The will

A will is an act by which the testator expresses his last wishes and "disposes, for the time when he no longer exists, of all or part of his property or rights and which he may revoke".

What is a will?

It is a unilateral legal act, a manifestation of the will of its author alone. The acceptance of the beneficiaries of legacies is not a condition of validity of its provisions; at the death of the testator, the refusal of the legatee only entails the lapse of the legacy.

A will is an act of death: it represents the will of its author at the time of his death. For this reason, a will is always revocable and only takes effect upon the death of the testator. The essential purpose of a will is to regulate the fate of the testator's property after his death. A will is a solemn act: its validity is subject to specific formal requirements.

The validity of a will

The need for a writing. The validity of a will is subject to the condition that it be in writing. A purely verbal will (nuncupative will), even if made before witnesses or dictated on a tape recorder, is void.

The need for a single testator. A will is a unilateral act that must be personal to its author. A joint will, i.e. one drawn up by several people (two spouses, for example), is null.

Sanctions for failure to observe the formal requirements. Failure to observe the conditions of form is sanctioned by the nullity of the will. This sanction concerns not only breaches of the rules of form common to all wills, but also the failure to observe the rules of form specific to each category of will. The action for nullity may be brought by the person who is supposed to receive the bequeathed property in the place of the legatee (in practice, the heirs or the universal legatee). The limitation period for the action is 5 years from the death or from the day when the person concerned became aware of the existence of the defective will.

The authentic and digital will

Theauthentic will. A will made before a notary is an authentic will. The making of an authentic will is mandatory in several cases:

- if the testator does not know how to write, or if he is no longer physically able to do so;

- if the testator wishes to deprive his or her surviving spouse of his or her life interest in the home.

- when one wants, by will, to recognize a natural child whose existence one had wished to keep hidden.

However, the "Informatique et Libertés" law offers the possibility of registering them with a "trusted digital third party" certified by the CNIL. This trusted third party can record the general directives in a unique digital register. The conditions of access to this register are strict, as they are set by decree in the Council of State, following the opinion of the CNIL.

The Conseil Supérieur du Notariat has indicated that the notary could be the "digital trusted third party" targeted by the text insofar as the profession is subject to strict rules of confidentiality, impartiality and ethics.

👉 Register your digital wills with Solal Tech.