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VERMONT LEGAL INFORMATION
Last Will and Testament Statutes
Link to the Vermont Statutes online which contain the portion of the Probate Code dealing with last wills, See Title 14, Chapter 1.
Last Will information from the Vermont Bar Association
American Bar Association Guide to Wills and Estates
American Bar Association, Estate Planning
Selected Vermont Statutes
- § 1. Who may make. A person of age and sound mind may devise, bequeath and dispose of his estate, real and personal, and of any right or interest which he has in any real or personal estate, by his last will and testament, and the word "person" shall include a married woman.
- § 2. Deposit of will for safekeeping; delivery; final disposition.
(a) A testator may deposit a will for safekeeping in the probate court for the district in which the testator resides on the payment of a fee of $2.00 to the court. The register shall give to the testator a certificate of deposit, shall safely keep each will so deposited and shall keep an index of the wills so deposited.
(b) Each will so deposited shall be inclosed in a sealed wrapper having inscribed thereon the name and residence of the testator, the day when and the person by whom it was deposited, and the wrapper may also have indorsed thereon the name of the person to whom the will is to be delivered after the death of the testator. The wrapper shall not be opened until it is delivered to a person entitled to receive it or until otherwise disposed of as hereinafter provided.
(c) During the life of the testator that will shall be delivered only to the testator, or in accordance with the testator's order in writing duly proved by oath of a subscribing witness, but the testator's duly authorized legal guardian may at any time inspect and copy the will in the presence of the judge or register. After the death of the testator it shall be delivered on demand to the person named in the indorsement.
(d) If the will is not called for by the person named in the indorsement, it shall be publicly opened at a time to be appointed by the court as soon as may be after notice of the testator's death. If a petition to open a decedent's estate is filed in a district other than where the will has been kept, the will shall be delivered to the executor therein named or to the person whose name is indorsed on the wrapper or shall be filed in the other court, as the court may order.
(e) Except as provided herein, wills deposited for safekeeping or any index of wills so deposited are not open to public inspection.
- § 3. After acquired real estate may pass by will. Real estate acquired after making a will shall pass thereby as if the testator had possessed it at the time of making the will, if it appears by the will that such was his intention.
- § 5. Execution of will; requisites. Except such nuncupative wills as are hereinafter mentioned, a will shall not pass any real or personal estate, or charge or affect the same, unless it is in writing and signed by the testator, or by the testator's name written by some other person in his presence and by his express direction, and attested and subscribed by three or more credible witnesses in the presence of the testator and of each other.
- § 6. Nuncupative will. A nuncupative will shall not pass personal estate when the estate thereby bequeathed exceeds the value of $200.00, nor shall such will be proved and allowed, unless a memorandum thereof is made in writing by a person present at the time of making such will, within six days from the making of it, nor unless it is presented for probate within six months from the death of the testator.
- § 8. Subsequent incompetency of witnesses. If the witnesses attesting the execution of a will are competent at the time of attesting, their becoming subsequently incompetent shall not prevent the probate and allowance of the will.
- § 10. Devise or legacy to witness. If a person, other than an heir at law, attests the execution of a will whereby he or his wife or her husband is given a beneficial devise, legacy or interest in or affecting real or personal estate, such devise, legacy or interest shall be void so far only as concerns such person or his wife or her husband or one claiming under such person, husband or wife, unless there are three other competent witnesses to such will. Such person so attesting shall be admitted as a witness as if such devise, legacy or interest had not been made or given. A mere charge on the real or personal estate of the testator for the payment of debts shall not prevent his creditors from being competent witnesses to his will.
- § 11. How revoked. A will shall not be revoked, except by implication of law, otherwise than by some will, codicil or other writing, executed as provided in case of wills; or by burning, tearing, canceling or obliterating the same, with the intention of revoking it, by the testator himself, or by some person in his presence and by his express direction.
Library of Informational Legal Articles
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