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South Dakota Will Requirements
Pillar GuideSouth Dakota14 min read

South Dakota Will Requirements

A South Dakota will needs two witnesses who sign in the testator's conscious presence, or a handwritten signature and material portions.

By Settled Editorial

A South Dakota will has to be in writing, signed by the testator or by someone else in the testator's conscious presence and at the testator's direction, and signed by two or more witnesses in the testator's conscious presence. SDCL 29A-2-502 sets those steps. South Dakota also accepts a handwritten will with no witnesses, and a court can save a flawed will when clear and convincing evidence shows the person meant it.

The rules sit in Title 29A of the South Dakota Codified Laws, the state's Uniform Probate Code, in chapter 29A-2. Sections 29A-2-501 through 29A-2-517 cover who may make a will, how it is signed, who may witness, how it is revoked, and what happens to the paper after a death. Every section cited below was read in the Legislature's own compiled code on September 27, 2026. Each one still carries the text enacted by 1995 session law chapter 167, with no later amendment.

Read this page as a planning map rather than a signing kit. It is general information about South Dakota law, not advice about your estate. Ask a licensed South Dakota attorney to look at any plan that involves farm or ranch land, a blended family, or a dispute you can already see forming.

A valid will does not keep an estate out of court. It names who inherits and who serves as personal representative, and the estate still moves through the circuit court process in the South Dakota probate guide. When no valid will exists, what happens with no will is set by South Dakota's intestacy statutes instead.

Who Can Make a South Dakota Will

SDCL 29A-2-501 draws the line in one sentence. An individual 18 or more years of age who is of sound mind may make a will.

Two details matter here.

  • Eighteen is the floor. The section names no exception for a younger person, emancipated or not.
  • The statute does not define sound mind. Section 29A-2-501 uses the phrase and stops. The self-proving affidavit in 29A-2-504 has the testator swear to being 18 or older, of sound mind, and under no constraint or undue influence, which restates the same test as a sworn fact.

The code's general definitions in SDCL 29A-1-201(52) say a will includes a codicil, and that it can do more than hand out property. A will can appoint a personal representative, revoke or amend another will, nominate a guardian or conservator, or expressly exclude someone from inheriting by intestacy.

What Makes a South Dakota Will Valid

SDCL 29A-2-502(b) applies to every will that does not qualify as a holographic will. That will must be:

  1. In writing.
  2. Signed by the testator, or in the testator's name by some other individual in the testator's conscious presence and by the testator's direction.
  3. Signed by two or more individuals in the conscious presence of the testator, each of whom, in the testator's conscious presence, witnessed either the signing of the will or the testator's acknowledgment of that signature.

Here is why the third item deserves a slow read. South Dakota ties the witnesses to the testator twice.

The witnesses sign in the testator's conscious presence. The statute does not give witnesses a window to sign later or somewhere else. Each witness puts a name on the will while the testator is present and aware.

What they witness also happens in that presence. A witness qualifies by watching the testator sign, or by watching the testator acknowledge the signature. A testator who signed earlier can still acknowledge that signature in front of the witnesses.

The statute asks nothing about the witnesses' presence with each other. Section 29A-2-502 does not say the two witnesses must watch each other sign. The self-proving affidavit, though, has both witnesses swear that each of them signed "in the presence and hearing of the testator." Anyone planning a self-proved will should have everyone sign at one sitting, because that is what the affidavit will say happened.

No Date, No Notary

Section 29A-2-502 does not ask for a date, and it does not ask for a notary. A notary or other officer who administers oaths appears only in the optional self-proving step covered below.

Proving What the Testator Meant

SDCL 29A-2-502(c) lets intent that a document is the testator's will be established by extrinsic evidence. For a holographic will, that evidence can include portions of the document that are not in the testator's handwriting, such as a printed form's preamble.

Who Can Witness a South Dakota Will

SDCL 29A-2-505 has two subsections.

  • (a) Competence. An individual generally competent to be a witness may act as a witness to a will. The section sets no minimum age.
  • (b) Interested witnesses. The signing of a will by an interested witness does not invalidate the will or any provision of it.

So a beneficiary who signs as a witness keeps the gift. Even so, two adult witnesses who inherit nothing take away the easiest undue-influence argument a relative can raise, and finding them costs little. What that argument looks like in court is covered in how a South Dakota will gets challenged.

Handwritten Wills Are Valid in South Dakota

SDCL 29A-2-502(a) recognizes holographic wills in one sentence. A will is valid as a holographic will, whether or not witnessed, if the signature and material portions of the document are in the testator's handwriting.

Three points decide whether a handwritten page qualifies.

  • The material portions must be handwritten. Who gets what has to be in the testator's own hand. Printed text elsewhere on the page does not sink the will.
  • The signature must be handwritten. A typed name does not satisfy the section.
  • No date, no witnesses, no notary. Section 29A-2-502(a) asks for none of them. Several websites say a South Dakota holographic will must be dated. The statute's test is the signature and the material portions.

That short list is also why these documents draw fights. Handwriting comparisons, missing pages and unclear wording produce litigation that a typed will signed before two witnesses avoids.

South Dakota Has a Harmless Error Rule

SDCL 29A-2-503 lets a court forgive a mistake in how a will was signed. A document that was not executed in compliance with 29A-2-502 is treated as if it had been, if the person offering it establishes by clear and convincing evidence that the decedent intended it to be one of four things:

  1. the decedent's will;
  2. a partial or complete revocation of the will;
  3. an addition to or an alteration of the will; or
  4. a partial or complete revival of a formerly revoked will or a revoked portion of it.

Let's break down what that means for a family. A typed will with one witness signature fails 29A-2-502, and 29A-2-503 gives the family a second route. That route runs through a court hearing and a high standard of proof, so it costs time and money. It is a safety net for a mistake, and a poor plan for signing.

