Skip to main content
New Hampshire Will Requirements
Pillar GuideNew Hampshire23 min read

New Hampshire Will Requirements

New Hampshire will requirements under RSA 551:2: age 18 or married, sane mind, a signed writing, two credible witnesses, no handwritten wills, no notary.

By Settled Editorial

New Hampshire will requirements sit in two short sections of the state code. RSA 551:1 says the person making the will must be 18, or married and under 18, and of sane mind, and that the will has to be in writing. RSA 551:2 adds the signing rules: the testator signs, and 2 or more credible witnesses attest to that signature at the testator's request and in the testator's presence. No seal is needed, and no notary.

Read this page as a planning map rather than a signing kit. RSA 551:2 carries no clause that forgives a botched signing, so a missing witness signature is not something a probate judge can wave through on proof of what the testator wanted. When real estate, a blended family, or a likely dispute is in play, check the plan with a licensed New Hampshire attorney before anyone signs.

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

Who Can Make a New Hampshire Will

RSA 551:1 runs one sentence: "Every person of the age of eighteen years and married persons under that age, of sane mind, may devise and dispose of their property, real and personal, and of any right or interest they may have in any property, by their last will in writing."

Three conditions hide in that sentence.

  • Age 18, or married and younger. The section opens the door twice. A married person under 18 may make a will here.
  • Sane mind. The statute says sane mind rather than the sound mind phrasing that shows up in most will statutes. The sworn form printed at RSA 551:2-a uses the same words, having the witnesses swear the testator was "of sane mind and under no constraint or undue influence."
  • In writing. The writing requirement starts here, in the capacity section, before RSA 551:2 repeats it.

That wording has stood since 1943, according to the Source line the state prints under the section.

The same capacity standard reaches past wills. RSA 563-D:8 says the capacity to make or revoke a transfer on death deed "is the same as the capacity required to make a will, as such standard is articulated in RSA 551:1." Anyone weighing a New Hampshire transfer on death deed is measured against this section.

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 New Hampshire Will

RSA 551:2, I lists four elements, and a will has to clear all of them.

  1. The testator qualifies under RSA 551:1. Age and sane mind, checked at the moment of signing.
  2. The will is in writing.
  3. The testator signs it, or someone else signs at the testator's express direction and in the testator's presence.
  4. Two or more credible witnesses sign, and they attest to the testator's signature at the request of the testator and in the testator's presence.

Paragraph II removes one formality and fixes a date: "No seal shall be required. These requirements shall apply to all wills executed on or after January 1, 1993."

Notice what the section never asks for. There is no notary in the in-person signing rule. A notary or justice of the peace shows up in two other places, the self-proving acknowledgment and the remote-witnessing paragraph, and both are covered below.

Read the witness clause slowly, because two words carry weight. The witnesses attest at the request of the testator, so the testator has to ask. And they attest in the presence of the testator, so the testator stays in the room while they sign. Both are stated requirements, not customs.

One more habit is worth keeping even though RSA 551:2 does not spell it out. The self-proving form at RSA 551:2-a has each witness swear they signed "in the testator's presence, and in the presence of the other witness." Witnesses who sign on separate days, out of each other's company, cannot honestly sign that affidavit. Gather everyone once.

Remote Witnessing Is Allowed. Electronic Wills Are Not.

This is the part of New Hampshire law most summaries get wrong, and it changed twice in recent years.

RSA 551:2, III(a) treats a witness as being "in the presence of the testator" when the witness, the testator, the other witnesses, and a notarial officer can communicate simultaneously by sight and sound through an electronic device or process at the time all of them sign. The will may be signed in multiple counterparts, and a witness does not have to be physically inside New Hampshire.

The notarial officer cannot be just anyone with a stamp. The statute names three people:

  1. the attorney, licensed to practice law in New Hampshire and in good standing, who drafted the will or codicil;
  2. another New Hampshire attorney in good standing, working under the drafting attorney's supervision; or
  3. a paralegal supervised by either of those attorneys.

So a remote New Hampshire signing runs through the drafting lawyer's office. A notary at a bank branch or an online notary platform does not satisfy III(a).

Then paragraph III(b) closes the door people expect to find open: "Nothing in this paragraph shall be deemed to allow an electronic will or codicil." The paragraph applies only to wills executed on or after March 23, 2020, and the Source line records the amendments at 2020, 17:12, eff. July 17, 2020, and 2021, 206:2, Pt. II, Sec. 11, eff. Aug. 10, 2021.

New Hampshire signs paper. The camera changes where people stand, not what they sign.

New Hampshire Accepts No Handwritten Will

A holographic will is written entirely in the maker's own hand with no attesting witnesses. RSA 551 creates none, and RSA 551:2 writes no exception to the two-witness rule.

