Self-Proving Affidavit for Wills Requirements in Florida

At a glance

Requirements one by one

Availability and governing law

Florida's self-proof mechanism sits in Probate Code § 732.503 and applies to any "will or codicil executed in conformity with s. 732.502" — that is, to an already-valid will. The affidavit adds nothing to validity and takes nothing away from it; a codicil qualifies on the same terms because § 732.502(5) requires a codicil to be executed with the same formalities as a will. Electronic wills get their own, stricter self-proof section at § 732.523.

Who signs or swears

Three people, doing two different things. The testator acknowledges the instrument — declaring to the officer and to the subscribing witnesses "that I signed this instrument as my will." The two attesting witnesses swear, on oath, that the testator declared the instrument to be the testator's will, signed it in their presence, and that each of them signed as a witness in the presence of the testator and of each other.

Florida offers no variations on that set. There is no attorney-certification route, and no one other than the testator and the witnesses can supply the affidavit — a point that matters most after a death, as the timing section explains.

When it may be made

Section 732.503(1) is generous: the will "may be made self-proved at the time of its execution or at any subsequent date." A will signed twenty years ago can be made self-proved next week, provided the testator and both witnesses are available to appear before the officer together.

The statute sets no expiration and no waiting period. What it does not supply is any route after the testator's death — the affidavit requires the testator's own acknowledgment, so death closes the door permanently.

Officer, oath and seal

Any "officer authorized to administer oaths" may take the acknowledgment and the affidavits; a Florida notary public is the usual choice, but the statute is written to the function, not the title. The officer's role is not passive. Section 732.503(1) requires the self-proof to be "evidenced by the officer's certificate attached to or following the will," and the statutory form closes with a signature line plus the instruction to "(Print, type, or stamp commissioned name and affix official seal)." The certificate also records how each person appeared and how each was identified.

Required recitals and form

The form is set out in the statute, and compliance is measured by whether the affidavit is "in substantially the following form" — so wording may vary, but the substance may not. The recitals that carry the weight are the witnesses': that the testator declared the instrument to be the testator's will, that the testator signed it in their presence, and that they each signed as a witness in the presence of the testator and of each other. Those three facts track § 732.502's execution requirements one for one, which is exactly why the affidavit substitutes for the witnesses' live testimony.

Notice what the Florida form does not ask anyone to swear to: the testator's age, soundness of mind, or freedom from constraint. Several states put those recitals in their form. Florida does not, and an affidavit that recites them is not thereby better — it is simply reciting facts the affidavit was never designed to prove.

Attachment to the will

The officer's certificate must be "attached to or following the will." Either placement satisfies the statute — the affidavit may be the last page of the instrument itself or a separate sheet attached to it. For an electronic will, § 732.523(1) restates the same idea in electronic-records language: the acknowledgment and affidavits must be "part of the electronic record containing the electronic will, or ... attached to, or ... logically associated with" it.

Electronic, remote and out-of-state

Florida is unusually built-out here, and the three questions have three different answers.

Remote notarization is expressly permitted. The § 732.503 form itself contains the election "☐ physical presence or ☐ online notarization," so this is not an inference from general notary law — it is on the face of the will statute. Section 732.522(2) supplies the machinery: witnesses may be present and sign electronically by audio-video communication technology if they are supervised by a notary under § 117.285, are authenticated as part of an online notarization session under § 117.265, and each witness hears the signer acknowledge having signed the record.

An electronic will needs more than the affidavit. Under § 732.523, the acknowledgment and affidavits must be made in accordance with § 732.503 and the will must designate a qualified custodian, the electronic record must stay in a qualified custodian's custody at all times before it is offered for probate, and the custodian holding it at the testator's death must certify under oath that the chain held and "that the electronic will has not been altered in any way since the date of its execution." A qualified custodian must be a Florida resident or a Florida-based entity and must keep the will, the associated records, and the online-notarization records in a secure system (§ 732.524(1)–(2)(a)).

Self-proof from elsewhere carries over. Section 732.503(2) recognizes a will or codicil "made self-proved under former law, or executed in another state and made self-proved under the laws of that state." A will properly self-proved in Georgia or New York does not have to be redone after a move to Florida.

Probate effect and exceptions

The payoff is stated in one line of § 733.201(1): "Self-proved wills executed in accordance with this code may be admitted to probate without further proof." The witnesses are not summoned, no oath is taken at the courthouse, and the will goes in.

The same subsection carries the one express exception, and it applies only to electronic wills: a purportedly self-proved electronic will may be admitted only through the ordinary § 733.201(2)–(3) routes "if the execution of such electronic will, or the acknowledgment by the testator and the affidavits of the witnesses, involves an online notarization in which there was a substantial failure to comply with the procedures set forth in s. 117.265." The will is not void; it simply loses the shortcut and must be proved the ordinary way.

