Nevada: Self-Proving Affidavit for Wills Requirements

Requirements one by one

Availability and governing law

Nevada's ordinary route is in NRS 133.050, supplemented at probate by §§ 136.150
and 136.160. It is not the usual testator-plus-witnesses acknowledgment block.
Instead, an attesting witness supplies the facts that the witness would have to
give in court. Nevada separately imposes a qualified-custodian and continuous-
custody requirement on a self-proving electronic will under § 133.086.

Who signs or swears

Any attesting witness may sign either a declaration under penalty of perjury or
an affidavit. The testator does not have to acknowledge or swear. Although the
statutory sample shows two witnesses, subsection 1 says “any attesting witness,”
and § 136.150 permits an uncontested will to be proved by one subscribing
witness. After death, any or all witnesses may sign at the executor's or any
interested person's request.

When it may be made

Section 133.050 does not confine the declaration or affidavit to the execution
ceremony. Section 136.160 removes any doubt about the late route: it expressly
allows the affidavit after the testator's death. If an affidavit or declaration
is attached and signed at the same time as the will, § 133.055 may treat that
signature as a will signature when necessary to prove execution.

Officer, oath and seal

The unsworn declaration route uses Nevada's penalty-of-perjury language and
needs no oath officer. For an affidavit, the witness may appear before any
person authorized to administer oaths in Nevada or elsewhere. The sample uses a
notary public, but the operative text is broader and states no separate official-
seal requirement.

Required recitals and form

The controlling standard is functional: the witness states the facts that would
be required in court to prove the will. Nevada says its affidavit and declaration
forms may be followed substantially. Their recitals cover witnessing the
execution, the testator's subscription and declaration of the will, the
witnesses' later subscriptions in the testator's and each other's presence and
at the testator's request, and the testator's apparent full age and sound mind
and memory.

Attachment to the will

The declaration or affidavit must be written on the will. If that is
impracticable, it may be on paper attached to the will. An electronic statement
must be incorporated into, attached to, or logically associated with the
electronic will. The same-time signature-spillover rule in § 133.055 applies
only to a statement attached to the will and only when the signature is needed
to prove execution.

Electronic, remote and out-of-state rules

Section 133.050 expressly anticipates audio-video appearance and requires the
form to say when the testator or a signing witness appeared that way. Section
133.088 defines the communication as real-time sight, hearing, and communication
and supplies electronic-signature, electronic-record, and electronic-
notarization rules for proceedings relating to electronic wills. The validity
of an electronic notarial act follows the commissioning jurisdiction's law.

An electronic will is not self-proving from witness statements alone. It must
designate a qualified custodian, remain continuously with a qualified custodian
before conversion to a certified paper original, and preserve the declarations
or affidavits as part of, attached to, or logically associated with the will.
Nevada recognizes a qualifying electronic will executed under another state's
law, but the cited provisions do not state a blanket rule that every foreign
self-proof clause automatically receives Nevada's paper-will shortcut.

Probate effect and exceptions

The statement is accepted as though the witness testified before the court, and
a filed affidavit has the same force as oral testimony. Filing the post-death
affidavits also avoids routine subpoenas to county-resident witnesses. In an
uncontested case, one subscribing witness's proof may be enough.

That is an evidentiary substitute, not an incontestable certificate. Section
136.150's one-witness admission rule applies when no person contests probate. A
certified paper original of a self-proving electronic will receives the stronger
presumption and expeditious-admission command only “absent any objection.”

If there is no affidavit

The will is not invalid merely because it lacks the declaration or affidavit.
If probate is uncontested, one subscribing witness may testify to due execution,
sound mind, and age 18. When subscribing witnesses are dead, incapable, or
otherwise unavailable, § 136.170 permits in-person, deposition, or affidavit
proof from at least two credible disinterested persons that the signature is
genuine, or other sufficient signature proof. The court may still require an
available subscribing witness or other pertinent evidence.

What trips people up

The testator is not a required affidavit signer

Nevada's sample affidavit describes what the witnesses swear and gives signature
lines for the affiants. The governing sentence authorizes “any attesting
witness.” Adding the testator may be a drafting choice, but it is not a condition
Nevada imposes for witness self-proof.

The electronic-will custody chain is substantive

Logical association of the witness statements is only one part of electronic
self-proof. A designated qualified custodian and continuous qualified custody
before paper conversion are also required. Without that chain, the electronic
will may still be offered through the ordinary proof route, but it does not earn
§ 133.086 self-proving status.

Common questions

Can a Nevada witness make the affidavit after the testator dies?

Yes. Section 136.160 expressly allows any or all attesting witnesses to do so at
the request of the executor or any interested person.

Must a Nevada self-proving statement be notarized?

No. A witness may instead use the statutory declaration under penalty of
perjury. If the witness chooses an affidavit, an oath-authorized person in or
outside Nevada must take it.

Statutes and sources

• NRS 133.050 and 133.055 — witness declaration/affidavit, substantial
  forms, remote-appearance notation, attachment, and same-time signature
  spillover: official Nevada Legislature Chapter 133
  (accessed 2026-08-01)
• NRS 133.086 and 133.088 — electronic-will self-proof, qualified custody,
  real-time audio-video presence, and electronic notarization: official Nevada
  Legislature Chapter 133
  (accessed 2026-08-01)
• NRS 136.130, 136.150 and 136.160 — subpoena relief, one-witness proof,
  filed-affidavit effect, and post-death timing: official Nevada Legislature
  Chapter 136
  (accessed 2026-08-01)
• NRS 136.170 and 136.185 — unavailable-witness fallback and self-proving
  electronic-will admission: official Nevada Legislature Chapter 136
  (accessed 2026-08-01)