Skip to main content
Connecticut Will Requirements
Pillar GuideConnecticut19 min read

Connecticut Will Requirements

Connecticut will requirements under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 45a-251: age 18, sound mind, a signed writing, two attesting witnesses, no handwritten wills, no notary.

By Settled Editorial

Connecticut will requirements fit inside one sentence of Conn. Gen. Stat. § 45a-251. A will must be in writing, subscribed by the testator, and attested by two witnesses who each subscribe in the testator's presence. The person signing has to be 18 or older and of sound mind. Connecticut accepts no handwritten will signed here, and no notary is needed.

Read this page as a planning map rather than a signing kit. Connecticut courts apply § 45a-251 to the facts of each will, the statute carries no forgiveness clause for a botched signing, and a single missing witness signature sinks the document. When real estate, a blended family, or a likely dispute is in play, check your plan with a licensed Connecticut attorney before you sign.

This guide pairs with the Connecticut probate guide for what happens after a death, and with Connecticut intestate succession for who inherits when no valid will exists.

Who Can Make a Will in Connecticut

The capacity rule runs one line. Under § 45a-250, any person eighteen years of age or older, and of sound mind, may dispose of his estate by will.

Two conditions, then:

  • Age 18. The section prints one age and no exception. Several states let a legally emancipated minor or a married minor sign a will. Connecticut writes no such door into § 45a-250.
  • Sound mind. The maker must understand, in a general way, that the paper is a will, what property is in play, and who would ordinarily inherit it. The annotations printed under the section put the same test differently: the testator needs sufficient mind and memory to know and understand the business being transacted.

Capacity is measured at the moment of signing. A later illness does not undo a will made while the testator understood what they were doing, and a person whose condition rises and falls can sign during a clear stretch.

Not sure which documents you need?

The free estate planning assessment builds a short document list for your situation.

Take the free estate planning assessment

How to Sign a Valid Will in Connecticut

Section 45a-251 states the rule as a prohibition, which is worth reading slowly. A will or codicil shall not be valid to pass any property unless three things are true.

  1. It is in writing. An oral will passes nothing in Connecticut. The statute leaves no room for one.
  2. The testator subscribes it. The testator signs the will.
  3. Two witnesses attest it, each subscribing in the testator's presence. Both witnesses sign, and both sign where the testator can perceive it.

A Connecticut will needs no notary to be valid. Section 45a-251 is the whole execution rule and it never mentions one. The notary shows up later, in the optional proof affidavit covered below.

Read the witness clause closely, because it points in one direction only. The statute requires each witness to subscribe in the testator's presence. It says nothing about the witnesses signing in each other's presence, and it sets no deadline for their signatures. Even so, put the testator and both witnesses in one room and sign in one sitting. The Probate Court's own affidavit form recites that the testator signed in the presence of the undersigned witness and each other subscribing witness, so a signing that matches the form leaves nothing to argue about.

One historical note that catches families sorting through old paperwork. The history line under § 45a-251 records that a 1971 act required wills to be attested by two rather than three witnesses. A Connecticut will signed before that change carries three witness signatures, and that is correct for its date.

Connecticut Forgives Nothing at the Signing

Many states let a judge excuse a signing defect when the evidence clearly shows what the person wanted. The Uniform Probate Code calls it harmless error and puts it at § 2-503. Connecticut adopted no such rule.

Here is the proof. Chapter 802a, the wills chapter of Title 45a, runs from § 45a-250 through § 45a-267, and the band from §§ 45a-252 to 45a-256 reads Reserved for future use. Nothing in the chapter rescues a will that misses a step in § 45a-251, and the phrasing of that section, "shall not be valid to pass any property unless," slams the door from the other side.

That single fact should change how carefully you treat a Connecticut signing. In a harmless-error state, proof of intent can save a flawed document. Here it cannot.

Connecticut Does Not Accept Handwritten Wills

A holographic will is a will written entirely in the testator's own hand with no attesting witnesses. Connecticut creates none. No section of chapter 802a authorizes one, and § 45a-251 writes no exception for a document in the testator's own handwriting.

So a handwritten page signed at a kitchen table in Hartford, with no witnesses, passes no property.

One door stays open, and it is narrow. The second half of § 45a-251 says any will executed according to the laws of the state or country where it was executed may be admitted to probate here and passes Connecticut property. Notice what that clause keys on. It looks at the place of signing, not at where the testator lived, not at citizenship, and not at where the person died. A handwritten will validly signed in a state that honors holographic wills can still be admitted in Connecticut. The same page signed in Connecticut fails.

Connecticut Has No Self-Proving Will. It Has § 45a-285 Instead

Anyone who has signed a will in a Uniform Probate Code state was probably handed a self-proving affidavit at the signing table. Connecticut has no such section. Asking a Connecticut lawyer to make your will "self-proved" points at a statute that does not exist here.

What Connecticut has is § 45a-285, titled Proof of will out of court, and it does the same job through a different mechanism.

