Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Louisiana

A will is a legal document of ONE person. When you say THEY are afraid to open it makes it sound like it was a will for more than one person, or someone else is tampering with it. A will written BY THE TESTATOR in their own handwriting and signed and dated on each page, may be legal, but I never have a client of mine do one that way. After death there must be witnesses who can identify the person's handwriting and sometimes proof is difficult. A statutory will is prepared by a lawyer or notary or the person themselves if they know all the bells and whistles that are necessary, is read my the testator before the notary and 2 witnesses, signed on each page and at the end declaring it to be their last will and testament. Those are easier to prove up in court. Now for you original question. A will can be destroyed by the testator at any time. They can write a codicil to the will or can write an entirely new will. Those too must be done in proper form. Simply adding paragraphs to an old will will not suffice. Therefore the testator can open the envelope any time they wish. It is their property.

This sounds like it is a "mystic will", an old Louisiana will form which is obsolete and may not even be legal, depending on when it was written. I have been practicing for more than 30 years and have only seen one.

Follow the advice given above.