You’d think creating a will would be straightforward. It’s not. Small errors can make your entire document worthless, and when that happens, Iowa law decides who gets what instead of you. The Law Group of Iowa sees this all the time. Clients come in with homemade wills that won’t hold up in court. Sometimes we can fix the problems before it’s too late. Sometimes we can’t. Understanding these common mistakes now can save your family from serious legal and financial stress when they’re already grieving.
Missing Or Improper Signatures
Iowa requires you to sign your will at the end of the document. You can have someone else sign for you, but they’ve got to do it in your presence. Sounds simple enough, but there’s more. You also need two witnesses to sign. They must be there at the same time, watching you sign. They can’t just drop by later when it’s more convenient. And both witnesses should be disinterested parties, which means they’re not inheriting anything under your will. This is where many homemade wills fall apart.
Lack Of Testamentary Capacity
You’ve got to be of sound mind when you create your will. Iowa courts will examine whether you understood what you were doing. They’ll look at four things:
- The nature and extent of your property
- Who your natural heirs are (the family members who’d normally inherit from you)
- What it means to make a will
- How do all these pieces fit together to create a plan for your estate
Capacity challenges often come up when someone makes a will late in life or while dealing with serious illness. Medical records become evidence. So do witness accounts. Even the complexity of the will itself can tell the court something about your mental state when you signed it.
Undue Influence And Coercion
A will you created under someone else’s pressure isn’t valid. Undue influence means somebody overpowered your free will and substituted their desires for yours. This happens more often than you’d think, especially when caregivers or family members take advantage of someone vulnerable. What does the court look for? Sudden changes to a longstanding estate plan raise red flags. So does isolation from other family members. And if a new will primarily benefits the person who helped draft it, that’s a problem. A Des Moines wills lawyer can help make sure your will actually reflects what you want, not what someone else pressured you into.
Improper Revocation Or Amendment
You can’t just cross out parts of your will or scribble changes in the margins. That’s not how it works. Iowa recognizes specific methods for revoking or changing your will. You can create a new will that explicitly revokes all previous ones. You can physically destroy the old will if you intend to revoke it, or you can create a codicil, which is a formal amendment that follows the same execution requirements as your original will. Writing “VOID” across your will works only if you meant to revoke it. If someone else destroys your will without your permission, the original terms may still be valid.
Failure To Follow Formalities
Iowa doesn’t require wills to be notarized, but your document has to meet certain formalities. It must be in writing. That’s non-negotiable. Oral wills are not valid in Iowa except in extremely limited circumstances. Holographic wills, which are handwritten and unwitnessed, won’t hold up either. You could write out your entire estate plan in perfect handwriting, but without proper witnesses, it’s worthless in probate court. The law doesn’t care how much effort you put into it.
Fraud Or Forgery
A will obtained through fraud or containing forged signatures is invalid. Fraud might mean tricking someone into signing a document they think is something else. It could mean lying about circumstances to get someone to change their will. Forgery cases sometimes turn into battles over whether the signature is authentic. Did the witnesses actually see the signing happen? Handwriting experts get involved. Witnesses testify. These disputes can tear families apart and drag on for months.
Problems With Self-Proving Affidavits
A self-proving affidavit isn’t required, but it makes probate easier. This notarized document, signed by you and your witnesses, confirms that the will was properly executed. Without it, your witnesses might need to show up in court after you’re gone to testify about what happened. Problems crop up when the affidavit is completed incorrectly. Or when the notary’s commission had expired. These issues don’t invalidate your will, but they eliminate the streamlined probate process the affidavit was supposed to provide. You lose the benefit without gaining anything.
Protecting Your Estate Plan
Working with a Des Moines wills lawyer helps you avoid these mistakes entirely. Professional guidance means your will meets all legal requirements and says exactly what you want it to say. Don’t leave your family’s future to chance with a document that might not survive a court challenge.
