Pennsylvania 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 Pennsylvania 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
- 18
- Witnesses required at signing
- None required
- Notary required to make the will valid
- No
- Self-proving affidavit
- Statutory form
- Handwritten (holographic) wills
- Recognised
- Electronic wills
- Not authorised
- Small-estate threshold
- $50,000
20 Pa.C.S. §2502
This is correct and it is the most misread cell in the table. §2502 states the general rule in full — 'Every will shall be in writing and shall be signed by the testator at the end thereof' — and imposes no witness requirement at all. Witnesses appear only in the exceptions for a testator who signs by mark or has another sign for them. Pennsylvania repealed its witnesses section (§2504) outright. What gets mistaken for an execution requirement is §3132, which is about PROBATE: a will is proved by the oaths of two competent witnesses who can identify the testator's signature, and subscribing witnesses are merely preferred where readily available.
20 Pa.C.S. §2502
Notarisation is about making a will self-proving, which saves witnesses a trip to court later. It is not what makes the will valid.
20 Pa.C.S. §2502
§3132.1 supplies an acknowledgment and affidavit form. Note that self-proof is unavailable where the will was signed by mark or signed by another person on the testator's behalf.
20 Pa.C.S. §3132.1
Pennsylvania has no holographic-will statute at all. A handwritten, unwitnessed will is valid because §2502's general requirement — writing, signed at the end — is the whole requirement, so nothing more is needed. Validity follows from the witness rule rather than from a separate provision.
20 Pa.C.S. §2502 (no separate holographic provision)
No electronic wills act was found in Title 20.
Gross value not exceeding $50,000, exclusive of real estate and of payments made under §3101, and including personalty claimed as the family exemption.
20 Pa.C.S. §3102
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 Pennsylvania answers it properly.
Compare against every verified state, or see which states allow electronic wills.
Verified 2026-08-02 against 20 Pa.C.S. §§2501, 2502, 2504.1 (execution), §3132.1 (self-proving), §3132 (probate), §3102 (settlement of small estates) (effective 1976-06-24)
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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