Georgia: Will Execution Requirements
The short answer
To sign a valid will in Georgia you must be at least 14 years old — the lowest age in the country — and of sound mind, put the will in writing, sign it (or have someone sign for you in your presence and at your direction), and have two competent witnesses subscribe the will in your presence. Notarization is not required to make the will valid, and Georgia does not recognize handwritten (holographic) wills or electronic wills. Georgia enforces these formalities strictly and has no harmless-error rule, so a will that is not witnessed by two people is invalid — but an optional self-proving affidavit sworn before a notary lets the will be admitted to probate without calling the witnesses to testify.
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This is the general rule in Georgia. Ezel applies current Georgia law to your specific facts and answers with citations to the statutes.
| Governing law | Georgia's Revised Probate Code of 1998, O.C.G.A. Title 53, Chapter 4; execution is governed by Article 3 (§§ 53-4-20 to 53-4-24). Georgia uses the common-law attested-will model — a written will signed and subscribed by two competent witnesses. It is NOT a Uniform Probate Code, notarial-will, or electronic-wills state, and it does NOT recognize handwritten (holographic) wills |
|---|---|
| Minimum age & capacity | 14 or older — the lowest age in the nation (§ 53-4-10(a)); a criminal conviction does not remove the power to make a will (§ 53-4-10(b)). Capacity exists when the testator has 'a decided and rational desire as to the disposition of property' (§ 53-4-11(a)). An incapacity to contract may coexist with will-making capacity; an insane person may make a will only during a lucid interval, and neither old age nor eccentricity alone defeats capacity (§ 53-4-11(b)–(d)) |
| Writing & signature | Must be in writing and signed by the testator, or by another person 'in the testator's presence and at the testator's express direction' (§ 53-4-20(a)). The testator may sign by mark or by any name intended to authenticate the will. Georgia has no rule that the signature appear at the end of the document |
| Witnesses required | Two or more competent witnesses must 'attest and subscribe in the presence of the testator' (§ 53-4-20(b)); a witness may attest by mark, and must be age 14 or older (§ 53-4-22(a)). Georgia does not require the two witnesses to be present at the same time as each other. An interested witness (a beneficiary) is still competent, but the gift to that witness is VOID unless at least two other subscribing witnesses are not beneficiaries (§ 53-4-23(a)); a witness whose spouse receives a gift is fine — it goes only to credibility (§ 53-4-23(b)) |
| Notarization & self-proving | Notarization is NOT required to make a will valid — a notary is not a witness. A self-proving affidavit is available: at execution or any time afterward, the testator and witnesses may swear an affidavit before a notary, which lets the will be admitted to probate without the witnesses' testimony (§ 53-4-24) |
| Handwritten (holographic) wills | No. Georgia does not recognize holographic (handwritten, unwitnessed) wills; every will must be attested and subscribed by two witnesses under § 53-4-20(b). A will you write and sign by hand without two witnesses is invalid in Georgia (though a holographic will that was valid where and when it was made in another state may still be honored) |
| Electronic & remote wills | Not permitted. Georgia has not enacted electronic wills — bills to authorize them (HB 940 in 2022 and HB 901 in 2024) died without passing — and § 53-4-20 requires a physical writing subscribed by two witnesses in the testator's presence. A temporary 2020 pandemic executive order that allowed remote witnessing was never made permanent |
| Harmless-error / curative doctrine | No — Georgia is a strict-compliance state. There is no harmless-error or substantial-compliance statute; the formalities of § 53-4-20 (a signed writing attested by two witnesses in the testator's presence) are mandatory, and a will missing one is invalid no matter how clear the testator's intent. Georgia has not adopted the Uniform Probate Code's curative provision |
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Requirements one by one
Governing law
Georgia's will-execution rules are in the Revised Probate Code of 1998, codified at
O.C.G.A. Title 53, Chapter 4. Article 2 (§§ 53-4-10 to 53-4-12) sets who may make a
will and the capacity standard; Article 3 (§§ 53-4-20 to 53-4-24) sets the execution
formalities. Georgia follows the traditional common-law "attested will" — a written
document the testator signs and two competent witnesses subscribe. It is not a
Uniform Probate Code state, not a civil-law "notarial will" state (a notary plays no
required role in making the will valid), and it has not adopted electronic wills. It
is also one of the states that does not recognize handwritten (holographic) wills at
all.