Do not read that as "an unwitnessed handwritten page is always void here." RSA 551:5, I says a will made out of this state, and valid according to the laws of the state or country where it was executed, may be proved and allowed in New Hampshire and is then as effective as one executed under New Hampshire law. A holograph signed in a state whose law accepts holographs can be proved in a New Hampshire probate division. The same page written at a kitchen table in Manchester passes nothing.

Oral wills survive in the chapter, and they are a museum piece. RSA 551:15 lets a soldier in actual military service, or a mariner or seaman at sea, dispose of movables and personal estate. RSA 551:16 then caps it hard: no nuncupative will is valid where the personal estate bequeathed exceeds $100 in value, unless it was declared in front of three witnesses whom the testator asked to bear witness, in his last sickness and in his usual dwelling, with a memorandum reduced to writing within six days and presented for probate within six months. The $100 figure has never moved.

Making a New Hampshire Will Self-Proved

Self-proving is optional in New Hampshire and it saves the estate a step later. RSA 551:2-a sets the form.

The signatures of the testator and the witnesses are followed by a sworn acknowledgment, made before a notary public, a justice of the peace, or another official authorized to administer oaths in the place of execution. New Hampshire names the justice of the peace on the face of the statute, so a JP commission is enough and no separate notary is needed.

The statute prints the wording. Under oath, the witnesses swear four things:

  1. the testator signed the instrument as the testator's will, or expressly directed another person to sign for the testator;
  2. this was the testator's free and voluntary act for the purposes expressed in the will;
  3. each witness signed at the request of the testator, in the testator's presence, and in the presence of the other witness; and
  4. at the time of signing the testator was at least 18, or if under 18 was a married person, and was of sane mind and under no constraint or undue influence.

Two other routes reach the same result. RSA 551:2-a, II accepts any will meeting RSA 551-A, the Uniform International Wills Act, where two witnesses plus an authorized person sign and that person attaches the certificate at RSA 551-A:5. Every attorney admitted to practice before the courts of this state and in good standing is an authorized person under RSA 551-A:9. And RSA 551:5, II makes a will self-proved under another state's or country's law self-proved here.

RSA 552:5-b gathers all three: a will meeting RSA 551:2-a, RSA 551:5, II, or RSA 551-A:10 is self-proved and shall be allowed as such by the probate court.

Skip the affidavit and the estate falls back on live proof. RSA 552:6 then needs a subscribing witness to testify, or the written assent of the family, which is harder to collect years later.

A Witness Who Inherits Loses the Gift

New Hampshire voids the gift, not the will, and it prints the cure inside the same sentence. Read RSA 551:3 before choosing who signs.

Any beneficial devise or legacy given in a will to a subscribing witness, or to the wife or husband of such a witness, is void unless there are 2 other subscribing witnesses. The witness stays a competent witness either way. A provision for the payment of a debt is not void, and it does not disqualify the creditor as a witness.

Two things follow.

  • The spouse clause catches people. A witness who takes nothing personally, but whose husband or wife is a beneficiary, triggers the same void.
  • Three witnesses fix it. Where a beneficiary has already signed, two other subscribing witnesses save the gift, since the statute asks for 2 others rather than 2 total.

RSA 551:4 removes a narrower worry: a will is not invalid, and no witness incompetent, because a witness belongs to a corporation that takes a devise or legacy under it.

The simplest plan still holds. Pick two witnesses who take nothing and who are married to nobody who takes anything.

Revoking or Changing a New Hampshire Will

RSA 551:13, I closes the list of methods. A will or a clause in it is revoked only by:

  • another valid will or codicil;
  • some writing executed in the same manner a will is executed; or
  • canceling, tearing, obliterating or otherwise destroying the will, done by the testator, or by another person with the testator's consent and in the testator's presence.

Divorce acts on its own. Paragraph II says that if the testator is divorced or the marriage is annulled after the will was executed, that revokes any disposition or appointment of property to the former spouse, any provision giving the former spouse a power of appointment, and any nomination of the former spouse as executor, trustee, conservator, or guardian, unless the will expressly provides otherwise. The property then passes as if the former spouse, and heirs in the descending line of that spouse who are not also heirs at law of the decedent, had failed to survive. Remarrying the same person revives what the section revoked. A decree of separation that does not end the marriage is not a divorce for this purpose.

Paragraph III applies that identical rule to a trust instrument where a sole grantor kept the power to alter, amend, revoke or terminate it, which reaches a New Hampshire revocable living trust as well as a will. The Source line dates the current text to 2003, 31:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2004.

Nothing in RSA 551 makes marriage revoke a will. A new spouse is protected by a different mechanism, the waiver at RSA 560:10, covered below.

