SC Senate Bill 143

Senate Bill 143 is a large bill that revises the probate laws of South Carolina. In the small part of the bill that is relevant to South Carolina and other Notaries, the bill clarifies that while a will is not required to be notarized, a will that is notarized is granted a presumption in court that the requirements for execution of the will were satisfied upon filing the will. This means that the parties bringing the will do not have to prove due execution of the will in order to enter it into probate. Of course, once the notarized will is entered into probate, the presumption that it was properly executed can be rebutted. A “self-proved” will is a will into which an affidavit has been incorporated, signed by the testator, the witnesses and a Notary, declaring the due execution of the will, the testamentary capacity of the testator and the absence of undue influence worked upon the testator. Probate of a self-proved will is freed of the requirement of producing the available testimony of such witnesses to the due execution of the will, as otherwise required by the South Carolina Code as to formal testacy proceedings. Bills such as SB 143 are important since they remind Notaries that it is possible that they may be asked to notarize wills or self-proving affidavits to wills, and that the notarization process is valuable when properly performed upon the documents.