If there is no affidavit

Nothing is lost but convenience. A validly executed Florida will with no self-proving affidavit is still a valid will, and § 733.201 supplies two fallbacks. Subsection (2) lets the will in "upon the oath of any attesting witness taken before any circuit judge, commissioner appointed by the court, or clerk" — one witness, not both. Subsection (3) covers the harder case: if the attesting witnesses cannot be found, have become incapacitated since execution, or their testimony cannot be obtained within a reasonable time, the will may be admitted on the oath of the personal representative nominated by the will (interested or not), or on the oath of "any person having no interest in the estate under the will" who states a belief that the document is the decedent's true last will.

What trips people up

"Notarized" and "self-proved" are not the same thing, and neither one makes a will valid. A Florida will is valid when it satisfies § 732.502 — signed at the end by the testator, in the presence of two attesting witnesses, who then sign in the presence of the testator and of each other. A notary is not a witness and cannot substitute for one. Notarizing a will without the § 732.503 recitals produces a notarized will that is not self-proved; conversely, a will with a perfect affidavit that was never properly witnessed is still invalid, because the affidavit proves execution and cannot manufacture it.

Waiting is the expensive mistake. Because § 732.503 requires the testator's own acknowledgment, the affidavit becomes impossible the moment the testator dies. The estate then falls back on § 733.201(2)–(3), which means locating a witness who signed years ago, or — if the witnesses are gone — proving the will through the nominated personal representative or a disinterested person. Everything about that is slower and more expensive than five minutes at the signing.

The affidavit does not prove capacity, and it is not contest-proof. The recitals in the Florida form are about execution. Nothing in § 732.503 speaks to the testator's soundness of mind or to undue influence, and § 733.201(1) removes only the burden of proving execution. An interested party can still challenge the will on any substantive ground.

Electronic wills fail on custody more often than on notarization. The acknowledgment and affidavits are only condition one of four in § 732.523. If the electronic will names no qualified custodian, or the record left qualified custody at any point before probate, the will is not self-proved no matter how correct the affidavit is — and § 732.524's residency and secure-system requirements narrow who can serve.

Common questions

Do both witnesses have to come back if I want to add the affidavit later? Yes. Section 732.503(1) requires the affidavits of the witnesses — plural, and the same people who attested the will. All three of you must appear before the officer. That is a practical argument for doing it at the signing, while everyone is already in the room.

My will was self-proved in another state and I have moved to Florida. Do I need to redo it? No. Section 732.503(2) treats a will "executed in another state and made self-proved under the laws of that state" as self-proved in Florida.

Can I use an online notary for this? Yes — the statutory form contains an express "online notarization" election, and § 732.522(2) sets out how witnesses may appear and sign by audio-video technology under a supervising notary. Be aware that for an electronic will, a substantial failure to follow the § 117.265 online-notarization procedures costs the will its self-proved status under § 733.201(1).

Is a self-proved will treated as more valid than an ordinary one? No. The only difference is at the courthouse door: § 733.201(1) admits it "without further proof." Its terms, its revocability, and its vulnerability to a contest are unchanged.

Statutes and sources

• Fla. Stat. § 732.503 (self-proof of will; statutory form, officer's certificate, timing, recognition of former-law and out-of-state self-proof) — https://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0700-0799/0732/Sections/0732.503.html (accessed 2026-08-16)
• Fla. Stat. § 733.201 (proof of wills; admission without further proof, the electronic-will online-notarization exception, and the alternate oath routes) — https://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0700-0799/0733/Sections/0733.201.html (accessed 2026-08-16)
• Fla. Stat. § 732.502 (execution of wills; the formalities the affidavit's recitals track) — https://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0700-0799/0732/Sections/0732.502.html (accessed 2026-08-16)
• Fla. Stat. § 732.523 (self-proof of electronic will; qualified-custodian chain and custodian certification) — https://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0700-0799/0732/Sections/0732.523.html (accessed 2026-08-16)
• Fla. Stat. § 732.522 (method and place of execution; electronic signature and audio-video witnessing conditions) — https://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0700-0799/0732/Sections/0732.522.html (accessed 2026-08-16)
• Fla. Stat. §§ 117.265 and 117.285 (online-notarization procedures and supervision of electronic-record witnessing) — https://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0100-0199/0117/Sections/0117.265.html and https://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0100-0199/0117/Sections/0117.285.html (accessed 2026-08-16)
• Fla. Stat. § 732.524 (qualified custodians; residency and secure-system duties) — https://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0700-0799/0732/Sections/0732.524.html (accessed 2026-08-16)

The compiled pages are published as the 2025 Florida Statutes. The 2026 regular session was checked for amendments to these sections; the enacted estates act of that session (HB 1337) amends other chapters and sections of the Probate Code and does not touch any section relied on here.