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## § 64.2-452 – How will may be made self-proved; affidavits of witnesses

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A will, at the time of its execution or at any subsequent date, may be made self-proved by the acknowledgment thereof by the testator and the affidavits of the attesting witnesses, each made before an officer authorized to administer oaths under the laws of the Commonwealth or the laws of the state where acknowledgment occurred, or before an officer of the foreign service of the United States, a consular agent, or any other person authorized by regulation of the United States Department of State to perform notarial acts in the place in which the act is performed, and evidenced by the officer’s certificate, attached or annexed to the will. The officer’s certificate shall be substantially as follows in form and content:

STATE OF VIRGINIA

COUNTY/CITY OF _____________________

Before me, the undersigned authority, on this day personally appeared _____________________, _____________________, and _____________________, known to me to be the testator and the witnesses, respectively, whose names are signed to the attached or foregoing instrument and, all of these persons being by me first duly sworn, _____________________, the testator, declared to me and to the witnesses in my presence that said instrument is his last will and testament and that he had willingly signed or directed another to sign the same for him, and executed it in the presence of said witnesses as his free and voluntary act for the purposes therein expressed; that said witnesses stated before me that the foregoing will was executed and acknowledged by the testator as his last will and testament in the presence of said witnesses who, in his presence and at his request, and in the presence of each other, did subscribe their names thereto as attesting witnesses on the day of the date of said will, and that the testator, at the time of the execution of said will, was over the age of eighteen years and of sound and disposing mind and memory.

________________________________________Testator

________________________________________Witness

________________________________________Witness

Subscribed, sworn and acknowledged before me by_____________________, the testator, and subscribed and sworn before me by_____________________ and _____________________, witnesses, this __________ day of _______________, A.D., __________.

SIGNED ________________________________________

________________________________________(OFFICIAL CAPACITY OF OFFICER)

The affidavits of any such witnesses taken as provided by this section, whenever made, shall be accepted by the court as if it had been taken ore tenus before such court, notwithstanding that the officer did not attach or affix his official seal thereto. Any codicil that is self-proved under the provisions of this section that, by its terms, expressly confirms, ratifies, and republishes a will except as altered by the codicil shall have the effect of self-proving the will whether or not the will was so executed originally.