must satisfy the execution and attestation formalities set out in Estates, Powers and Trusts Law (EPTL) §3-2.1: the testator signs at the end of the document, declares the instrument to be their will, and signs in the presence of (or acknowledges that signature to) at least two attesting witnesses, who
No — a will does not avoid probate in New York. In fact, a will is the very document that must be filed with and admitted to the Surrogate’s Court through the probate process. This is one of the most common and costly misconceptions we encounter when advising clients across New York State. A will does not work around probate;
Yes, in New York you can disinherit most people in your will, including adult children, siblings, parents, and more distant relatives, simply by leaving them out or naming them as expressly excluded. New York imposes no obligation to provide for an adult child or any blood relative. There is one major exception: you generally cannot fully disinherit a surviving spouse.