Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California

QUESTION: Is a written addendum to a will binding if it was signed, but not notarized? Everyone agrees that my grandmother wrote the requests, but, she never bothered to formally change her will.

BACKGROUND: My grandmother created a formal will with an attorney in the 1980's when I was a child. In it, she only left me a few pieces of jewelery. In the late 1990's she made a hand-written note that I am to receive the entire contents of her home, including all furniture and electronics, etc. There is a signature and a date, but not on that page. (There are several pages. My dad is honoring the jewelery and donation requests written on those pages, ironically.) It was not notarized. It is clearly in her handwriting, though, and the information is more recent. Also, it matches what she told me on the phone a couple of months ago, which was a private conversation that cannot be proved, of course, but tells me that, morally, it was her desire.

My dad (the executor of the trust) has told me that I will be lucky for anything that I get, since her handwritten "notes" (as he calls them) are "not legally binding". Is this true?

Thank you in advance for your assistance!


Asked on 4/01/10, 2:44 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Michele Cusack Pollak & Cusack

A will never needs to be notarized. A typed Will, dated and signed by the testator, must be witnessed (signed by two impartial witnesses). But a holographic will (written all in the testator's own handwriting) does NOT need to be witnessed, and certainly may be legally binding if it expresses "testamentary intent."

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Answered on 4/06/10, 7:09 am


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