Self-Proving Affidavit for Wills Requirements in Washington

At a glance

Requirements one by one

Availability and governing law

Washington's ordinary proof shortcut is RCW § 11.20.020(2). It lets an attesting witness put the same facts the witness would give in court into an affidavit. The execution statute, RCW § 11.12.020(1), also permits a witness to attest by signing a compliant affidavit while in the testator's physical or electronic presence and at the testator's direction or request.

Electronic wills have a more elaborate self-proof rule in RCW § 11.12.450. It requires execution, attestation, and self-proof in the same ceremony, affidavits affixed or logically associated with the will, and continuous custody by a qualified custodian after the testator and witnesses execute it.

Who signs or swears

For the ordinary § 11.20.020 affidavit, "any or all" attesting witnesses may swear. The testator does not sign or swear. Before death, the testator requests the affidavit; after death, the executor or any interested person may request it. A requester starts the process but is not an affiant.

Electronic self-proof uses the testator and both witnesses. Section 11.12.450's sworn form has each sign before an officer. Its alternative form has all three sign under penalty of perjury under Washington law. The qualified custodian does not sign the affidavit but must maintain custody continuously.

When it may be made

The ordinary affidavit may be made during the testator's life at the testator's request or after death at the executor's or an interested person's request. This is an unusually broad post-death route.

The electronic-will self-proof procedure is different: § 11.12.450 says the will must be "simultaneously executed, attested, and made self-proving." Section 11.20.020(2) still permits a later witness affidavit to be logically associated with an electronic will as probate proof, but that is not the execution-time, continuous-custody self-proof package created by § 11.12.450.

Officer, oath and seal

An ordinary affidavit may be made before any person authorized to administer oaths. When a Washington notary performs the verification, RCW § 42.45.130 requires a contemporaneous certificate. On a tangible record, a notary public must affix or emboss the official stamp; another notarial officer may use a stamp when the certificate carries the required officer information.

For an electronic will, the sworn route uses an oath-authorized officer. When fewer than two witnesses are physically with the testator, the officer must be authorized under RCW § 42.45.280. The certificate and official seal must be affixed or logically associated with the electronic will. The chapter 5.50 penalty-of-perjury route instead uses no officer, certificate, or seal.

Required recitals and form

Washington supplies no paper-affidavit form. Section 11.20.020 sets a functional standard: each witness states the facts that witness would have to testify to in court to prove the will.

The electronic-will forms need only be followed substantially. The testator states that the instrument is the electronic will, that signing or direction of another signer was willing, that execution was voluntary for the stated purposes, and that the testator is at least 18, of sound mind, and under no constraint or undue influence. Each witness states the testator's willing signature and the witness's own signature in the testator's physical or electronic presence, plus the age, sound-mind, and freedom-from-influence facts to the witness's best knowledge.

Attachment to the will

The ordinary affidavit may be written on the will or affixed or logically associated with the will, a photographic copy of the will, or an electronic will. That expressly permits a copy-based affidavit package.

Electronic self-proof requires the witness affidavits and, for the sworn route, the officer's sealed certificate to be affixed or logically associated with the electronic will. RCW § 11.12.480 adds that a certified paper copy of a self-proved electronic will must include the self-proving affidavits.

Electronic, remote and out-of-state rules

Washington permits electronic wills and electronic-presence witnessing. Section 11.12.450 expressly routes remote electronic-will self-proof through an electronic records notary authorized under § 42.45.280 when fewer than two witnesses are physically with the testator. It also permits the officer-free chapter 5.50 penalty-of-perjury form.

Current § 42.45.280 authorizes communication-technology acts by an electronic records notary, a role § 42.45.010 defines by reference to electronic records. It does not yet state the new tangible-record acknowledgment and remote-oath procedures. Enacted SHB 2158 adds those provisions on January 1, 2027, including express remote administration of an oath or affirmation. Those future procedures should not be used as today's paper-affidavit rule.

