Texas 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.
Your data never leaves your device Learn more
Estimate only — not legal advice. This is the published math for Texas 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
- 2
- Notary required to make the will valid
- No
- Self-proving affidavit
- Statutory form
- Handwritten (holographic) wills
- Recognised
- Electronic wills
- Not authorised
- Small-estate threshold
- $75,000
Or the testator is or has been married, or is a member of the armed forces of the United States, an auxiliary of those forces, or the United States Maritime Service.
Tex. Est. Code §251.051
Two or more credible witnesses who are at least 14 years of age, subscribing their names in their own handwriting in the testator's presence. Texas is unusual in stating a minimum witness age. A bequest to a witness is void unless corroborated by at least one disinterested credible person, though the witness may still take up to their intestate share.
Tex. Est. Code §251.051
Notarisation is about making a will self-proving, which saves witnesses a trip to court later. It is not what makes the will valid.
Tex. Est. Code §251.051
The statute supplies the affidavit form in full. Texas also allows the will and the self-proving affidavit to be executed simultaneously as one combined instrument (§251.1045), and uniquely allows a holographic will to be made self-proved by the testator's own affidavit (§251.107).
Tex. Est. Code §§251.101-251.107
A will written wholly in the testator's handwriting is not required to be attested by subscribing witnesses.
Tex. Est. Code §251.052
The word 'electronic' does not appear anywhere in the wills subtitle (Estates Code chapters 251-258). Business & Commerce Code §322.003(b)(1) excludes the law governing creation and execution of wills, codicils and testamentary trusts from the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act, and §251.051(3) requires witnesses to subscribe in their own handwriting.
Careful: the $75,000 small estate affidavit is available only where the decedent died INTESTATE, so it does not apply to an estate that has a will. A testate Texas estate instead uses muniment of title under chapter 257, which has no dollar cap at all. Treating $75,000 as Texas's simplified-probate ceiling in a will context would be misleading.
Tex. Est. Code §205.001(3); cf. ch. 257 (muniment of title)
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 Texas answers it properly.
Compare against every verified state, or see which states allow electronic wills.
Verified 2026-08-02 against Texas Estates Code, Chapters 251 (execution), 254 (interested witnesses), 205 (small estate affidavit) and 257 (muniment of title) (effective 2014-01-01)
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
One email when the numbers change. Double opt-in, no spam, unsubscribe anytime.