Signing day rules

Before you sit down

• Print the final documents single-sided; do not staple until after signing.
• Arrange the number of witnesses your state requires — see your state page for the exact number.
• Use witnesses who are adults, mentally competent, and who receive nothing under your plan. An interested witness can create problems even where it is technically allowed.
• Book a notary. Many banks, shipping stores and title companies have one; mobile notaries will come to you.
• Bring photo identification for yourself and every witness.

The order of signing

• Sign the trust first, as both grantor and trustee, in front of the notary.
• Then sign the will. Declare out loud that this is your will and that you are asking the witnesses to witness it.
• Witnesses sign in your presence and in each other's presence, and print their addresses.
• If your state offers a self-proving affidavit, the notary completes it immediately after — this is what saves your family from tracking down witnesses years later.
• Initial or date any pages your state or your county recorder expects to be initialed.

Powers of attorney and advance directives

Healthcare documents follow their own execution rules, which are usually different from the rules for your will. Most states ask for two adult witnesses; a few (Idaho, New Mexico) require none, Utah requires one, and roughly twenty states require a notary instead of or in addition to witnesses. Your state page lists the exact number and the statute it comes from.

• Almost every state excludes interested witnesses on healthcare documents: not your agent, not a relative by blood or marriage, not anyone who inherits from you, and not an employee of your treating provider or care facility.
• The age to sign is the state's age of majority, which is 19 in Alabama and Nebraska rather than 18.
• Arizona and New York treat mental-health treatment decisions separately — those states need an additional mental-health care declaration.
• A durable financial power of attorney should always be notarized, even where the statute is silent, because banks and county recorders will insist on it.
• Sign the healthcare set after your will and trust, at the same notary appointment, and give copies to your agent, your physician and your hospital.

Afterward

Keep the original signed set somewhere safe and accessible — a home safe is usually better than a safe deposit box, which can be sealed at death. Tell your successor trustee where it is. Give copies, not originals, to anyone who asks. Then start working through your funding checklist.