District of Columbia Last Will and Testament (2026)

2 witnesses, each at least 18 years old (D.C. Code § 18-103). The witnesses must sign in the testator's presence, within a reasonable time after witnessing the signing or the testator's acknowledgment of the signature. A will signed with fewer witnesses than the statute requires is not admitted to probate, and the estate passes under the intestacy statute instead.

No, and it would not help. District of Columbia does not use a notary on a will at all (D.C. Code § 18-103); a notarized will is no more valid here than an un-notarized one.

No. District of Columbia does not admit a handwritten, unwitnessed will (D.C. Code § 18-103). Even where one is allowed it is the weakest kind of will: there is nobody to say you were of sound mind, the handwriting has to be proved, and courts read informal documents strictly. This document is a typed, witnessed will, which is admitted everywhere.

District of Columbia does not have one (D.C. Code § 18-103). The District has no self-proving affidavit for a paper will. A will is proved in the Probate Division on the testimony or the sworn Affidavit of Witness to Will taken after the testator's death. Self-proving at the moment of execution exists only for electronic wills (D.C. Code § 18-908). Keep a note of each witness's name, address and telephone number with the will, because your executor will have to produce one of them.

You can write the will that way, but it will not hold. Your spouse may elect against the will and take 50% instead (D.C. Code § 19-113).

Partly. District of Columbia enforces the clause, but not against a beneficiary who brings the challenge in good faith and on probable cause (D.C. Code tit. 18). It stops a nuisance contest; it does not stop a well-founded one.

Yes. District of Columbia puts no residence requirement on an executor, and the waiver of bond in this will is honored in the ordinary case (D.C. Code § 20-303).

District of Columbia does recognize electronic wills (D.C. Code § 18-901 et seq.), but they run on a separate track: a qualified custodian, a specific audit trail and, in most of those statutes, remote witnessing by audio-video link. This document is a paper will, so print it and sign it in ink. Whatever your state allows, the original signed paper is what the probate court wants to see — a scan or a photograph is not a substitute.

Somewhere your executor can reach it within a day of your death, and not in a safe-deposit box that is sealed when you die. A fireproof box at home, your attorney's file, or the probate court's own will deposit where your state offers one. Tell your executor where it is and give the executor a copy. Do not write on the original after signing: a crossed-out name or a marginal note does not change the will and can raise a question about whether you revoked it.