Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Minnesota

Re: Legal wills

Under Minnesota law all that is required is two witnesses. The statutes provide an option where if the witnesses sign in front of a notary and with the required language in the will, then their appearance later in court to verify the will is not required. Wills with that feature are called "self proving."

If the will is not self-proving, the witnesses have to be available to verify the will after the person's death. So while you can do it without a notary, it's a bad idea.

You impress me as someone who is preparing their own will. I have seen many such documents, after the person died of course, which were not done properly and which could not be used. For the few hundred dollars that it would probably cost, you would be very well advised to get to a real, live lawyer.

Supposed self-help services like Legal Zoom probably hurt more people than they help.

For example, if you have two witnesses and a notary, but the self-proving language required by the statute is not in the will, it's still not self-proving. If you don't go to a lawyer, how would you ever know if you have it right?