Estate plan requirements

New York

Everything your estate plan needs to be valid in New York: execution requirements, the documents we generate, statutory citations, and the exact wording our generators insert.

Requirements at a glance

Document	Witnesses	Notary
Will	2 required	Recommended
Living trust	Required unless notarized	Required unless witnessed
Power of attorney	2 required	Required
Healthcare directive	2 required	Not required

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New York content last reviewed September 10, 2026.

News

Recent changes in New York

December 12, 2025E-Will

New York enacts Electronic Wills Act

Governor Hochul signed the Electronic Wills Act, codified at EPTL Article 3, Part 6 (§§3-6.1 to 3-6.9), and conformingly amending N.Y. State Technology Law §307 to except wills under Part 6 from the existing electronic-signature exclusion. The Act takes effect on December 12, 2027; a chapter amendment replaced the original 545-day clause with two years after enactment. Trusts, powers of attorney, and health care proxies remain excluded from electronic signatures.

Takes effect: December 12, 2027

L. 2025 (A7856-A / S7416-A)Source

Will

N.Y. EPTL §3-2.1

Witnesses: 2 required

Two attesting witnesses must sign within one 30-day period (EPTL §3-2.1(a)(4)). The testator must sign or acknowledge the will in the witnesses' presence (§3-2.1(a)(2)) and publish/declare to each witness that the instrument is the testator's will (§3-2.1(a)(3)); witnesses must affix their residence addresses at the end of the will (§3-2.1(a)(4)). Section 3-2.1(a)(4) also supplies a rebuttable presumption that the thirty-day requirement was fulfilled, and provides that a witness's failure to affix an address does not affect the validity of the will. Section 3-2.1(a)(4) does not itself require the witnesses to sign in the testator's presence, but the attestation clause the witnesses sign on this Will recites that they did, so sign in one sitting.

Notarization: Recommended

Not legally required, but recommended for self-proving affidavit

Holographic will: Not valid

New York does not recognize handwritten wills without witnesses

Self-proving affidavit: Available

New York's self-proving affidavit is made by the attesting witnesses, not by the testator. Under N.Y. SCPA §1406 any or all of the attesting witnesses may swear the affidavit before any officer authorized to administer oaths, at the testator's request, or after the testator's death at the request of the executor named in the will, the proponent, the proponent's attorney, or any person interested. The court accepts the sworn statement as though it had been taken before the court, unless a party entitled to process objects or the court requires that the witnesses be produced and examined. (EPTL §3-2.1 governs the formal execution of the will itself, including the requirement that witnesses affix their residence addresses at the end of the will.)

Executor bond waiver: Statutory phrasing required

New York requires explicit bond-waiver phrasing for it to bind the probate court. We insert the statutory wording.

State-specific notes

•In New York, a separate list of personal items written after you sign your will is not legally binding, so name each item and the person who gets it in the specific gifts section of your will before you sign.

•Holographic and nuncupative wills are valid only for armed-forces members in actual service during a war or armed conflict, persons serving with or accompanying such a force, and mariners at sea, and each expires by statute (EPTL §3-2.2)

•Note on family items if you leave a spouse or a child under 21: New York sets certain property off to your surviving spouse (or, if none, to your children under 21) ahead of any gift in this Will, including household furniture and appliances, housekeeping utensils, musical instruments, electronic and photographic devices, clothing, and jewelry not disposed of in the Will, up to $20,000 in aggregate value; family bibles, pictures, books and media up to $2,500; domestic and farm animals with sixty days of food, farm machinery, one tractor and one lawn tractor up to $20,000; one motor vehicle up to $25,000; and money and marketable securities up to $25,000 (EPTL §5-3.1(a)). If a specific gift in this Will names an item of that kind for someone other than your spouse, the spouse may take the item and the named recipient receives the payment made for it instead (EPTL §5-3.1(a)(4)). Leave such items to your spouse, or settle the point with your spouse in writing, before relying on a specific gift of household furniture.

•Note on a guardian's bond: a guardian nominated in this Will for a minor child's property may receive property that passes to the child under this Will without a bond where the Will waives it, but must give a bond in an amount the court fixes before receiving any other property (SCPA §1711(3)). Property reaching a child from the Trust, a beneficiary designation, or an account is outside the Will's waiver, so expect the court to require a bond for it.

