Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Pennsylvania

First of all, I would not allow 30 years to go by without reviewing your will. Much can happen in 30 years.

Any time there is a birth, death, adoption, divorce, marriage or a change in property (either buying or selling), you need to look at your will and see if anything needs changed.

Notarization or lack thereof has no affect on the validity of the will. As long as the will is properly executed and witnessed, it is valid. Notarization just means that the will is self-proving - in other words, whenever the will is submitted for probate, the personal representative will not have to find the witnesses and get them to testify.

In 30 years, the witnesses could die or move and then this becomes problematic.

To be valid just about anywhere, I recommend that the will be properly signed by the person making the will and witnessed by 3 people who are not beneficiaries under the will and that everyone sign the document in front of each other and in front of a notary to avoid any problems in the future. Many office supply/mailing locations as well as banks offer notary services and it is not all that expensive compared to what it will cost if an exeutor has to try to produce witnesses in 30 years.

If the person whose will it is ("testator") has died, there will be several steps required to probate it. First, a petition has to be submitted to Orphans' Court for an order authorizing the will to be presented to the Register of Wills. Then, the Register of Wills has to determine if other requirements for probate are satisfied, such as "self-proving", as mentioned by Attorney Hunter, and if the will is not self-proving, the witnesses will have to be found, or their unavailability has to be explained, and people sufficiently familiar with the signature of the testator have to certify the signature to the Register of Wills.

These are difficult hurdles to overcome, as pointed out by Attorney Hunter, and all of that difficulty can be avoided by proper execution of a will, and by probating it in a timely manner after the testator has died.

THIS RESPONSE IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE, SINCE I DO NOT HAVE ALL OF THE INFORMATION THAT WOULD BE REQUIRED, AND I DO NOT HAVE A REPRESENTATION AGREEMENT WITH YOU.

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