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NEW HAMPSHIRE LEGAL INFORMATION
Last Will and Testament Statutes
Link to the New Hampshire Statutes online which contain the portion of the Probate Code dealing with last wills.
Last Will information from the New Hampshire Bar Association
American Bar Association Guide to Wills and Estates
American Bar Association, Estate Planning
Selected New Hampshire Statutes
- Section 551:1 Testators. – Every person of the age of eighteen years and married persons under that age, of sane mind, may devise and dispose of their property, real and personal, and of any right or interest they may have in any property, by their last will in writing.
- Section 551:2 Requirements. – To be valid, a will or codicil to a will shall:
I. Be made by a testator qualifying under RSA 551:1; and
II. Be in writing; and
III. Be signed by the testator, or by some person at his or her express direction in his or her presence; and
IV. Be signed by 2 or more credible witnesses, who shall, at the request of the testator and in the testator's presence, attest to the testator's signature.
No seal shall be required. These requirements shall apply to all wills executed on or after January 1, 1993.
- Section 551:2-a Self-Proved Wills. –
I. To qualify as self-proved, the signatures of the testator and witnesses shall be followed by a sworn acknowledgment made before a notary public or justice of the peace or other official authorized to administer oaths in the place of execution, as follows:
The foregoing instrument was acknowledged before me this __________ (day) by ___, the testator; ___ and ___, the witnesses, who under oath do swear as follows:
- The testator signed the instrument as the testator's will or expressly directed another to sign for the testator.
- This was the testator's free and voluntary act for the purposes expressed in the will.
- Each witness signed at the request of the testator, in the testator's presence, and in the presence of the other witness.
- To the best of my knowledge, at the time of the signing the testator was at least 18 years of age, or if under 18 years was a married person, and was of sane mind and under no constraint or undue influence.
____________________
Signature
____________________
Official Capacity
II. Any will meeting the requirements of RSA 551-A shall also qualify as self-proved and shall be allowed as such by the probate court.
- Section 551:3 Interested Witness. – Any beneficial device or legacy made or given in a will to a subscribing witness thereto or to the wife or husband of such a witness shall be void unless there be 2 other subscribing witnesses, and such subscribing witness shall be a competent witness thereto; but a provision therein for the payment of a debt shall not be void nor disqualify the creditor as a witness thereto.
- Section 551:4 Corporate Beneficiary. – No will nor any part thereof shall be holden invalid, nor any witness thereto incompetent, by reason of any or all of the witnesses being, at the time of the execution or of the probate thereof, members of a corporation to which a devise or legacy is therein given.
- Section 551:5 Will Made Outside the State. –
I. A will made out of this state, and valid according to the laws of the state or country where it was executed, may be proved and allowed in this state, and shall thereupon be as effective as it would have been if executed according to the laws of this state.
II. A will made out of this state, and self-proved according to the laws of the state or country where it was executed, is self-proved in this state and shall be allowed as such by the probate court.
- Section 551:6 Devise of Real Estate. – Every devise of real estate shall be holden to pass all the estate of the devisor therein, unless it shall appear that it was his intention to pass a less estate.
- Section 551:10 Child Not Named, etc. – Every child born after the decease of the testator, and every child or issue of a child of the deceased not named or referred to in his will, and who is not a devisee or legatee, shall be entitled to the same portion of the estate, real and personal, as he would be if the deceased were intestate.
- Section 551:11 Share of Unnamed Child. – If the property not devised nor bequeathed shall be insufficient to satisfy the just share of such child, after allowing advancements received by him, the same shall be made up in just proportion from the property devised or bequeathed to others.
- Section 551:12 Heirs of Legatee. – The heirs in the descending line of a legatee or devisee, deceased before the testator, shall take the estate bequeathed or devised, in the same manner the legatee or devisee would have taken it if he had survived.
- Section 551:13 Revocation. –
I. Except as provided in paragraph II, no will or clause thereof shall be revoked unless by some other valid will or codicil, or by some writing executed in the same manner, or by canceling, tearing, obliterating or otherwise destroying the same by the testator, or by some person by the testator's consent and in the testator's presence.
II. If after executing a will the testator is divorced or the marriage is annulled, the divorce or annulment revokes any disposition or appointment of property made by the will to the former spouse, any provision conferring a general or special power of appointment on the former spouse, and any nomination of the former spouse as executor, trustee, conservator, or guardian, unless the will expressly provides otherwise. Property prevented from passing to a former spouse because of revocation by divorce or annulment passes as if the former spouse and all heirs in the descending line of such former spouse who are not also heirs at law of the decedent failed to survive the decedent, and other provisions conferring some power or office on the former spouse are interpreted as if the spouse and all heirs in the descending line of such former spouse who are not also heirs at law of the decedent failed to survive the decedent. Any bequest or devise to any such heirs in the descending line of such former spouse that is contingent upon such spouse predeceasing the testator is revoked by this section, unless the will expressly provides otherwise. If provisions are revoked solely by this section, they are revived by the testator's remarriage to the former spouse. A decree of separation which does not terminate the status of husband and wife is not a divorce for the purposes of this section. No change of circumstances other than as described in this section revokes a will.
- Section 551:14 Implied. – The preceding section shall not control or affect any revocation of a will, implied by law, from any change in the circumstances of the testator, or his family, devisees, legatees or estate, occurring between the time of making the will and the death of the testator.
Library of Informational Legal Articles
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