Minimum age & capacity
Georgia sets the lowest will-making age in the country: "Every individual 14 years of
age or older may make a will" (§ 53-4-10(a)), unless the person lacks capacity or the
freedom to act. A criminal conviction does not take away the power to make a will
(§ 53-4-10(b)). The capacity standard is stated affirmatively: testamentary capacity
"exists when the testator has a decided and rational desire as to the disposition of
property" (§ 53-4-11(a)). The bar is deliberately low — an incapacity to contract can
coexist with capacity to make a will, an insane person can make a valid will during a
lucid interval, a "monomaniac" can make a will unconnected to the delusion, and
neither advancing age nor weakness of intellect nor eccentricity by itself defeats
capacity (§ 53-4-11(b)–(d)).
Writing & signature
The will must be in writing and signed either by the testator or by "some other
individual in the testator's presence and at the testator's express direction" —
the way a testator who physically cannot sign gets the will signed (§ 53-4-20(a)).
Georgia is flexible about the signature itself: the testator "may sign by mark or by
any name that is intended to authenticate the instrument as the testator's will," so
initials, a nickname, or an "X" can count if meant as the signature. Unlike
Pennsylvania and Louisiana's notarial form, Georgia has no rule that the signature
appear at the very end of the document.
Witnesses required
A Georgia will must be "attested and subscribed in the presence of the testator by two
or more competent witnesses" (§ 53-4-20(b)). Two things about that phrasing matter.
First, the witnesses must sign in the testator's presence — but Georgia does not
require the two witnesses to be present at the same time as each other, and does not
require the testator to sign in front of the witnesses (the testator may instead
acknowledge an already-signed will). Second, "another individual may not subscribe the
name of a witness," so a witness must sign personally (though a witness, like the
testator, may attest by mark). A witness must be age 14 or older and competent at the
time of signing; a witness who later becomes incompetent does not undo the will
(§ 53-4-22).
Georgia keeps a "purging" rule for a witness who is also a beneficiary. Such a witness
is still competent, so the will remains valid — but "the testamentary gift to the
witness shall be void unless there are at least two other subscribing witnesses to the
will who are not beneficiaries" (§ 53-4-23(a)). In other words, using a beneficiary as
one of only two witnesses can cost that person their inheritance while leaving the rest
of the will intact. A witness whose spouse (rather than the witness) receives a gift is
not purged; that fact goes only to the witness's credibility (§ 53-4-23(b)).
Notarization & self-proving
A Georgia will does not have to be notarized to be valid — a notary is not a witness,
and notarizing a will does nothing to satisfy the two-witness rule of § 53-4-20(b).
Notarization matters only for the optional self-proving affidavit under § 53-4-24: at
signing or any later date during the lifetimes of the testator and witnesses, the
testator and the attesting witnesses can swear an affidavit before a notary, attached
to the will, confirming the will was properly executed. A self-proved will "may be
admitted to probate without the testimony of any subscribing witness" (§ 53-4-24(c)),
which spares the family from tracking the witnesses down years later. The statute
supplies the affidavit's exact wording (§ 53-4-24(b)).
Handwritten (holographic) wills
Georgia does not recognize holographic wills. There is no holographic exception
anywhere in Chapter 4, and § 53-4-20(b) requires every will to be attested and
subscribed by two witnesses. A document you write out and sign in your own hand, with
no witnesses, is not a valid Georgia will, no matter how clearly it states your wishes.
(If you made a valid handwritten will while living in a state that allows them, Georgia
may still honor it after a move — but a homemade, unwitnessed will first executed in
Georgia is void.)
Electronic & remote wills
Georgia does not permit electronic wills. The legislature has considered them — House
Bill 940 in 2022 and House Bill 901 in 2024 would each have added an electronic-wills
article to Chapter 4 — but neither passed, so § 53-4-20 still controls and requires a
physical writing subscribed by two witnesses in the testator's presence. A will that
exists only as a computer file, or that is "signed" by typing a name, is not valid.
During the 2020 pandemic a temporary executive order allowed remote (audio-video)
witnessing and notarization of some estate-planning documents; that emergency measure
was not made permanent, so ordinary in-person witnessing is again the only route.
