Tag Archives: Witnesses

One of the easiest steps that an estate planning attorney can take to try to prevent a will that he drafted from being challenged is to have the witnesses to the will utilize a checklist in order to create a documented record that they observed that the testator had adequate testamentary capacity. First some background: in order for a will to be valid, the person executing the will (often referred to as the “testator”) must have “testamentary capacity” (which, in most states, is defined as the adequate mental ability to understand his family, his property, the fact that he’s making …