Witnessing A Will If A Beneficiary

[susanxx]

If I am a beneficiary in a will, am I able to sign as a witness for the will maker?

[woofgang]

No not in the UK

[Jackdaw33]

Definitely, NO, NO!

[Buenchico]

If an intended beneficiary witnesses a will, the document as a whole is not invalidated but that part relating to his/her inheritance is. (A 'partial intestacy' is created, with the part of the estate that should have gone to the person who acted as a witness being distributed in accordance with the rules of intestacy instead).

Finding witnesses to a will isn't difficult. They are only witnessing that they saw the testator sign; they don't have to see the actual contents of the will, so there are no privacy concerns. My own will was witnessed in a Tesco car park by a couple of people I simply happened to be working with that day!

[susanxx]

thank you for your responses.

[Jackdaw33]

It is, of course, possible, depending on your closeness of kinship to the testator, that you would get the inheritance anyway under the intestacy rules, but it is not worth the risk.