Technology has changed the way we do business and communicate with our clients, family and friends, and soon it might change the way people can prepare and execute a will in New Jersey. Over the last several years, New Jersey has relaxed the formality with which a will must be executed, even admitting unsigned wills to probate.
Historically, New Jersey required that to be valid, a will must comply with N.J.S.A. 3B:3-2, which generally provides that a will must be either (a) in writing and signed by the testator in the presence of two witnesses, or (b) in the testator’s own handwriting and signed by the testator. However, effective in 2005 N.J.S.A. 3B:3-3 was amended to recognize “writings intended as wills” and provides in relevant part:
Although a document or writing added upon a document was not executed in compliance with N.J.S. 3B:3-2, the document or writing is treated as if it had been executed in compliance with N.J.S. 3B:3-2 if the proponent of the document or writing establishes by clear and convincing evidence that the decedent intended the document or writing to constitute: (1) the decedent’s will ….