ViewSelf-proving affidavit wording

Each of the undersigned, individually and severally, being duly sworn, deposes and says: The within will was subscribed at the end thereof by {testatorName}, the above named Testator, in our presence (or the Testator's signature was acknowledged to us as having been previously affixed), and at the same time the Testator published and declared the instrument to be their Last Will and Testament. We, at the request of the Testator, each signed our names as attesting witnesses thereto and affixed our residence addresses at the end of the Will, and our attestation of the Testator's signature and our signing of our names and residence addresses all took place within one thirty (30) day period, as N.Y. EPTL §3-2.1(a)(4) requires. The Testator was at that time 18 years of age or older, of sound mind and memory, and under no constraint or undue influence of any person, so far as we could determine.

ViewWitness disqualification / interested-witness rule

N.Y. EPTL §3-3.2: an attesting witness who also takes a beneficial disposition under the will is a competent witness, and the will remains valid; however the disposition to that witness is void unless there are at least two other disinterested attesting witnesses. Even with two other disinterested attesting witnesses, the disposition is void if the will cannot be proved without that witness's testimony (subparagraph (a)(2) of the same section). A witness whose disposition is void and who would be a distributee if the will were not established may take so much of the intestate share as does not exceed the value of the void disposition (recoverable from the residuary or, if the disposition passes in intestacy, ratably from the other distributees); a witness who would not be a distributee takes nothing (subparagraph (a)(3)).

Living Trust

Witnesses: Required unless notarized

Trust must be in writing and either acknowledged before a notary OR signed before two witnesses (EPTL 7-1.17)

Notarization: Required unless witnessed

The trust is signed either before a notary or before witnesses, as the conditional rule below states. Notarization is also needed to transfer real property.

Conditional execution: Special rule

acknowledgment before notary OR two witnesses

State-specific notes

•Unless the settlor is also the sole trustee, at least one trustee must execute the trust instrument in the same manner the settlor does, which is either acknowledged before a notary or signed in the presence of two witnesses who affix their signatures. A settlor using the two-witness path does not need a notary for the trustee either (EPTL 7-1.17)

•Both execution paths are equally valid. Acknowledgment (notary) is typically more convenient

•Signing the trust does not fund it. A lifetime trust is valid only as to the assets actually transferred to it, and a recital of assignment in the trust instrument does not accomplish the transfer. Where the creator is the sole trustee, registrable assets such as real estate, stocks, bonds and bank and brokerage accounts need the deed recorded or the registration completed in the name of the trust or trustee, and every other asset needs a written assignment describing it with particularity (EPTL 7-1.18)

Statutory Short Form Power of Attorney

N.Y. Gen. Oblig. Law §§5-1501B, 5-1513

Last verified: 2026-09

Witnesses: 2 required

New York requires 2 witnesses for power of attorney execution

Notarization: Required

Notarization is required for a valid durable power of attorney

Key features of New York POA

•14 power categories (A through N) defined in GOL §§5-1502A through 5-1502N, with individual initial-based selection on the §5-1513 form; the form's bracket (O) is a delegation grant and bracket (P) is a write-in shorthand, not separate substantive power categories

•Initialing (I) personal and family maintenance carries a narrow built-in gift power: continuing the gifts the principal customarily made, capped at $5,000 in the aggregate for all recipients in any one calendar year (GOL §5-1502I(14); §5-1513(f)(I)). Everything beyond that cap, gifts to the agent, and beneficiary-designation changes are 'hot powers' that must be written into the Modifications section

•2021 law change added 2-witness requirement; pre-2021 POAs without witnesses remain valid

•Agent must sign separate notarized acknowledgment; the power of attorney takes effect as to an agent on the date that agent's signature is acknowledged (GOL §5-1501B(3)(a))

State-specific notes

•Witnesses must be disinterested: they cannot be the agent or a permissible gift recipient under the Modifications section. The notary may serve as one of the two witnesses.

•The default gift power is narrow. Initialing (I) personal and family maintenance lets your agent continue the gifts you customarily made to individuals and charitable organizations before the power was created, and the total of all of those gifts in any one calendar year cannot exceed $5,000 for all recipients combined, not $5,000 each. A higher cap, a per-recipient cap, gifts to the agent, and changes to beneficiary designations each have to be written into the Modifications section; the separately executed Statutory Gifts Rider was eliminated by the 2021 reform (N.Y. Gen. Oblig. Law §5-1502I(14); §5-1513(f)(I), (g)).