One wrinkle to know about rather than plan around. RSA 551:13, II ends with "No change of circumstances other than as described in this section revokes a will," while RSA 551:14 says the preceding section does not control any revocation implied by law from a change in the circumstances of the testator, family, devisees, legatees or estate between the making of the will and the death. Both sentences sit in the chapter. Do not build a plan on an implied revocation. Sign a fresh will that says what you want.

Children Born or Adopted After the Will

RSA 551:10 was rewritten by 2022, 261:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2023, and the same act repealed RSA 551:11. Any summary written before 2023 describes rules that no longer apply.

The current section splits on one question, whether the testator already had a child when the will was signed.

  • No child living at execution. The omitted after-born or after-adopted child takes the share the child would have received had the testator died intestate. That share comes first out of the residue, then pro rata from other assets. The share disappears where the will gave all or substantially all of the estate to the other parent of the omitted child and that parent survives the testator and takes under the will.
  • One or more children living at execution, and the will gave something to one of them. The omitted child shares only in the devises made to those then-living children, taking an equal share as though every omitted child had been named alongside them. Devises to the then-living children abate ratably, and the court preserves the character of the plan as far as it can.

Two limits close the section. Neither rule applies if it appears from the will that the omission was intentional. And a living child left out only because the testator believed the child had died is treated as an after-born child.

A beneficiary who dies first has a separate rule. Under RSA 551:12, the heirs in the descending line of a legatee or devisee who died before the testator take the gift in the same manner the legatee would have taken it.

Wills Signed Outside New Hampshire

Moving here does not void a will signed somewhere else. RSA 551:5, I accepts a will made out of state and valid under the law of the place of execution, and gives it the same effect as one executed under New Hampshire law. Paragraph II carries the self-proved status across the same way. The Source line dates both to 1999, 100:4, eff. Jan. 1, 2000.

A will already proved in another state or country travels a different track. RSA 552:13 lets a duly authenticated copy of the will, plus a duly authenticated copy of its probate, be filed and recorded in the probate office on the written application of a party in interest, after whatever citation and notice the court orders. The will then has the same effect as if it had been executed with New Hampshire formalities and proved here. RSA 552:14 puts venue in any county holding estate the will operates on. The New Hampshire ancillary probate guide walks that route.

New Hampshire Lets You Prove a Will While You Are Alive

New Hampshire has offered this route since 2014, and most families never hear about it. RSA 552:18, titled Proof of Will During Life, lets a living person ask a court to declare their own will valid. The Source line reads 2014, 195:4, eff. July 1, 2014.

The rules are tight.

  • The petitioner has to be domiciled in New Hampshire, or own real property here.
  • A guardian, conservator, or attorney-in-fact may not start the proceeding for someone else. The maker files it personally.
  • Venue is the county of domicile, or the county where the New Hampshire real property sits.
  • Interested persons include the spouse, whoever would be heirs if the petitioner died on the filing date, the legatees and devisees, the nominated executors, and the director of charitable trusts where a charity takes.
  • The will is proved in solemn form, with the same burden of proof and presumptions.
  • After the death, a will carrying a declaration of validity has full legal effect and, on request, is admitted to probate and conclusively deemed proved, apart from any later modification or revocation.
  • Skipping the procedure is not evidence that a will is invalid.

Where a contest looks likely and the maker is well enough to testify, this moves the fight forward while the best witness is still available. Compare it with the after-death route in the guide to the grounds to contest a New Hampshire will.

No-Contest Clauses Bite Harder Here

A no-contest clause threatens to cut off a beneficiary who challenges the will. New Hampshire wrote its rule so that the beneficiary's reasons do not save them.

RSA 551:22, II says a no-contest provision "shall be enforceable according to the express terms of the no-contest provision without regard to the presence or absence of probable cause for, or the beneficiary's good or bad faith in, taking the action that would justify the complete or partial forfeiture of the beneficiary's interest."

The section keeps limits. A no-contest provision is unenforceable to the extent the will is invalid because of fraud, duress, undue influence, lack of testamentary capacity, or any other reason. Where the challenge targets the executor alone, the clause fails to the extent the executor really did breach a fiduciary duty. Paragraph III then lists proceedings the clause cannot reach at all, including a settlement agreement among the beneficiaries and other interested persons, an action asking whether a proposed filing even counts as a contest, an action by a beneficiary to construe the will, and an action by the attorney general over a charitable interest.

Paragraphs VI through VIII let an executor suspend distributions to a beneficiary whose action might have triggered forfeiture, and shield a good-faith executor who does so.

Filing the Will After a Death

New Hampshire folded its county probate courts into one statewide Circuit Court. Probate is heard by the Circuit Court, Probate Division, and RSA 490-F:4 makes each county a judicial district for that division, so each of the ten counties has one. Each court goes by circuit number and city, such as 9th Circuit - Probate Division - Nashua, and the filing office is the circuit clerk. Find the right one in the New Hampshire probate court directory.