For a will already probated in another U.S. jurisdiction or foreign country, RCW § 11.20.090 provides admission on the certified will copy and original probate record. It is a foreign-probate route, not a blanket statement that a foreign self-proof certificate alone establishes the will before probate elsewhere.

Probate effect and exceptions

Section 11.20.020 says a witness's sworn statement is accepted as if it had been taken before the court. For an electronic will, § 11.12.450 adds the affidavits and continuous qualified-custodian conditions. If qualified custody was not maintained, § 11.20.020(3) requires the electronic will to be treated as lost or destroyed.

The affidavit does not prevent a contest. RCW § 11.24.010 gives an interested person four months after probate or rejection to challenge the will and leaves capacity, restraint, undue influence, fraud, execution, and other validity issues for the court.

If there is no affidavit

RCW § 11.20.020(1) lets the court hear the proofs and probate or reject the will as the testimony justifies; supporting testimony is reduced to writing, signed by the witnesses, and certified by the judge. If sickness, distance, or out-of-state residence prevents attendance, RCW § 11.20.030 lets the court commission a judge, notary, or other oath-authorized person to take and certify the witness's attestation.

When a witness later becomes incompetent, cannot testify in court or by commission, or is absent from Washington, RCW § 11.20.040 allows proof through satisfactory testimony that the testator's and unavailable witness's handwriting is genuine, or through other facts and circumstances tending to prove the will.

What trips people up

The testator is not an affiant under the ordinary statute

Section 11.20.020(2) authorizes affidavits by "any or all" attesting witnesses. The testator, executor, or interested person may request one, but the statute does not make the requester an affiant. Adding a testator declaration changes the statutory signer set rather than merely supplying optional wording.

Electronic self-proof is tied to custody

Affidavits alone do not satisfy § 11.12.450. A qualified custodian must maintain the electronic will at all times after execution. If that chain is absent, § 11.20.020(3) sends the will into the lost-or-destroyed-will proof process.

Common questions

Can one witness make the ordinary affidavit?

Yes. Section 11.20.020(2) says "any or all" attesting witnesses may make it and that the sworn statement of "any witness" is accepted as if taken before the court. The will still must have been validly attested under the execution statute.

Can the affidavit be created after the testator dies?

Yes. The executor or any person interested under the will may request an attesting witness's affidavit after death. That post-death rule does not apply to the simultaneous electronic self-proof package under § 11.12.450.

Can an electronic-will affidavit signature also count as a will signature?

Yes. RCW § 11.12.450(4) treats a physical or electronic signature on an affidavit affixed or logically associated with the electronic will as a signature of the electronic will under § 11.12.440(1).

Statutes and sources

• RCW § 11.20.020 — ordinary hearing proof, any-or-all witness affidavits, requesters, timing, association, evidentiary effect, and electronic-will custody. https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=11.20.020 (accessed 2026-08-09)
• RCW § 11.12.020 — witness attestation by a compliant affidavit and electronic- presence/counterpart execution. https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=11.12.020 (accessed 2026-08-09)
• RCW §§ 11.12.440, 11.12.450, and 11.12.480 — electronic-will execution and self-proof, forms, officer, seal, custody, signature spillover, association, and certified paper copies. https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=11.12.440 https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=11.12.450 https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=11.12.480 (accessed 2026-08-09)
• RCW §§ 42.45.010, 42.45.130, and 42.45.280 — notarial definitions, certificates and stamps, current remote electronic-record procedure, and the future January 1, 2027 tangible-record and remote-oath procedure. https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=42.45 https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=42.45.280 (accessed 2026-08-09)
• RCW §§ 11.20.030 and 11.20.040 — commissioned witness attestation, handwriting proof, and other-circumstances fallback. https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=11.20.030 https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=11.20.040 (accessed 2026-08-09)
• RCW § 11.20.090 — admission of a will already probated elsewhere. https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=11.20.090 (accessed 2026-08-09)
• RCW § 11.24.010 — four-month will-contest route and issues determined by the court. https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=11.24.010 (accessed 2026-08-09)