•New York makes type size a validity condition: the power of attorney must be typed or printed in letters that are legible or of clear type no less than twelve point in size, or a reasonable equivalent if handwritten, so do not shrink it to fit (N.Y. Gen. Oblig. Law §5-1501B(1)(a)).

•Signing has three parts in New York, and all three are validity conditions. You sign, INITIAL and date the document, with your signature acknowledged before a notary and witnessed by two people not named in it (N.Y. Gen. Oblig. Law §5-1501B(1)(b)). Your agent then signs and dates it separately, with the agent's own signature acknowledged before a notary (§5-1501B(1)(c)). The date the agent's signature is acknowledged is the date this power of attorney takes effect as to that agent, so an agent who has not signed and been acknowledged cannot act yet, and where two agents must act together it takes effect only when all of them have signed and been acknowledged (§5-1501B(3)(a)). Your agent does not have to sign on the same day you do: a lapse of time between the two acknowledgments does not invalidate the document, and neither does your becoming incapacitated during that lapse (§5-1501B(1)(c)).

•2021 law change added the witness requirement; pre-2021 POAs without witnesses remain valid

ViewStatutory categories (16)

General categories: A. Real estate transactions B. Chattel and goods transactions C. Bond, share, and commodity transactions D. Banking transactions E. Business operating transactions F. Insurance transactions G. Estate transactions H. Claims and litigation I. Personal and family maintenance J. Benefits from governmental programs or civil or military service K. Financial matters related to health care; records, reports, and statements L. Retirement benefit transactions M. Tax matters N. All other matters O. Full and unqualified authority to my agent(s) to delegate any or all of the foregoing powers to any person or persons whom my agent(s) select P. EACH of the matters identified by the following letters ______

ViewModifications section wording

Under New York's 2021 POA reform (effective June 13, 2021), the separately executed Statutory Gifts Rider is eliminated. All modifications to the statutory powers above, including expanded gift authority, gifts to the agent, and changes to beneficiary designations, are made in this section and must be expressly authorized here to be effective. Default gift authority. The agent's default gift power lives in N.Y. Gen. Oblig. Law §5-1502I(14), and modifications to that authority are made in the statutory short form Modifications section under §5-1513. The 2021 POA reform (L. 2020, ch. 323) repealed the separately executed Statutory Gifts Rider (former §5-1514) and set the default gift cap at $5,000 aggregate per calendar year. The $5,000 figure is the AGGREGATE annual cap regardless of the number of donees; the 2021 reform did not tie the default cap to the IRC §2503(b) federal annual exclusion. Without an express modification below, and only if I grant my agent authority for personal and family maintenance, my agent's gift power is limited to continuing the gifts I customarily made to individuals and charitable organizations before this power of attorney was created, and to no more than $5,000 in the aggregate in any one calendar year. To grant my agent broader gift authority, including gifts up to the IRC §2503(b) annual exclusion per donee per calendar year, gifts to the agent(s) themselves, gift-splitting under IRC §2513, and changes to beneficiary designations on retirement plans, life insurance, and transfer-on-death accounts, I must grant it expressly in the modifications below. [ ] Expand the agent's annual gift authority from the $5,000-aggregate default to {cap} per donee per calendar year. (To track inflation automatically, the principal may write in 'IRC §2503(b) annual exclusion per donee'.) [ ] Authorize my agent(s) to make gifts of my property to themselves, individually or in trust, in such amounts and on such terms as the agent considers appropriate, subject to the applicable annual gift cap authorized above and the agent's fiduciary duties under N.Y. Gen. Oblig. Law §5-1505. (Under the 2021 POA reform, self-gifts must be expressly authorized in the statutory short form Modifications section under §5-1513; the separately executed Statutory Gifts Rider, former §5-1514, has been repealed.) [ ] Authorize my agent to change beneficiary designations on retirement plans, life insurance, and transfer-on-death accounts. [ ] Authorize my agent to access, manage, transfer, and dispose of my digital assets, including the contents of electronic communications, online accounts, cryptocurrency, and digital files, pursuant to N.Y. EPTL Article 13-A. This authorization serves as my lawful consent under 18 U.S.C. §2702 and analogous state law for custodians to disclose to my agent the contents of my electronic communications.

