Can a Will Beneficiary Act as a Witness? Yes, BUT … (and it’s a big but)

I just Keith Davidson from Albertson and Davidson in this video we're discussing whether a beneficiary under a will can be a witness under that same will you may be surprised to learn that in California a beneficiary on our under a will can also witness that will the will can still be valid even though one of the witnesses is a will beneficiary but here's the catch the person who is the will beneficiary and also the witness there will be a presumption that they're a gift was obtained by undue influence in other words if a will beneficiary are also acts as a witness that beneficiary is probably going to lose their share under the will so if a beneficiary was set to get the family home but they were one of the witnesses then they're probably not going to get the family home because the law says the will still valid it's still validly witnessed but the person who was the interested witness the beneficiary who acted as the witness is going to lose their gift under the will they can overcome that presumption but it's very difficult to do so obviously the better course of action for any well beneficiary is to not act as a witness to the will because otherwise there could be a huge penalty and that beneficiary could lose whatever their gift is under the [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]