Self-Proving Affidavit for Wills Requirements in New Jersey

At a glance

Requirements one by one

Availability and governing law

N.J.S.A. 3B:3-4 permits simultaneous execution, attestation, and self-proof. Section 3B:3-5 permits a will already executed in compliance with § 3B:3-2 to be made self-proved afterward. Both use the testator's acknowledgment, witness affidavits, an authorized officer, and substantially statutory wording.

Who signs or swears

The testator and two witnesses sign. The testator is duly sworn and declares the will, willing signature or direction of another signer, free and voluntary act, age, sound mind, and freedom from constraint or undue influence. Each witness is sworn and supplies the execution and presence-and-hearing statements.

When it may be made

Section 3B:3-4 covers the will-signing ceremony. Section 3B:3-5 says the later route may be used "at any time subsequent to its execution." The statute states no numerical cutoff, but its later form still requires the testator and both witnesses to appear, swear, and sign, so it supplies no replacement affiant after death.

Officer, oath and seal

The officer is not limited to a New Jersey notary. R.S. 46:14-6.1 includes a New Jersey attorney, notary, county clerk or deputy, register of deeds and mortgages or deputy, and surrogate or deputy. It also recognizes qualifying federal, other- jurisdiction, foreign, and U.S. consular officers.

The certificate records personal appearance, identity satisfaction, jurisdiction, officer name and title, and date. Current R.S. 46:14-2.1(d) expressly says the officer's seal "need not be affixed" to the acknowledgment or proof certificate. The self-proof forms themselves call for the officer's signature and official capacity, not a blanket seal.

Required recitals and form

Both sections use a substantial-compliance standard. The signing-day and later forms cover the same central facts: the instrument is the testator's will; the testator signed willingly or directed another signer; execution was free and voluntary for the stated purposes; the testator was at least 18, of sound mind, and under no constraint or undue influence; and each witness signed in the testator's presence and hearing.

Attachment to the will

The later route expressly requires the affidavit to be "attached or annexed to the will." Section 3B:3-4 instead prints the testator, witness, and officer statements as one integrated simultaneous execution/self-proof form.

Electronic, remote and out-of-state rules

New Jersey's Uniform Electronic Transactions Act, N.J.S.A. 12A:12-3(b), excludes transactions governed by laws for creating and executing wills, codicils, and testamentary trusts. Current §§ 3B:3-4 and 3B:3-5 supply no electronic-will form.

The permanent remote-notary statute is split. N.J.S.A. 52:7-10.10(b) says only subsections (e) through (h) apply to notarial acts on a tangible will or codicil record. Those subsections provide tangible-record handling. The separate authority to administer a remote oath is subsection (i), while §§ 3B:3-4 and 3B:3-5 require sworn affidavits. Read together, the cited statutes do not supply a complete remote self-proof ceremony for a will.

Out-of-state and foreign officers may qualify under R.S. 46:14-6.1, but the current self-proof sections do not state an automatic carryover rule for self-proof created under another jurisdiction's will law. Pending S1336 and A3229 would create electronic-will execution, electronic self-proof, remote participation in stated circumstances, custodian requirements, and certified paper copies.

Probate effect and exceptions

N.J.S.A. 3B:3-19 gives the direct payoff: a will executed and acknowledged under § 3B:3-4 or § 3B:3-5 may be admitted by the surrogate "without further affidavit, deposition or proof." The section does not say that the affidavit conclusively establishes capacity, freedom from influence, or validity in a contested action.

If there is no affidavit

The same § 3B:3-19 keeps an ordinary witnessed will usable. The surrogate may admit it on proof from one attesting witness or from another individual who knows the facts concerning the testator's proper execution and the will's attestation by one witness. A separate writing intended as a will proceeds only under the New Jersey court rules.

What trips people up

The officer and seal assumptions are both narrower than the statute

A notary is common but not exclusive, and an official seal is not a universal condition under the current cross-referenced certificate law. A form can be defective for missing required declarations even when it has a notary stamp; a proper certificate is not defective merely because a blanket seal is absent.

Remote tangible-record handling does not itself supply the sworn affidavits

The remote-notary statute preserves limited procedures for tangible will and codicil records, but its will-specific exception names subsections (e) through (h), not subsection (i)'s remote-oath authority. The self-proof statutes require sworn affidavits, so remote record exchange alone is not the complete ceremony.

Common questions

Must New Jersey's form be copied word for word?

No. Sections 3B:3-4 and 3B:3-5 both require a form that is substantially the statutory form. The signer roles, sworn execution facts, willing/free-act declarations, age and sound-mind statements, witness presence-and-hearing facts, and officer certificate still matter.

Can the affidavit be added years after the will was signed?

The statute sets no year limit and says "at any time subsequent." The practical limit is availability of the testator and both witnesses, because the later form requires all three to participate.

Is a will invalid because it has no self-proving affidavit?

No. Section 3B:3-19 expressly provides the one-witness or knowledgeable-person proof route for a properly executed ordinary will.

Statutes and sources

• N.J.S.A. §§ 3B:3-4 and 3B:3-5 — simultaneous and later self-proof forms, signers, timing, recitals, officer cross-reference, and attachment. https://pub.njleg.gov/bills/2004/PL04/132_.PDF (accessed 2026-08-09)
• N.J.S.A. § 3B:3-19 — surrogate admission with and without self-proof. https://pub.njleg.gov/bills/2004/PL04/132_.PDF (accessed 2026-08-09)
• R.S. 46:14-2.1 and 46:14-6.1 — certificate contents, seal rule, and authorized New Jersey, federal, other-jurisdiction, foreign, and consular officers. https://pub.njleg.gov/bills/2020/PL21/179_.PDF (accessed 2026-08-09)
• N.J.S.A. §§ 52:7-10.10 and 12A:12-3 — tangible-record remote-notary scope, separate remote-oath provision, and the electronic-transactions exclusion. https://pub.njleg.gov/bills/2020/PL21/179_.PDF (accessed 2026-08-09)