Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Colorado

Last Will & Testament, Living Will, Power of Attorney

Several years ago, my spouse & I had the above documents duly witnessed & notarized! We just now noticed that the Notary Public's commission had expired one week before the date we executed the above documents! Our question is... Are these documents valid? We contacted the Law firm who prepared our Last Wills, etc. and asked the same question of a paralegal who has not returned our call! As a matter of additional info, the Notary Public was also the attorney who prepared our documents!


Asked on 3/06/08, 6:46 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Re: Last Will & Testament, Living Will, Power of Attorney

I have not encountered this problem before, but I believe they would still be valid. The expiration of the notary's commission could only affect the notarization. However, I am not certain that heirs could not stir up some trouble over it for your Estate. It seems unlikely to me that they could have the documents declared invalid over this issue, but they might cost the estate some money in arguing about it.

However, an easy way to be sure that there will be no trouble over it when the time comes would be to take these documents and have them notarized again. Go to your bank or other favorite notary, tell the person you wish to sign these documents again and have that person notarize them. That way you will have a notarized signature that does not have this potential opening for dispute.

Most banks and insurance companies have notaries and will notarize documents for you for free if you are a customer. Otherwise, most charge you around $5.00 per notarization. The notary can notarize both of your signatures on teh same document in a single notarization.

I hope this helps.

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Answered on 3/07/08, 5:19 pm


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