What's the easiest way to write an effective will?

Autorka: adwokat Justyna Plewińska

If you have a pen and paper, you have sufficient resources to draw up a will. You do not need to go to a notary, office or court to prepare a will. You also do not need to have any witnesses accompanying you to make your will. However, there are several important conditions that must be met in order for a will not to be challenged.

1. Tytuł testamentu: Testament, Ostatnia Wola, Na wypadek śmierci itp.

2. Testament musi być w całości sporządzony pismem ręcznym

Starting from the date, place of preparation, ending with the signature. A will cannot be e.g. written on a computer, printed and signed - then it will be invalid!

The letter constituting the content of the will may be - in the event of a conflict of heirs - subject to the expert's analysis of its authenticity, therefore it is advisable that future heirs should have or have knowledge of where to look, for example, for official documents containing a sample of the testator's letter, necessary for comparison by an expert.

3. Podpis spadkodawcy

The testator must sign under the will. It is important that everything that the testator wants to express in the content of the will is above its signature - the signature is the end of the testator's will and what is under it is not part of the will. Therefore, if the testator wants to add a post scriptum (PS.), It is better to place it above the signature. If, nevertheless, the additional content was signed by the testator, it should be re-signed and it is best to include the date on which this content appeared.

4. Data sporządzenia testamentu

The lack of a date will not, as a rule, result in the invalidity of the will, but the dateing of the will will make it easier for the heirs to conduct the inheritance case in the event of doubts that may arise in its course. Namely, the date on the will allows us to assess whether the testator was able to draw it up at the time of writing (for example, whether he was suffering from an illness excluding his / her awareness at that time), whether a given will is the testator's last will, or whether there were other later wills which the testator used to do. he changed his last will.

Therefore, if the absence of a date on the will does not raise doubts as to the mutual relationship of the wills as to the testator's ability to make a will, as to the content of the will itself, the absence of a date will not result in its nullity. As a precaution, it is better to include the date.

5. Testament powinien być sporządzony od początku do końca przez jednego spadkodawcę.

Sometimes spouses make a joint will, which is not correct practice - it is not valid.

It should be emphasized that the will may be changed or canceled at any time. The testator may revoke a will by destroying the will or writing on the will that it is revoked in its entirety. Moreover, when making a new will (without destroying or referring to the old will), the previous one is automatically canceled - but the provisions of the previous will that cannot be reconciled with the content of the new will are canceled.

It should be pointed out that the easiest and "cheapest" way for future heirs is to indicate in the will that, for example, "I appoint my wife Anna Nowak to the entire inheritance", "I leave half of the inheritance to my wife Anna Nowak and the other half to my grandson Adam Nowak". I emphasize the above, because indicating in the content of the will that specific items from the testator's property are to be given to specific heirs is complicated and may cause difficulties during the inheritance case, e.g. doubts may arise as to who was to be the heir and who was the legatee, it may be necessary to appoint an expert who will have to evaluate the value of the components of the items enrolled in specific individuals.

It should be added that in a will it is possible to disinherit statutory heirs. We will write how to do this in a separate post.

A will can also be drawn up by expressing one's will, e.g. orally in the office towards the head of the commune head, there are also the so-called special wills and, above all, wills in the form of a notarial deed. The form of a notarial deed is often assumed to be the safest form of making a will - such a will is more difficult to challenge, because it is drawn up by a person of public trust, and moreover, the notary maintains such a will in his office and can issue copies of it without restrictions, so do not be afraid, that the will will be lost or destroyed. It should be noted, however, that when it comes to the content of the will, the testator, not the notary, decides about it, and if the testator wants to protect his heirs from possible problems, it is better to consult the content of the will, e.g. with a lawyer.

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