No, Maryland does not require a will to be notarized for it to be legally valid. A will in Maryland is valid when it is in writing, signed by you, and witnessed by two credible people, with no notary involved.1Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Estates and Trusts 4-102 – Writing; Signature; Attestation Notarization only becomes part of the picture in two situations: when you choose to attach an optional self-proving affidavit to make probate easier, and when you execute the will electronically or with remote witnesses, where a notarized affidavit is actually required.
What Maryland Actually Requires for a Valid Will
You must be at least 18 years old and legally competent to make a will in Maryland. Competence means you understand what you own, who your family and beneficiaries are, and what the will does with your assets.1Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Estates and Trusts 4-102 – Writing; Signature; Attestation
Beyond that, Section 4-102 of the Estates and Trusts Code sets three formal requirements:
- The will must be in writing. Maryland does not recognize oral wills.
- You must sign it yourself. If a physical limitation prevents that, another person can sign for you, but only in your presence and at your explicit direction.
- Two or more credible witnesses must watch you sign (or watch you acknowledge your signature) and then sign the will themselves in your presence.
Those rules apply whether the will is typed, printed, or handwritten.1Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Estates and Trusts 4-102 – Writing; Signature; Attestation Meet all three and the will is enforceable. A notary stamp adds nothing to that basic validity.
When a Notary Does Come Into Play
Notarization matters in Maryland through a separate, optional document called a self-proving affidavit. It is a sworn statement, signed by you and your two witnesses in front of a notary, that confirms everyone followed the required formalities when the will was signed.1Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Estates and Trusts 4-102 – Writing; Signature; Attestation The affidavit is not the will. It travels with the will as an attached document.
For a standard in-person will, the affidavit is entirely optional. You can skip it and your will remains valid. For an electronic will or a will witnessed through audio-visual technology, the rules are different: a notarized self-proving affidavit is part of the required execution process, so in that scenario the answer effectively becomes yes, notarization is required.
Electronic and Remotely Witnessed Wills
Since October 2021, Maryland has permitted wills to be witnessed remotely through real-time audio-visual communication and signed with electronic signatures. The statute treats “electronic presence” as the equivalent of being physically together.2Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Estates and Trusts 4-101 A licensed Maryland attorney must supervise the whole process.
Under those rules, you and your witnesses must swear before a notary (who can also participate remotely) that the formalities were observed, and that notarized affidavit is required for the will to be properly executed.1Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Estates and Trusts 4-102 – Writing; Signature; Attestation If you sign in person with witnesses in the room, you can decide whether to add the affidavit. If you sign electronically with remote witnesses, the notary is built in.
Why Most People Should Notarize Anyway
Even though the law does not require it, attaching a self-proving affidavit to a traditional will is usually worth doing. The reason shows up at probate.
When the court receives a will with a self-proving affidavit, the document is accepted on its face as properly executed. Without the affidavit, your executor may have to track down the original witnesses and have them confirm, under oath, that they watched you sign. That is manageable the year after you sign your will. It gets harder every year after that, as witnesses move, lose capacity, or die. The affidavit costs nothing beyond the notary fee at signing and removes a step your family would otherwise have to complete during probate.
If you work with an attorney to draft the will, the self-proving affidavit is almost always prepared and signed in the same meeting. If you draft the will yourself, you can bring it, your two witnesses, and the affidavit form to a notary and have all three signatures notarized together.
Who Can Serve as Your Witnesses
Because witnesses, not notaries, give a Maryland will its legal weight, who you pick matters. The statute calls for “credible” witnesses, which the Maryland Register of Wills reads as people who are at least 18 and legally competent.3Register of Wills. Facts About Wills They need to understand what they are watching and be able to confirm it later if asked.
A beneficiary named in the will can technically witness it, and doing so will not automatically invalidate the document. It does create a conflict of interest that invites challenges. If the will is contested and the witness-beneficiary’s testimony is needed to prove proper execution, that person can forfeit any portion of their inheritance that exceeds what they would have received under Maryland’s intestacy rules. The cleaner choice is two witnesses who have no financial interest in your estate: a neighbor, a coworker, or a friend who is not named in the will.
If Your Will Was Signed Outside Maryland
A will you signed in another state is recognized in Maryland as long as it was in writing, signed by you (or signed for you in your presence and at your direction), and executed under any one of three legal standards: Maryland’s own requirements, the law of your home state at the time, or the law of the place where you were physically located when you signed.4Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Estates and Trusts 4-104
So an out-of-state will that was properly notarized under its home state’s rules does not stop working when you move to Maryland. The notarization is neither required nor harmful here; what matters is that the will met the signing and witnessing rules somewhere. If you have moved to Maryland with an existing will, it is worth having an attorney check that the document, including any self-proving affidavit, will work smoothly in Maryland probate.