Self-Proving Affidavit for Wills Requirements in Arkansas

At a glance

Requirements one by one

Availability and governing law

Arkansas Code § 28-25-106 authorizes an affidavit from an attesting witness. It is best understood as a way to preserve each witness's probate testimony, not as the UPC-style acknowledgment in which the testator and both witnesses jointly make the will “self-proved.” The ordinary proof rules in § 28-40-117 continue to determine how many witness proofs the court needs.

Who signs or swears

Any attesting witness may make and sign an individual affidavit. The testator does not acknowledge, swear, or sign under § 28-25-106. Because § 28-40-117 ordinarily requires testimony from at least two available attesting witnesses, an affidavit from each available witness is normally needed if the proponent wants to replace both live appearances.

When it may be made

The timing rule is unusually broad. A witness may sign at any time on the witness's own initiative, at the testator's request, or after the testator's death at the request of the executor or any other interested person. Arkansas therefore does not require the affidavit to be completed at the will-signing ceremony or during the testator's lifetime.

Officer, oath and seal

The witness signs before any officer authorized to administer oaths in Arkansas or another state. The statute does not limit the office to a notary and does not state a separate seal or certificate requirement. If the affidavit cannot be written on the will, however, the oath officer has the statutory duty to secure the attachment.

Required recitals and form

Arkansas supplies no affidavit form and no “substantially as follows” block. The functional standard is that the witness state the facts the witness would have to give in an uncontested probate. For an ordinary attested will, the execution statute addresses the testator's declaration and signing or acknowledgment, the signature at the end, the two witnesses' presence, and the witnesses' signing at the testator's request and in the testator's presence.

Attachment to the will

The affidavit must be written on the will. If that is impracticable, the officer administering the oath must securely affix it either to the will or to a true copy of the will. This true-copy option and the officer's personal attachment duty are both express statutory details; merely keeping a loose affidavit in the same file is not the stated route.

Electronic, remote and out-of-state rules

Section 28-25-106 expressly allows an oath officer in another state. It does not create electronic-will, electronic-affidavit, or remote-appearance rules, and the ordinary execution provision speaks in terms of signatures and acts in the presence of two attesting witnesses. The cited sections also state no blanket rule that an affidavit made under another state's self-proof law automatically gets Arkansas's probate effect.

Probate effect and exceptions

If probate is uncontested, the circuit court may accept the affidavit with the same effect as if that witness testified before the court. “May” makes the shortcut discretionary, and “the witness” means each affidavit substitutes for the testimony of its own signer. Section 28-25-106 does not make the affidavit conclusive, does not govern a contested probate, and does not reduce § 28-40-117's ordinary two-available-witness proof requirement.

If there is no affidavit

If at least two attesting witnesses are living at known continental-United- States addresses and capable of testifying, § 28-40-117 calls for testimony from at least two. If one or neither is available, or reasonable diligence cannot procure two, at least two credible disinterested witnesses may establish the will by proving the testator's handwriting and the other required facts and circumstances, including unavailable witnesses' handwriting, together with any attesting witness whose testimony can be obtained through due diligence.

What trips people up

One witness may make an affidavit, but one affidavit is not always enough

Section 28-25-106 authorizes “any attesting witness” to preserve testimony. Section 28-40-117 separately requires at least two available attesting witnesses to prove an ordinary attested will. Read together, they let each witness use an affidavit; they do not erase the second-witness proof requirement.

The officer must make the secure attachment

When writing on the will is impracticable, Arkansas does not merely say the affidavit may be attached. It says the officer administering the oath shall securely affix it to the will or a true copy.

Common questions

Can an Arkansas witness sign the affidavit after the testator dies?

Yes. The executor or any other interested person may request it after death. The witness also may make it earlier on the witness's own initiative or at the testator's request.

Does the Arkansas testator sign the proof affidavit?

No. Section 28-25-106 authorizes an attesting witness to make and sign it. The testator is not part of the statutory affidavit signer set.

Statutes and sources

• Ark. Code Ann. § 28-25-106 — witness-only affidavit, any-time and post-death timing, out-of-state oath officer, attachment, and uncontested effect: official Arkansas Judiciary Probate Benchbook (accessed 2026-08-01)
• Ark. Code Ann. § 28-40-117 — ordinary two-witness proof and the unavailable-witness route: official Arkansas Judiciary Probate Benchbook (accessed 2026-08-01)
• Ark. Code Ann. § 28-25-103 — execution facts that an attesting witness may need to establish: official Arkansas Judiciary Probate Benchbook (accessed 2026-08-01)