  • Who signs it. Any or all of the attesting witnesses.
  • When. At the request of the testator during life, or after the testator's death at the request of the executor or any person interested under the will. That timing is broader than a UPC self-proving clause, which is normally executed at the signing.
  • Before whom. Any officer authorized to administer oaths, in or out of Connecticut.
  • What it says. The facts the witness would be required to testify to in court to prove the will.
  • Where it lives. Written on the will itself, or on a paper attached to it if writing on the will is impracticable.
  • What it buys. The sworn statement is accepted by the Probate Court as if it had been taken before that court, so the witness does not have to appear.

The Probate Court publishes the instrument as Form PC-210, Affidavit in Proof of Will and/or Codicil, whose instructions cite §§ 45a-251 and 45a-285 and state that the form must be signed and acknowledged before an officer authorized to administer an oath.

That last point carries a trap. Connecticut normally lets a filer swap a sworn affidavit for an unsworn written statement subscribed under penalty of false statement. Section 45a-135 grants that substitution across probate matters, then names its exceptions, and an affidavit submitted under § 45a-285 is one of them. So the witness affidavit has to be a real sworn oath. Save yourself the later scramble and take the witnesses to a notary at the signing.

A Witness Who Inherits Can Lose the Gift

Connecticut voids the gift, not the will. Read § 45a-258 before you pick who signs.

Every devise or bequest given in a will or codicil to a subscribing witness, or to the husband or wife of that witness, is void. Two escapes exist:

  • the will is legally attested without the signature of that witness, meaning enough other qualified witnesses signed to satisfy § 45a-251, or
  • the devisee or legatee is an heir to the testator.

The section then clears up two side questions. The witness stays competent as a witness no matter what the will gives them. And a witness who merely belongs to a community, church, society, association, or corporation that takes under the will keeps both the gift for that group and their own competency.

Notice how far the void reaches. It swallows a gift to the spouse of a witness, which catches the common setup where a child signs as a witness and that child's husband or wife is a named beneficiary. The second escape softens the blow for family, since a child who is an heir keeps the gift, but do not build a plan on an escape hatch. Use two witnesses who inherit nothing and who are married to nobody who inherits.

Revoking or Changing a Connecticut Will

Section 45a-257 closes the list of ways to undo a Connecticut will. A will or codicil is not revoked in any manner except:

  • A physical act. Burning, cancelling, tearing, or obliterating the will, done by the testator or by some person in the testator's presence at the testator's direction.
  • A later will or codicil. Sign a new one with a plain revocation line so nobody has to argue about it.

Three life events revoke parts of a will on their own, and Connecticut moved them out of § 45a-257 into their own sections in 1997.

  • A spouse you married after signing. Under § 45a-257a, a surviving spouse who married the testator after the will was executed and was left out of it takes the share they would have received had the decedent left no will. The share fails if the will shows the omission was intentional, or if the testator provided for the spouse outside the will with intent that the transfer stand in place of a testamentary gift. A spouse who takes this omitted share cannot also elect the statutory share under § 45a-436.
  • A child born or adopted after signing. Section 45a-257b gives an omitted after-born or after-adopted child a share, sized by whether the testator had other children living when the will was signed. The same two exceptions apply, and a living child left out solely because the testator believed the child was dead is treated the same way.
  • Divorce, dissolution, or annulment. Section 45a-257c revokes any disposition or appointment of property to the former spouse, any power of appointment conferred on them, and any nomination of them as executor, trustee, conservator, guardian, or other fiduciary, unless the will expressly says otherwise. The property then passes as though the former spouse had not survived. Remarrying the same person revives those provisions. A decree of legal separation does not count, because it does not end the marriage.

Now the date that competitors skip. Section 45a-257f says §§ 45a-257a to 45a-257c are effective only as to wills executed on or after January 1, 1997. A will signed on or after October 1, 1967 and before that date is governed instead by the older revocation law preserved in § 45a-257e, under which marriage, divorce, annulment, dissolution, or the birth or adoption of a minor child could revoke the will itself. If a parent's will predates 1997, the marriage-and-children rules that apply to it are not the ones on this page. Ask a Connecticut attorney which set governs, and note that § 45a-257d lets the Probate Court construe the effect of these sections on a will admitted in its district.

Tearing up a newer will does not automatically bring an older one back to life. Sign a fresh will that says what you want.

Wills Signed in Another State

Moving to Connecticut does not void the will you signed somewhere else. The saving clause in § 45a-251 admits a will executed according to the laws of the state or country where it was executed, and it passes any Connecticut property the testator owned.

Two related sections handle the paperwork. Section 45a-287 lets the will of a testator who was not domiciled here be proved in a Connecticut probate district chosen from a listed set of connections, such as where the testator last resided, where property sits, or where a named executor lives. Section 45a-288 lets an executor file and record an authenticated copy of a will already proved out of state, after notice and a hearing, giving it the same effect as a will originally proved here.