ViewWitness disqualification recital

I am not named herein as an agent or as a permissible recipient of gifts (N.Y. Gen. Oblig. Law §5-1501B(1)(b)).

Health Care Proxy

N.Y. Pub. Health Law §2981 (within Article 29-C, §§2980-2994)

Witnesses: 2 required

Two witnesses required. N.Y. Pub. Health Law §2981(2)(a)

Notarization: Not required

Notarization is not required but may be accepted

State-specific notes

•Witnesses cannot be the agent. PHL §2981(2)(a)

•The health care proxy may NOT be executed on the same form or writing as a power of attorney. PHL §2981(5)(e) (the statute prohibits combination but does not expressly state the invalidation consequence for post-1991 combined writings; the savings clause in §2981(5)(e) protects only delegations executed before Article 29-C's 1991 enactment, so a post-1991 combined writing risks invalidating the proxy).

•Audio-video remote witnessing is allowed (PHL §2981(2-a): photo ID display if not personally known, real-time A/V interaction, 24-hour transmission, remote-witness signature on transmitted copy).

•Say what you want about artificial nutrition and hydration. Under the statutory Health Care Proxy form at PHL §2981, your agent has no authority to decide about artificial nutrition and hydration unless your agent knows your wishes about it. Mark the artificial nutrition and hydration line in the Health Care Instructions section, or write your wishes into Additional Instructions, and talk it through with your agent. Leaving that line to your agent's discretion is the one choice that does not give your agent authority.

•Who you may not name as your agent. If you are a patient or resident of, or have applied for admission to, a hospital, and article 29-C counts a nursing home, a mental hygiene facility and a hospice as a hospital, you may not name an operator, administrator or employee of that facility as your health care agent unless that person is related to you by blood, marriage or adoption. A physician, physician assistant or nurse practitioner may be named, but must decline the appointment if they want to go on acting as your attending practitioner, and a physician or nurse practitioner affiliated with a mental hygiene facility or a psychiatric unit of a general hospital may not serve for a principal residing in or treated by that facility or unit unless related to you. Anyone who is not your spouse, child, parent, brother, sister or grandparent, or the issue or spouse of one of those, may not be named if they already serve as health care agent for ten principals (N.Y. Pub. Health Law §2981(3); §2980(9)).

•Extra witness rules apply if you live in a mental hygiene facility. If the facility is operated or licensed by the Office of Mental Health, at least one witness must be unaffiliated with the facility, and if that facility is also a hospital as defined by the Mental Hygiene Law (§1.03), at least one witness must be a qualified psychiatrist or psychiatric nurse practitioner (PHL §2981). If the facility is operated or licensed by the Office for People With Developmental Disabilities, at least one witness must be unaffiliated and at least one must be a physician, nurse practitioner, physician assistant, or clinical psychologist meeting the statute's criteria (PHL §2981).

ViewForm section list (6)

1. Designation of Health Care Agent 2. Additional Instructions 3. Health Care Instructions (life-sustaining treatment, artificial nutrition and hydration, CPR) 4. Organ Donation 5. HIPAA Authorization (Will.com add-on; not part of PHL §2981 statutory form) 6. Duration

ViewWitness disqualification recital

N.Y. Pub. Health Law §2981(2)(a): the health care proxy must be signed and dated by the principal in the presence of two adult witnesses, who must also sign and must state that the principal appeared to execute the proxy willingly and free from duress. The person appointed as agent may not act as a witness. Under §2981(2)(b), for a principal residing in a mental hygiene facility operated or licensed by the Office of Mental Health, at least one witness must be an individual not affiliated with the facility, and where that facility is also a hospital as defined in Mental Hygiene Law §1.03(10), at least one witness must be a qualified psychiatrist or psychiatric nurse practitioner.

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6 more documents with a subscription

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Appointment of Agent to Control Disposition of Remains

Names the agent who controls funeral, burial, or cremation decisions, with optional preferences.

