Session of 1999
HOUSE BILL No. 2151
By Representative Carmody
1-27
9 AN ACT concerning wills; amending K.S.A. 59-606 and repealing the
10 existing section.
11
12 Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Kansas:
13 Section 1. K.S.A. 59-606 is hereby amended to read as follows: 59-
14 606. Every will, except an oral will as provided in K.S.A. 59-608 and
15 amendments thereto, shall be in writing, and signed at the end thereof
16 by the party making the same, or by some other person in the presence
17 and by the express direction of the testator and shall be attested and
18 subscribed in the presence of such party by two or more competent wit-
19 nesses, who saw the testator subscribe or heard the testator acknowledge
20 the same. Such will, at the time of its execution or at any subsequent date
21 during the lifetimes of the testator and the witnesses, may be made self-
22 proved, and the testimony of the witnesses in the probate thereof may be
23 made unnecessary by the acknowledgments thereof and the affidavits of
24 the testator and the attesting witnesses, each made before an officer au-
25 thorized to take acknowledgments to deeds of conveyance and to admin-
26 ister oaths under the laws of this state, such acknowledgments and affi-
27 davits being evidenced by the certificate, with official seal affixed, of such
28 officer attached or annexed to such will in form and contents substantially
29 as follows:
30 State of Kansas
31 County of ____________ ss.
32 Before me, the undersigned authority, on this day personally appeared ________,
33 ________, and ________, known to me to be the testator and the witnesses, re-
34 spectively, whose names are subscribed to the annexed or foregoing instrument in their
35 respective capacities, and, all of said persons being by me first duly sworn, said ________
36 , testator, declared to me and to the said witnesses in my presence that said instrument is
37 the testator's last will and testament, and that the testator had willingly made and executed
38 it as the testator's free and voluntary act and deed for the purposes therein expressed; and
39 the said witnesses, each on the witness' oath stated to me, in the presence and hearing of
40 the said testator, that the said testator had declared to them that said instrument is the
41 testator's last will and testament, and that the testator executed same as such and wanted
42 each witness to sign it as a witness; and upon their oaths each witness stated further that
43 they did sign the same as witnesses in the presence of each other and in the presence of
44 the testator and at the testator's request, and that said testator at that time possessed the
45 rights of majority, was of sound mind and under no restraint.
46
47
48
49 Subscribed, acknowledged and sworn to before me by ____, testator, and
50 and ________, witnesses, this ______ day of ______, A.D.______.
51 (seal)
52
53
54 (Official capacity of officer)
55 If an affidavit substantially in conformance with the affidavit described
56 herein is executed at the time of the execution of the will, no other sig-
57 natures of the witnesses or any other attestation clause is required.
58 A self-proved will, unless contested, shall be admitted to probate with-
59 out the testimony of any subscribing witness, but otherwise it shall be
60 treated no differently than a will not self-proved. A self-proved will may
61 be contested or be revoked, or be amended by a codicil in the same
62 fashion as a will not self-proved. A codicil or the consent to take under
63 the will by the spouse may be self-proved in the same manner as a will
64 may be self-proved.
65 Sec. 2. K.S.A. 59-606 is hereby repealed.
66 Sec. 3. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its
67 publication in the statute book.