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KANSAS LEGAL INFORMATION
Last Will and Testament Statutes
Last Will information from the Kansas Bar Association
Link to the Kansas Statutes online which contain the portion of the Probate Code dealing with last wills, Select Chapter 59 (Probate Code) and then Article 5 (Wills) from the table of contents.
American Bar Association Guide to Wills and Estates
American Bar Association, Estate Planning
Selected Kansas Statutes
- Who may make will. Any person of sound mind, and possessing the rights of majority, may dispose of any or all of his or her property by will, subject to the provisions of this act.
Kansas Code 59-601.
- Devise or bequest to witness. A beneficial devise or bequest made in a will to a subscribing witness thereto shall be void, unless there are two other competent subscribing witnesses who are not beneficiaries thereunder. But if such witness would have been entitled to any share of the testator's estate in the absence of a will, then so much of such share as will not exceed the value of the devise or bequest shall pass to the witness from the part of the estate included in the void devise or bequest. Such share shall be considered as a legacy or devise within the meaning of K.S.A. 59-1405.
Kansas Code 59-604.
- Preparation of will or provision of will that gives any devise or bequest to writer or preparer. Any provision in a will or trust, written or prepared for another person, that gives the writer or preparer or the writer's or preparer's parent, children, issue, sibling or spouse any devise or bequest is invalid unless: (a) The writer or preparer is related to the testator or grantor by blood or marriage and such provision that gives such devise or bequest does not give the writer or preparer or the writer's or preparer's parent, child, issue, sibling or spouse more than the writer or preparer or the writer's or preparer's parent, child, issue, sibling or spouse would receive under the laws of intestate succession; or (b) it affirmatively appears that the testator or grantor had read or knew the content of the will or trust and had independent legal advice with reference thereto. As used in this section, "children" and "issue" shall have the same meaning as provided in K.S.A. 59-501, and amendments thereto.
Kansas Code 59-605.
- Execution and attestation; self-proved wills and codicils; affidavits; form. Every will, except an oral will as provided in K.S.A. 59-608 and amendments thereto, shall be in writing, and signed at the end by the party making the will, or by some other person in the presence and by the express direction of the testator. Such will shall be attested and subscribed in the presence of such party by two or more competent witnesses, who saw the testator subscribe or heard the testator acknowledge the will. Such will, at the time of its execution or at any subsequent date during the lifetimes of the testator and the witnesses, may be made self-proved, and the testimony of the witnesses in the probate of the will may be made unnecessary by the acknowledgments of the will and the affidavits of the testator and the attesting witnesses. Such acknowledgments and affidavits shall be made before an officer authorized to take acknowledgments to deeds of conveyance and to administer oaths. Such acknowledgments and affidavits shall be evidenced by the certificate, with official seal affixed, of such officer attached or annexed to such will in form and contents substantially as follows:
State of ______________
County of ____________ . ss.
Before me, the undersigned authority, on this day personally appeared __________, __________, and __________, known to me to be the testator and the witnesses, respectively, whose names are subscribed to the annexed or foregoing instrument in their respective capacities, and, all of such persons being by me first duly sworn, such __________, testator, declared to me and to the witnesses in my presence that such instrument is the testator's last will and testament, and that the testator had willingly made and executed it as the testator's free and voluntary act and deed for the purposes therein expressed. Such witnesses, each on the witness' oath stated to me, in the presence and hearing of the testator, that the testator had declared to them that such instrument is the testator's last will and testament, and that the testator executed same as such and wanted each witness to sign it as a witness. Upon their oaths each witness stated further that they did sign the will as witnesses in the presence of each other and in the presence of the testator and at the testator's request, and that the testator at that time possessed the rights of majority, was of sound mind and under no restraint.
______________(Testator) ______________(Witness) ______________(Witness)
Subscribed, acknowledged and sworn to before me by __________, testator, and __________ and __________, witnesses, this _____ day of __________, A.D. __________.
(seal)
(Signed) ______________
______________________________ (Official capacity of officer)
If an affidavit substantially in conformance with the affidavit described in this section is executed at the time of the execution of the will, no other signatures of the witnesses or any other attestation clause is required.
A self-proved will, unless contested, shall be admitted to probate without the testimony of any subscribing witness, but otherwise it shall be treated no differently than a will not self-proved. A self-proved will may be contested or be revoked, or be amended by a codicil in the same fashion as a will not self-proved. A codicil or the consent to take under the will by the spouse may be self-proved in the same manner as a will may be self-proved.
Kansas Code 59-606.
- Competency of witness. If a witness to a will is competent at the time of his or her attestation, his or her subsequent incompetency shall not prevent the admission of such will to probate.
Kansas Code 59-607.
- Nuncupative will. An oral will made in the last sickness shall be valid in respect to personal property, if reduced to writing and subscribed by two competent, disinterested witnesses within thirty days after the speaking of the testamentary words, when the testator called upon some person present at the time the testamentary words were spoken to bear testimony to said disposition as his or her will.
Kansas Code 59-608.
- Will executed without state. A will executed without this state in the manner prescribed by this act, or by the law of the place of its execution, or by the law of the testator's residence either at the time of its execution or of the testator's death, shall be deemed to be legally executed, and shall have the same force and effect as if executed in compliance with the provisions of this act: Provided, Said will is in writing and subscribed by the testator.
Kansas Code 59-609.
- Revocation by marriage, birth or adoption; divorce. If after making a will the testator marries and has a child, by birth or adoption, the will is thereby revoked. If after making a will the testator is divorced, all provisions in such will in favor of the testator's spouse so divorced are thereby revoked.
Kansas Code 59-610.
- Manner of revocation. Except as provided in K.S.A. 59-610, no will in writing shall be revoked or altered otherwise than by some other will in writing; or by some other writing of the testator declaring such revocation or alteration and executed with the same formalities with which the will itself was required by law to be executed; or unless such will be burnt, torn, canceled, obliterated or destroyed, with the intent and for the purpose of revoking the same, by the testator himself or herself or by another person in the testator's presence by his or her direction.
Kansas Code 59-611.
- After-acquired property. All property acquired by the testator after making his or her will shall pass thereby in like manner as if possessed by him or her at the time when the testator made his or her will, unless a different intention appears from the will.
Kansas Code 59-613.
Library of Informational Legal Articles
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