Report Title:

Wills; Pour-over Wills

Description:

Allows pour-over will to be valid if notarized.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

1437

TWENTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2005

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

relating to wills.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. Section 560:2-502, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"§560:2-502 Execution; witnessed wills; holographic wills[.]; pour-over wills. (a) Except as provided in [subsection] subsections (b) and (d) and in sections 560:2-503, 560:2-506, and 560:2-513, a will must be:

(1) In writing;

(2) Signed by the testator or in the testator's name by some other individual in the testator's conscious presence and by the testator's direction; and

(3) Signed by at least two individuals, each of whom signed within a reasonable time after the individual witnessed either the signing of the will as described in paragraph (2) or the testator's acknowledgment of that signature or acknowledgment of the will.

(b) A will that does not comply with subsection (a) is valid as a holographic will, whether or not witnessed, if the signature and material portions of the document are in the testator's handwriting.

(c) Intent that the document constitute the testator's will can be established by extrinsic evidence, including, for holographic wills, portions of the document that are not in the testator's handwriting.

(d) A will that does not comply with subsection (a) is valid as a pour-over will, whether or not witnessed, if:

(1) A provision in the will directs the distribution of property into a trust;

(2) The signature of the document is in the testator's handwriting; and

(3) The document is acknowledged before a notary public."

SECTION 2. Section 560:2-504, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (a) to read as follows:

"(a) A will may be simultaneously executed, attested, and made self-proved, by acknowledgment thereof by the testator and affidavits of the witnesses, if any, each made before an officer authorized to administer oaths under the laws of the state in which execution occurs and evidenced by the officer's certificate, under official seal, in substantially the following form:

I, _______________, the testator, sign my name to this instrument this _____ day of _________, and being first duly sworn, do hereby declare to the undersigned authority that I sign and execute this instrument as my will and that I sign it willingly (or willingly direct another to sign for me), that I execute it as my free and voluntary act for the purposes therein expressed, and that I am eighteen years of age or older, of sound mind, and under no constraint or undue influence.

Testator

We, ____________, _______________, the witnesses, sign our names to this instrument, being first duly sworn, and do hereby declare to the undersigned authority that the testator signs and executes this instrument as the testator's will and that the testator signs it willingly (or willingly directs another to sign for the testator), and that each of us, in the presence and hearing of the testator, hereby signs this will as witness to the testator's signing, and that to the best of our knowledge the testator is eighteen years of age or older, of sound mind, and under no constraint or undue influence.

Witness

Witness

The State of

County of

Subscribed, sworn to and acknowledged before me by _______________, the testator, and subscribed and sworn to before me by _______________, and _______________, witness, this _____ day of __________.

(Seal)

(Signed)

(Official capacity of officer)"

SECTION 3. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:

_____________________________