In this state: New York recognizes a statutory Appointment of Agent to Control Disposition of Remains; we follow that form. (N.Y. Pub. Health Law §4201)

HIPAA Authorization

Stand-alone PHI release that survives death for the period you specify, separate from the in-life authorization in your healthcare directive. The free packet includes it too whenever it has a healthcare directive.

In this state: Cites N.Y. Mental Hygiene Law §33.13 for the clinical records of facilities and providers of the Office of Mental Health or the Office for People With Developmental Disabilities, and Public Health Law Article 27-F for HIV-related information, including the §2780(9) dual-purpose statement a general authorization needs before it reaches that information and the §2782(5)(a) prohibition-on-redisclosure notice. The 42 CFR Part 2 carve-out in Section III governs federally protected substance-use-disorder program records; releasing those takes a consent meeting 42 CFR §2.31.

Designation of Guardian (Article 81)

Pre-designates the person you want a court to appoint as guardian under Article 81 of the New York Mental Hygiene Law (M.H.L. §81.17) if a guardianship is ever needed.

Business Succession Declaration

Identifies your interests in any closely-held businesses and how they should be transferred or wound down.

Real-Estate Retitling Checklist

Step-by-step instructions for transferring real-property deeds into your trust so the trust actually controls those assets.

Letter of Instruction

Non-binding personal note to your executor and family: where to find documents, account access, funeral wishes, and other practical guidance.

Free vs. paid

	Free	Paid
All 4 state-specific documents	Included in free	Included in paid tier
State-specific signing guide	Included in free	Included in paid tier
Download as PDF, print forever	Included in free	Included in paid tier
Secure online storage	Not in free	Included in paid tier
Covers real estate, business, digital, and funeral wishes	Not in free	Included in paid tier
Disposition of remains authorization	Not in free	Included in paid tier
Standalone HIPAA authorization	Not in free	Included in paid tier
Nomination of conservator	Not in free	Included in paid tier
Business succession declaration	Not in free	Included in paid tier
Real-estate retitling checklist	Not in free	Included in paid tier
Special needs trust provisions	Not in free	Included in paid tier
Letter of instruction, pre-filled and editable	Not in free	Included in paid tier
Edit anytime	Not in free	Included in paid tier
Annual review reminder	Not in free	Included in paid tier

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Electronic will status

New York has enacted electronic will legislation (2025), but the law is not yet operative.

The law takes effect on December 12, 2027. Until then, a traditional paper will with physical signatures is required.

Digital assets access

New York has adopted RUFADAA (2016). This is the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, which lets your executor, trustee, or agent access your email, social media, cryptocurrency wallets, cloud storage, and other digital accounts after death or incapacity.

To take advantage of RUFADAA, your will, trust, or power of attorney must explicitly grant authority to access digital assets. Without explicit authorization, service providers can deny access even to a court-appointed executor.

Remote online notarization (RON)

New York authorized RON in 2021. The law took effect on February 1, 2023. Exec. Law §135-c authorizes electronic notarization. Enacted as L. 2021 ch. 767 (S.1780-C), signed 2021-12-22, with the statute becoming operative 2023-02-01 upon completion of the Department of State's implementing regulations. State Technology Law §307 (ESRA) excludes from electronic signatures any document providing for the disposition of a person or property upon death or incompetence, or appointing a fiduciary of a person or property, naming wills, trusts, decisions consenting to orders not to resuscitate, and powers of attorney; a health care proxy is not named in §307 but falls within that general description. The 2025 Electronic Wills Act amends §307 to except wills under EPTL Part 6 starting on the Act's operative date. L. 2026 ch. 89 (S.8887 / A.9497) reset that operative date to 2027-12-12. Trusts, POAs, and HCPs remain excluded.

Will

Not allowed

Trust

Not allowed

POA

Not allowed

Remote online witnessing (ROW)

New York allows remote online witnessing for some estate planning documents. Witnesses can observe your signing over a live video call instead of being physically present. PHL §2981(2-a) authorizes audio-video witnessing of the health care proxy (ID verification, real-time interaction, 24-hour transmission, remote-witness signature on returned copy). ROW for wills, trusts, and POAs is not authorized.

Will

Not allowed

Trust

Not allowed

POA

Not allowed

HC Directive

Allowed

This information is general in nature and not legal advice. Laws change. Consult a licensed estate planning attorney in New York for guidance specific to your situation.

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