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UTAH LEGAL INFORMATION
Last Will and Testament Statutes
Link to the Utah Statutes online which contain the portion of the Probate Code dealing with last wills.
Last Will information from the Utah Bar Association
American Bar Association Guide to Wills and Estates
American Bar Association, Estate Planning
Selected Utah Statutes
- 75-2-501. Who may make will. An individual 18 or more years of age who is of sound mind may make a will.
- 75-2-502. Execution -- Witnessed wills -- Holographic wills.
(1) Except as provided in Subsection (2) and in Sections 75-2-503, 75-2-506, and 75-2-513, a will shall be:
- in writing;
- signed by the testator or in the testator's name by some other individual in the testator's conscious presence and by the testator's direction; and
- signed by at least two individuals, each of whom signed within a reasonable time after he witnessed either the signing of the will as described in Subsection (1)(b) or the testator's acknowledgment of that signature or acknowledgment of the will.
(2) A will that does not comply with Subsection (1) is valid as a holographic will, whether or not witnessed, if the signature and material portions of the document are in the testator's handwriting.
(3) Intent that the document constitutes the testator's will can be established by extrinsic evidence, including, for holographic wills, portions of the document that are not in the testator's handwriting.
- 75-2-503. Writings intended as wills. Although a document or writing added upon a document was not executed in compliance with Section 75-2-502, the document or writing is treated as if it had been executed in compliance with that section if the proponent of the document or writing establishes by clear and convincing evidence that the decedent intended the document or writing to constitute:
- the decedent's will;
- a partial or complete revocation of the will;
- an addition to or an alteration of the will; or
- a partial or complete revival of his formerly revoked will or of a formerly revoked portion of the will.
- 75-2-504. Self-proved will.
(1) A will may be simultaneously executed, attested, and made self-proved, by acknowledgment thereof by the testator and affidavits of the witnesses, each made before an officer authorized to administer oaths under the laws of the state in which execution occurs, whether or not that officer is also a witness to the will, and evidenced by the officer's certificate, under official seal, in substantially the following form:
I, _______, the testator, sign my name to this instrument this ____ day of _______, and being first duly sworn, do hereby declare to the undersigned authority that I sign and execute this instrument as my will and that I sign it willingly (or willingly direct another to sign for me), that I execute it as my free and voluntary act for the purposes therein expressed, and that I am 18 years of age or older, of sound mind, and under no constraint or undue influence.
__________________
Testator
We, _______, _______, the witnesses, sign our names to this instrument, being first duly sworn, and do hereby declare to the undersigned authority that the testator signs and executes this instrument as [his] [her] will and that [he] [she] signs it willingly (or willingly directs another to sign for [him] [her] ), and that each of us, in the presence and hearing of the testator, hereby signs this will as witness to the testator's signing, and that to the best of our knowledge the testator is 18 years of age or older, of sound mind, and under no constraint or undue influence.
___________________
Witness
__________________
Witness
State of _______
County of _______
Subscribed, sworn to and acknowledged before me by _______, the testator, and subscribed and sworn to before me by _______, and _______, witnesses, this ____ day of _______.
(Signed) _______________
________________________
(Official capacity of officer)
- 75-2-505. Who may witness.
(1) An individual generally competent to be a witness may act as a witness to a will.
(2) The signing of a will by an interested witness does not invalidate the will or any provision of it.
- 75-2-506. Choice of law as to execution. A written will is valid if executed in compliance with Section 75-2-502 or 75-2-503 or if its execution complies with the law at the time of execution of the place where the will is executed, or of the law of the place where at the time of execution or at the time of death the testator is domiciled, has a place of abode, or is a national.
- 75-2-507. Revocation by writing or by act.
(1) A will or any part thereof is revoked:
- by executing a subsequent will that revokes the previous will or part expressly or by inconsistency; or
- by performing a revocatory act on the will, if the testator performed the act with the intent and for the purpose of revoking the will or part or if another individual performed the act in the testator's conscious presence and by the testator's direction. For purposes of this subsection, "revocatory act on the will" includes burning, tearing, canceling, obliterating, or destroying the will or any part of it. A burning, tearing, or canceling is a "revocatory act on the will," whether or not the burn, tear, or cancellation touched any of the words on the will.
