Louisiana Will Requirements
What each state’s probate code requires to execute a valid will: the minimum age, how many witnesses must sign, whether a notary is needed, whether handwritten wills count, and where electronic wills are authorised. Sortable, every cell cited to the statute and dated when it was read.
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Estimate only — not legal advice. This is the published math for Louisiana will execution requirements, shown as a range. Your actual outcome depends on facts, evidence, and decisions this page cannot see.
- Minimum age to make a will
- 16
- Witnesses required at signing
- 2
- Notary required to make the will valid
- Yes
- Self-proving affidavit
- Statutory form
- Handwritten (holographic) wills
- Recognised
- Electronic wills
- Not authorised
- Small-estate threshold
- $125,000
A minor who has attained 16 may make a donation mortis causa. The exception runs downward rather than upward: a minor UNDER 16 may still donate mortis causa in favour of a spouse or children.
La. Civ. Code art. 1576 (as amended by Acts 2025, No. 30)
Two witnesses plus a notary, for the notarial testament. A person cannot witness a testament if insane, blind, under the age of sixteen, or unable to sign their name. A witness or notary who is also a legatee does not invalidate the testament, but the legacy to them fails.
La. Civ. Code art. 1576 (as amended by Acts 2025, No. 30)
True of the notarial testament, which must be executed before a notary in the presence of two witnesses. It is NOT true of every valid Louisiana will: art. 1574 recognises two forms, and the olographic testament requires neither a notary nor witnesses.
La. Civ. Code art. 1576 (as amended by Acts 2025, No. 30)
C.C.P. art. 2887, added by Acts 2025 No. 30, supplies declarations that remove the need to prove a notarial testament — either within the testament itself or by an affidavit attached afterwards.
La. Code Civ. Proc. art. 2887
Called an olographic testament: entirely written, dated and signed in the testator's handwriting, and subject to no other requirement as to form. The 2025 act loosened this — the signature may now appear anywhere rather than at the end, and the date may appear anywhere and be clarified by extrinsic evidence.
La. Civ. Code art. 1575
Art. 1574 admits only two forms of testament, both requiring either handwriting or a physical notarial ceremony, and La. R.S. 9:2603(B) excludes the law governing creation and execution of wills from the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act.
Gross value of $125,000 or less, or any value where the death occurred at least twenty years before the affidavit.
La. Code Civ. Proc. art. 3421
These are execution requirements — what the probate code says a will must satisfy to be valid. They are not instructions for writing one, and this page does not tell you whether a will or a trust fits your situation. If you want to think that question through, the will-vs-trust quiz shows its reasoning, and an estate attorney licensed in Louisiana answers it properly.
Compare against every verified state, or see which states allow electronic wills.
Verified 2026-08-02 against Louisiana Civil Code arts. 1476, 1574, 1575, 1576, 1581 and 1582, and Code of Civil Procedure arts. 2887 and 3421, as amended by Acts 2025, No. 30 (effective 2025-08-01)
Source of record
🎓 Understand this tool
What it is
A state-by-state table of what a probate code requires for a will to be validly executed: minimum age, witnesses, notarisation, self-proving affidavits, handwritten wills and electronic wills. It reports requirements. It does not explain how to write a will and does not supply language.
How it works
Each cell is transcribed from the state’s own probate code and carries that citation, plus the date someone read it. The categories are the ones states actually legislate on. Witness counts are near-universal at two, with Pennsylvania the outlier at none for validity. Notarisation is widely misunderstood: in almost every state it makes a will self-proving — meaning it can be admitted without tracking witnesses down years later — rather than making it valid. Louisiana is the exception, requiring a notary and two witnesses to execute. Roughly half of states recognise holographic wills, handwritten and unwitnessed, and a few recognise them only for armed-forces members.
Getting the most from it
- Find your state. Every figure links the statute it came from, so you can read the provision yourself.
- Read the witness row carefully — “none required” is a real answer where it appears, not missing data.
- Check the electronic column against the tracker, which separates statutes in force from statutes enacted with a future start date.
- Note the small-estate threshold if your state publishes one. It is the figure that decides whether full probate is likely to be involved at all.
Reading your result
These are execution requirements — the conditions a will must satisfy to be valid. Meeting them does not make a will a good one, does not mean it says what you intend, and does not resolve how an estate should be arranged. Requirements also change: a legislature can amend an execution rule or start an electronic wills act, which is why every cell carries the date it was verified.
What it can't tell you
This cannot draft a will, review one, tell you whether yours is valid, or tell you whether a will or a trust suits your situation. It does not cover revocation, amendment, undue influence, capacity disputes, or what happens when a will is contested. An estate attorney licensed in your state answers all of that.
Frequently asked questions
Two in almost every state, signing in the testator’s presence. Pennsylvania is the notable exception: a will can be valid there without witnesses at execution, and witnesses matter instead when the will is offered for probate. The table shows each state’s figure with the statute beside it.
Related calculators
Electronic Wills
Which states authorise electronic wills, which have passed an act that has not started yet, and which authorise nothing. The distinction matters: a post-dated statute is not law today, and signing under one before its operative date relies on a rule that has not begun.
Will vs Trust
Seven questions covering the factors estate planners commonly treat as reasons to look past a simple will — property in two states, a business, incapacity planning, contest exposure. It shows its scoring as you answer and cites your state’s small-estate threshold rather than hiding the reasoning.
Change alerts — when a state revises the guideline or deadline behind this page
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