Subsection (b) of § 45a-288 draws the boundary, and it is the sentence to remember. Nothing in that section gives effect to a will made in Connecticut by a Connecticut resident that was not executed according to Connecticut law. A resident cannot sign a defective will at home, get it admitted somewhere with looser rules, and import the result.

Still, review any out-of-state will after you move. Re-signing it under § 45a-251 with two disinterested witnesses and a § 45a-285 affidavit gives the Probate Court a document that matches the statute it applies every day.

What a Connecticut Will Cannot Override

A will decides a lot. It does not decide everything.

The largest limit is the surviving spouse's statutory share. Under § 45a-436, a surviving spouse may elect a life estate of one-third in value of all the property passing under the will, real and personal, after payment of debts and charges against the estate. The statute adds that the right to that third is not defeated by any disposition of the property by will to other parties. A gift left to the spouse in the will counts against the share unless the will says otherwise, and the spouse may take the share instead.

The election has a hard deadline. The spouse, or a conservator or guardian acting with Probate Court approval, must file written notice of the intention to take the statutory share not later than 150 days after the mailing of the decree admitting the will to probate, or the share is barred. The Connecticut surviving spouse rights guide walks through how that election plays out.

Assets that pass by beneficiary designation, joint ownership, or a funded trust sit outside the will entirely. Compare those routes in the guide to avoiding probate in Connecticut before you assume the will controls an account.

Filing the Will After a Death

Connecticut has no county probate court. Probate is heard in one of the fifty-four probate districts created by § 45a-2, each serving one or more of the 169 towns, and jurisdiction follows the decedent's town of residence. Find the right one in the Connecticut probate district directory.

Then the clock starts.

  • Deliver the will. Section 45a-282 tells anyone holding a will to deliver it, as soon as they learn of the death, either to a person designated as executor or to the judge, clerk, or assistant clerk of the Probate Court with jurisdiction. Neglect for more than 30 days carries a fine of up to $1,000, imprisonment of up to one year, or both.
  • Apply for probate. Under § 45a-283, a person who knows they are designated executor must apply for probate of the will within 30 days after the death, in the district where the testator was domiciled. Neglect carries a fine of up to $250. The petition is Form PC-200, Petition/Administration or Probate of Will.
  • If the original is locked away. Section 45a-284 lets next of kin, a spouse, or anyone showing sufficient interest ask the Probate Court to order a decedent's safe deposit box opened to retrieve a will or cemetery deed. The court may issue the order ex parte, and a bank officer reports back on what was found.
  • Expect a hearing. Section 45a-286 requires the court to hold a hearing before proving or disapproving a will, with notice to everyone known to be interested, unless they all waive notice in writing or the court dispenses with it for cause.
  • Do not wait a decade. Section 45a-330 bars admitting a will more than ten years after the death, unless the court finds on written petition, after public notice and hearing, that it should be admitted. A minor gets one year after reaching majority, and newly discovered property opens a one-year window.

Not every will goes to probate. When a decedent left no solely owned assets for the court to administer, or the family settles the estate by affidavit in lieu of administration, the original will still gets filed using Form PC-211, Affidavit for Filing Will Not Submitted for Probate. Filing costs nothing: § 45a-109(9) charges $25 to file any document where the court need not act and carves wills out of that fee by name.

The Connecticut executor duties guide picks up from the moment the court admits the will.

What This Means for Your Plan

A Connecticut will that holds up usually looks like this:

  1. Confirm the testator is 18 or older and of sound mind.
  2. Put the will in writing and have the testator sign it.
  3. Have two witnesses sign in the testator's presence, and pick two people who inherit nothing and whose spouses inherit nothing.
  4. Keep everyone in one room for the whole signing, matching what Form PC-210 recites.
  5. Add the § 45a-285 affidavit before a notary at the same sitting, written on the will or attached to it.
  6. Store the original where the person you named as executor can reach it, and tell them where it is.
  7. Re-check the will after a marriage, a divorce, a birth, an adoption, or a move into Connecticut.

A will is one document inside a wider plan. Pair it with the lifetime paperwork in the Connecticut power of attorney guide and the Connecticut health care directive guide, and see how the pieces fit together in Connecticut estate planning basics. If a family member already doubts a will that was signed, the grounds to contest a Connecticut will show what a challenger would have to prove and how the appeal from probate works.

This page is general information about Connecticut wills. Verify anything that touches your own situation with the Probate Court for your district or a licensed Connecticut attorney before you sign or rely on a will.

Sources:

It is not legal advice.

Prefer to talk it through? Connect with an estate-planning attorney

Settled Estate is not a law firm and does not give legal advice.

Information current as of August 1, 2026

Settled Estate is not a law firm, and this content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Probate laws and procedures in Connecticut can change. Consult with a qualified attorney for advice specific to your situation. Full disclaimer.

All Connecticut guides← Back to all articles