(2) If a subsequent will does not expressly revoke a previous will, the execution of the subsequent will wholly revokes the previous will by inconsistency if the testator intended the subsequent will to replace rather than supplement the previous will.
(3) The testator is presumed to have intended a subsequent will to replace rather than supplement a previous will if the subsequent will makes a complete disposition of the testator's estate. If this presumption arises and is not rebutted by clear and convincing evidence, the previous will is revoked; only the subsequent will is operative on the testator's death.
(4) The testator is presumed to have intended a subsequent will to supplement rather than replace a previous will if the subsequent will does not make a complete disposition of the testator's estate. If this presumption arises and is not rebutted by clear and convincing evidence, the subsequent will revokes the previous will only to the extent the subsequent will is inconsistent with the previous will; each will is fully operative on the testator's death to the extent they are not inconsistent.
- 75-2-508. Revocation by change of circumstances. Except as provided in Sections 75-2-803 and 75-2-804, a change of circumstances does not revoke a will or any part of it.
- 75-2-510. Incorporation by reference. A writing in existence when a will is executed may be incorporated by reference if the language of the will manifests this intent and describes the writing sufficiently to permit its identification.
- 75-2-511. Testamentary additions to trusts.
(1) A will may validly devise property to the trustee of a trust established or to be established:
- during the testator's lifetime by the testator, by the testator and some other person, or by some other person, including a funded or unfunded life insurance trust, although the settlor has reserved any or all rights of ownership of the insurance contracts; or
- at the testator's death by the testator's devise to the trustee, if the trust is identified in the testator's will and its terms are set forth in a written instrument, other than a will, executed before, concurrently with, or after the execution of the testator's will or in another individual's will if that other individual has predeceased the testator, regardless of the existence, size, or character of the corpus of the trust. The devise is not invalid because the trust is amendable or revocable, or because the trust was amended after the execution of the will or the testator's death.
(2) Unless the testator's will provides otherwise, property devised to a trust described in Subsection (1) is not held under a testamentary trust of the testator, but it becomes a part of the trust to which it is devised, and shall be administered and disposed of in accordance with the provisions of the governing instrument setting forth the terms of the trust, including any amendments thereto made before or after the testator's death.
(3) Unless the testator's will provides otherwise, a revocation or termination of the trust before the testator's death causes the devise to lapse.
- 75-2-513. Separate writing identifying devise of certain types of tangible personal property. Whether or not the provisions relating to holographic wills apply, a will may refer to a written statement or list to dispose of items of tangible personal property not otherwise specifically disposed of by the will, other than money. To be admissible under this section as evidence of the intended disposition, the writing shall be signed by the testator and shall describe the items and the devisees with reasonable certainty. The writing may be referred to as one to be in existence at the time of the testator's death; it may be prepared before or after the execution of the will; it may be altered by the testator after its preparation; and it may be a writing that has no significance apart from its effect on the dispositions made by the will.
- 75-2-515. Penalty clause for contest. A provision in a will purporting to penalize an interested person for contesting the will or instituting other proceedings relating to the estate is unenforceable if probable cause exists for instituting proceedings.
- 75-2-802. Effect of divorce, annulment, and decree of separation.
(1) An individual who is divorced from the decedent or whose marriage to the decedent has been annulled is not a surviving spouse unless, by virtue of a subsequent marriage, the individual is married to the decedent at the time of death. A decree of separation that does not terminate the status of husband and wife is not a divorce for purposes of this section.
(2) For purposes of Parts 1, 2, 3, and 4 and Section 75-3-203, a surviving spouse does not include:
- an individual who obtains or consents to a final decree or judgment of divorce from the decedent or an annulment of their marriage, which decree or judgment is not recognized as valid in this state, unless subsequently they participate in a marriage ceremony purporting to marry each to the other or live together as husband and wife;
- an individual who, following an invalid decree or judgment of divorce or annulment obtained by the decedent, participates in a marriage ceremony with a third individual; or
- an individual who was a party to a valid proceeding concluded by an order purporting to terminate all marital property rights.
Library of Informational Legal Articles
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