Then the clocks start.

  • Custodians get 30 days. RSA 552:2 requires every person holding a will to deliver it to the court of probate, or to the person named in it as executor, within 30 days after learning of the death.
  • The named executor gets 30 days. RSA 552:3 requires that person to file the will in the probate court within 30 days after the death, or within 30 days after learning of the nomination, whichever is later. Where the estate holds assets, that person either causes the will to be proved or files a written refusal to accept the trust. Where the estate holds no assets, that person files a certificate of death and files the will with no administration.
  • Delay costs money. RSA 552:4 forfeits $20 for each month of neglect past those 30 days, recoverable by anyone interested in the will, unless the court accepts the excuse. RSA 552:5 lets the court jail a custodian who ignores a citation to deliver a will, until the will is delivered.
  • The petition carries a family list. RSA 552:5-a requires the names, relationships and known addresses of the surviving spouse and heirs at law with the petition for appointment.
  • Nothing moves until the will is allowed. RSA 552:1 says no will passes real or personal estate unless duly proved and allowed in the court of probate.
  • Common form is the ordinary path. RSA 552:6 lets the judge allow an uncontested will on the testimony of one subscribing witness, or on the assent of the surviving spouse, legatees, devisees and heirs at law, with no witness appearing. Where an unnamed charitable interest exists, the director of charitable trusts assents too.
  • Solemn form reopens it for six months. RSA 552:7 lets any interested party have a will proved without notice re-examined within 6 months of that probate. Execution, testamentary capacity, fraud, duress and undue influence are tried to the probate court. RSA 552:9 gives a minor, a person the statute calls insane, or a person out of the United States one year after the disability is removed.
  • Then the executor writes to everyone. RSA 552:15 requires notice to each specifically named legatee, the surviving spouse and known heirs at law within 60 days of appointment, and a certificate to the judge within 90 days saying how and to whom notice went.

Once the court allows the will, the New Hampshire executor duties guide picks the story up.

What a New Hampshire Will Cannot Control

A will moves probate property. Several things sit outside it.

The surviving spouse can waive the will. RSA 560:10 lets a surviving spouse waive the homestead right and the provisions of the will in their favor, and instead take a statutory portion of the estate after debts and administration expenses. Where children or issue of deceased children survive, that portion is one third of the personalty and one third of the real estate. The waiver has a hard clock: RSA 560:14 requires it in writing, filed in the probate office within six months after the appointment of an executor or administrator, "and not afterwards," unless the judge allows more time for good cause. Where real estate is involved the waiver is also recorded in the registry of deeds of the county where the land sits. The New Hampshire surviving spouse rights guide covers the other tiers.

Non-probate assets never read the will. Retirement accounts and life insurance follow their beneficiary forms, jointly held property with survivorship passes to the survivor, a funded trust follows its own terms, and land under a recorded RSA 563-D deed passes to the named beneficiary. Compare those routes in the guide to avoiding probate in New Hampshire before assuming a will controls an account.

What This Means for Your New Hampshire Will

A New Hampshire will that holds up usually looks like this.

  1. Confirm the maker is 18, or married and under 18, and of sane mind.
  2. Put the will in writing and have the maker sign it, or have someone sign at their express direction and in their presence.
  3. Ask two credible witnesses, out loud, to witness the signature, and keep everyone in the room while they sign.
  4. Pick witnesses who take nothing under the will and whose spouses take nothing either, since RSA 551:3 voids a gift to a subscribing witness or that witness's husband or wife.
  5. Add the RSA 551:2-a acknowledgment at the same sitting, sworn before a notary public or a justice of the peace, so the estate never has to hunt for a witness later.
  6. Keep it on paper. A remote signing is allowed under RSA 551:2, III(a) with the drafting attorney's office running the video session, and an electronic will is not allowed at all.
  7. Store the original where the named executor can reach it, and tell that person where it is, because RSA 552:2 puts a 30-day delivery duty on whoever ends up holding it.
  8. Re-read the will after a divorce, a birth or adoption, a move into New Hampshire, or the death of a beneficiary.

A will is one document inside a wider plan. Pair it with the lifetime paperwork in the New Hampshire power of attorney guide and the New Hampshire advance directive guide, and see how the pieces fit together in New Hampshire estate planning basics.

This page is general information about New Hampshire wills. Check anything that touches your own situation with the Circuit Court Probate Division for your county, or with a licensed New Hampshire 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 3, 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 New Hampshire can change. Consult with a qualified attorney for advice specific to your situation. Full disclaimer.

All New Hampshire guides← Back to all articles