What Makes a Will Valid in California

Probate Code section 6100 sets the threshold: an individual 18 or more years of age who is of sound mind may make a will. A conservator may make one for a conservatee only where a court has authorized it, and a mentally competent conservatee keeps the right to revoke or amend that will. Section 6110 then supplies the usual form. The will must be in writing. It must be signed by the testator, or by another person in the testator’s name, in their presence and at their direction. And it must be witnessed by being signed, during the testator’s lifetime, by at least two persons each of whom was present at the same time when the testator signed or acknowledged the will, and who understood that the instrument was the testator’s will. Nothing in the section asks for a notary, a lawyer, or a particular form of words; sections 6110(c)(2) and 6111 provide limited routes for a document that misses the usual witnessing formalities.

Sources: Probate Code s.6100 - Who may make a will · Probate Code s.6110 - How a California will is executed · Verified 2026-09-01.

Sources: Probate Code s.6112 - Interested witnesses · Verified 2026-09-21.

A document that fails section 6110 is not automatically worthless. Section 6111 provides that a will not complying with those formalities is valid as a holographic will, whether or not witnessed, if the signature and the material provisions are in the handwriting of the testator — and a statement of testamentary intent may be set out either in the handwriting or as part of a commercially printed form will. If an undated holographic will creates doubt about priority over another will, it is invalid to the extent of the inconsistency unless the holographic will is established to have been executed later. If the testator lacked capacity during any part of the possible execution period, the holographic will is invalid unless it is established to have been executed when the testator had capacity. Revocation has its own rules: under section 6120 a will is revoked by a later will that revokes it expressly or by inconsistency, or by being burned, torn, cancelled, obliterated or destroyed with the intent to revoke, by the testator or by another person in the testator’s presence and at their direction.

Sources: Probate Code s.6111 - Holographic wills · Probate Code s.6120 - How a will is revoked · Verified 2026-09-21.

Section 6124 supplies the rule that decides many missing-will arguments. Where the will was last in the testator’s own possession, the testator was competent until death, and neither the will nor a duplicate original can be found afterwards, the law presumes the testator destroyed it intending to revoke it. It is a presumption affecting the burden of producing evidence, not a conclusion. Whether evidence of loss, destruction without revocatory intent, or possession by someone else rebuts it depends on the proof in the particular case.

Sources: Probate Code s.6124 - The presumption when a will cannot be found · Verified 2026-09-01.

A will does not have to be signed in California to be valid here. Section 6113 treats a written will as validly executed if its execution complies with any one of three sets of rules: California’s own, meaning section 6110 or 6111, the California statutory will or the Uniform International Wills Act; the law of the place where the will was executed, as that law stood at the time; or the law of the place where the testator was domiciled, had a place of abode, or was a national, either when the will was executed or at death. Section 6381 adds that a will made in the form of an international will is valid as regards form irrespective of where it was made, where the assets are, and the nationality, domicile or residence of the testator. These sections answer only whether the will was properly signed and witnessed. Capacity, undue influence and revocation are separate questions.

Sources: Probate Code s.6113 - Wills executed under the law of another place · Probate Code s.6381 - International will valid as to form · Verified 2026-10-02.

California prints a fill-in will in the Probate Code itself. Under section 6220, any individual of sound mind and over the age of 18 may execute a California statutory will. Section 6221 says it is executed only one way: the testator completes the appropriate blanks and signs, and each witness observes the testator’s signing and signs in the testator’s presence. The form in section 6240 opens with its own instructions, which state that it is based on California law and designed only for California residents, that it is not designed to reduce death taxes or other taxes, and that crossing out or adding words may make the will invalid or lead the court to ignore the changes.

Sources: Probate Code s.6220 - Who may execute a California statutory will · Probate Code s.6221 - How a California statutory will is executed · Probate Code s.6240 - California statutory will form · Verified 2026-10-02.