Harmless-error / curative doctrine
Georgia is a strict-compliance state. It has no harmless-error or substantial-compliance
statute — nothing like the Uniform Probate Code's rule letting a court treat a defective
document as a will on clear and convincing evidence of intent. The execution
requirements of § 53-4-20 are mandatory: if a will is not signed by the testator or is
not attested by two competent witnesses in the testator's presence, a Georgia probate
court cannot excuse the defect, however obvious the testator's intent. Getting the
formalities right the first time is the only protection.
What trips people up
Notarizing a will is not the same as witnessing it. Taking a will to a notary and
assuming that makes it official is a common and costly mistake. Georgia requires two
witnesses under § 53-4-20(b); a notary's seal satisfies nothing in that subsection.
Notarization matters only as part of the optional self-proving affidavit attached to an
already properly witnessed will.
A beneficiary should not be one of your two witnesses. An interested witness does
not void the will, but if that witness is also a beneficiary and there are not at least
two other witnesses who take nothing, the witness's gift is void by law (§ 53-4-23(a)).
The safe practice is to use two witnesses who inherit nothing under the will.
There is no safety net for a botched signing. Because Georgia has no harmless-error
rule, a will with only one witness, or one the witnesses signed outside the testator's
presence, simply fails — a probate court has no power to save it on proof of intent.
This is the opposite of states like California, where a missing witness can sometimes be
excused.
A handwritten will alone is not enough. People sometimes write out their wishes by
hand, sign them, and stop. In many states that is a valid holographic will; in Georgia
it is nothing, because Georgia requires two witnesses and recognizes no handwritten-will
exception.
Common questions
Can a 14-year-old really make a will in Georgia? Yes. Georgia law lets "every
individual 14 years of age or older" make a will (§ 53-4-10(a)), the lowest age of any
state. The will still has to meet the writing, signature, and two-witness requirements,
and the young testator must have testamentary capacity.
Does my Georgia will have to be notarized? No. Georgia requires two witnesses, not a
notary (§ 53-4-20(b)). A notary is only used for the optional self-proving affidavit,
which speeds up probate but never replaces the witnesses.
Do both witnesses have to watch me sign at the same time? Not necessarily. The
witnesses must attest and subscribe in your presence (§ 53-4-20(b)), and you may sign in
front of them or acknowledge a will you already signed — but Georgia does not require
the two witnesses to be together at the same moment. Even so, having everyone sign
together is the cleanest practice, because Georgia has no harmless-error rule to fix a
witnessing problem.
Can I sign my Georgia will online or over video? No. Georgia has not adopted
electronic wills, and a 2020 pandemic order allowing remote witnessing was temporary and
was not made permanent. A valid Georgia will must be a physical signed writing witnessed
in person by two people (§ 53-4-20).
Statutes and sources
- O.C.G.A. § 53-4-10 — who may make a will: any individual 14 or older (the lowest age nationally), and a criminal conviction does not remove the power.
https://law.justia.com/codes/georgia/title-53/chapter-4/article-2/section-53-4-10/ (accessed 2026-07-11) - O.C.G.A. § 53-4-11 — testamentary capacity: a "decided and rational desire" standard; lucid-interval and eccentricity rules.
https://law.justia.com/codes/georgia/title-53/chapter-4/article-2/section-53-4-11/ (accessed 2026-07-11) - O.C.G.A. § 53-4-20 — core execution rule: writing and signature (a); two competent witnesses who attest and subscribe in the testator's presence (b); codicils (c).
https://law.justia.com/codes/georgia/title-53/chapter-4/article-3/section-53-4-20/ (accessed 2026-07-11) - O.C.G.A. § 53-4-22 — competency of witnesses: age 14 or older; later incompetence does not defeat probate.
https://law.justia.com/codes/georgia/title-53/chapter-4/article-3/section-53-4-22/ (accessed 2026-07-11) - O.C.G.A. § 53-4-23 — interested witness: the gift to a witness-beneficiary is void unless two other subscribing witnesses are not beneficiaries; a witness whose spouse takes is not purged.
https://law.justia.com/codes/georgia/title-53/chapter-4/article-3/section-53-4-23/ (accessed 2026-07-11) - O.C.G.A. § 53-4-24 — optional self-proving affidavit sworn before a notary, allowing probate without the witnesses' testimony.
https://law.justia.com/codes/georgia/title-53/chapter-4/article-3/section-53-4-24/ (accessed 2026-07-11)
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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