Self-Proved Wills, and What They Buy

SDCL 29A-2-504 offers two routes to a self-proved will. Both run through an officer authorized to administer oaths, usually a notary, whose certificate goes under official seal.

  • At signing, under subsection (a). The testator acknowledges the will and the witnesses make affidavits at the same sitting where the will is signed. The statute prints the form.
  • Later, under subsection (b). An attested will can be made self-proved at any time after it is signed, with the certificate attached or annexed to the will. The statute prints that form too.

Subsection (c) adds a backstop. A signature on a self-proving affidavit attached to a will counts as a signature on the will, if that is needed to prove the will was properly signed.

The payoff arrives at probate. SDCL 29A-3-406(b) says that if a will is self-proved, compliance with the signature requirements is conclusively presumed, and the other requirements of execution are presumed subject to rebuttal, without the testimony of any witness, unless there is proof of fraud or forgery. Without the affidavit, 29A-3-406(a) requires the testimony of at least one attesting witness in a contested case, if one within the state is competent and able to testify. In an uncontested formal case, SDCL 29A-3-405 accepts the affidavit or testimony of one attesting witness, including a self-proving affidavit.

A self-proving affidavit is optional. A will signed correctly without one is still valid. It spares the family from tracking down a witness years later.

South Dakota Has No Electronic Will Statute

South Dakota has not adopted an electronic-will law. The will sections of chapter 29A-2 end at 29A-2-517, and nothing in the chapter mentions electronic execution. Two other statutes close the obvious side doors.

  • SDCL 53-12-3(1) says South Dakota's Uniform Electronic Transactions Act does not apply to a transaction governed by the Uniform Probate Code or other law governing the creation and execution of wills, codicils, or testamentary trusts.
  • SDCL 55-1A-35.1(1) lets the governing instrument of an express trust be executed electronically under chapter 53-12, but only a document "other than a will or codicil as defined in title 29A."

So plan on paper and ink. A will signed under another state's electronic-will law is a different question, covered next.

A Will Signed in Another State

SDCL 29A-2-506 keeps most out-of-state wills valid after a move. A written will is valid if it meets 29A-2-502 or 29A-2-503, or if its execution complies with the law, at the time of execution, of the place where it was executed, or of the place where the testator was domiciled, had a place of abode, or was a national, either at execution or at death.

A will signed under Minnesota or Nebraska rules does not need re-signing after a move to Sioux Falls. The section covers a "written will," so whether it reaches an electronic will made elsewhere is a question for a South Dakota attorney.

The Separate List for Personal Items

SDCL 29A-2-513 lets a will refer to a written statement or list that disposes of tangible personal property the will does not otherwise dispose of, other than money. The list has to be signed by the testator, and it has to describe the items and the people receiving them with reasonable certainty.

The list may be written before or after the will and changed later without re-signing the will. Furniture, jewelry, guns and tools fit. Cash does not, because the section excludes money by name.

Revoking or Changing a South Dakota Will

SDCL 29A-2-507(a) gives two methods.

  • A later will. A subsequent will can revoke the earlier one expressly or by inconsistency. Under 29A-2-507(c), a new will that disposes of the whole estate is presumed to replace the old one. Under 29A-2-507(d), a new will that disposes of only part is presumed to supplement it.
  • A revocatory act. Burning, tearing, canceling, obliterating or destroying the will or any part of it revokes it, if the testator did it with the intent to revoke, or another individual did it in the testator's conscious presence and by the testator's direction. The act counts whether or not it touched any of the words.

Divorce does part of the work automatically. SDCL 29A-2-804(b) says a divorce or annulment revokes revocable gifts to the former spouse and the former spouse's relatives, and their nominations as personal representative, trustee, conservator, agent or guardian, unless the will, a court order or a marital property contract says otherwise. A decree of separation that does not end the marriage is not a divorce for this purpose, and remarrying the former spouse revives the revoked provisions. Under 29A-2-508, no other change of circumstances revokes a will, apart from the homicide rule in 29A-2-803.

Reviving an old will takes care. Under 29A-2-509(a), if a second will that wholly revoked the first is itself revoked by a physical act, the first will comes back only if the circumstances or the testator's statements show the testator meant it to. If a third will revokes the second, 29A-2-509(c) revives the first only to the extent the third will's terms show that intent. The simplest fix is a new will.

Keeping the Original Safe

SDCL 29A-2-515 lets the testator or the testator's agent deposit a will with any court for safekeeping. The court keeps it sealed and confidential, and during the testator's lifetime it releases the will only to the testator or to a person the testator authorized in a signed writing. After the death, the court notifies any person designated to receive the will and delivers it on request, or sends it to the appropriate court.

The clerk of courts charges $2 for "safekeeping or filing of a will" under SDCL 16-2-29(6)(b). The Unified Judicial System's fee schedule, effective July 1, 2026, lists "Safekeeping and Filing of Wills" at $2.00 with no automation surcharge or law library fee.

After a Death: Getting the Will to Court

SDCL 29A-2-516 puts a duty on whoever holds the original. After the testator dies, and on request of an interested person, a person having custody of the will shall deliver it with reasonable promptness to an appropriate court or to a person able to secure its probate. A person who willfully fails to deliver it is liable to any person aggrieved for the damages that follow.

Next steps for the named personal representative are in South Dakota executor duties. A will is also only one document of several, and the financial and health care documents are covered in the rest of a South Dakota plan. Because a will does not avoid probate, that guide covers the trust, joint ownership and transfer-on-death options.

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Information current as of September 27, 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 South Dakota can change. Consult with a qualified attorney for advice specific to your situation. Full disclaimer.

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