Online will application

With the entry into force of Law 11/2023 (HERE you can consult the same), the possibility of formalizing a will before a Notary has been facilitated even more if possible, because from now on, any citizen, from home, following a few simple steps, as we will see below, can prepare his own will easily and quickly, as well as choose the Notary with whom he wants to formalize it, so that, when the day and time that suits us best, we will only have to go to our trusted Notary and sign the document in question, without wasting more time in the preparation of the document, etc.

We will now see how to access this option and the steps to follow.

How can I apply for my will in the Notarial Portal?

In order to be able to prepare our will online, the first thing to take into account is that, for this to be possible, the citizen must be registered in the Notarial Citizen Portal (HERE), which is the web page created by the Spanish Notary Public's Office to implement all these telematic novelties of Law 11/2023.

To register, if you wish, HERE you can find an explanatory article in our blog, where we detail all the steps you have to follow.

What steps will be involved in the process of signing my will if I request it online?

If you choose to formalize your will through this new online modality, the main steps of the process, in a very summarized form, will be the following:

1. First of all, through the Citizen's Notary Portal, you must send your request to your trusted Notary. In it, as we will explain below, you will have to fill in a form with all your personal data and the necessary information to prepare the will you need.
2. Secondly, once the chosen Notary receives your request, he/she will proceed to prepare your will based on the information you have provided and, if needed, will send you a draft of the document so that you can review it at home, in advance, with complete peace of mind.

Finally, you will have to arrange a date and time that suits you with the chosen Notary, so that, when the time comes, you will have to go in person to the chosen notary's office in order to sign your notarial will.

How do I fill out the application form for my will in the Notarial Citizen Portal?

As indicated at the beginning, once we are registered in the Citizen's Notarial Portal, we must access it with our user name and password, and there, on the home screen, we must select the "Wills" option (bottom left).

Once inside the following screen, select the "Start application" option (green button), and start filling in your application, providing the following information:

First of all, the testator's personal data must be reported. Specifically:

• Personal data (by default, your personal data that you provided when registering in the Notarial Citizen Portal will appear).
• Place of birth (where you must indicate province and town of birth)
• Marital status (where you must inform if you are single, married, divorced, etc.). If you are married, divorced or in a domestic partnership, a drop-down menu will open for you to provide all your personal data (name and surname, ID card number, etc.).
• Profession (where you must indicate what you do).

Once this information has been filled in, you must select the "Next" option (green button at the bottom right), where a new screen will appear to fill in the information related to parents and children. 

• In this screen, you must inform whether or not you have children. If you do have them, a drop-down will open for you to report all their data (name and surname, ID card number if they have one, as well as the data of the other parent). Also, if you wish to inform a legal guardian for your minor child/children in case of your death, you can select this option, where a new drop-down menu will open for you to report it, being able to fill in all the personal data of that eventual guardian.

• In addition, you must inform at this stage all the data of your parents (indicating their names and surnames, as well as whether they are still alive or not).

Once this screen is completed, you must select the "Next" option (green button at the bottom right), which will take us to the phase of the process in which we must inform about the "Distribution of assets, rights and obligations" that we want to carry out in our will. In this phase, we will be able to:

• Opt to deal with this issue directly with the Notary, in person, on the day of the signing (if we have doubts about it, if we want to make a more complex or particular provision, etc.).
• Inform our heirs directly in the form, selecting, if applicable, the person or persons we want to designate as heirs (such as children, parents, or other persons, in which case, a drop-down menu will open so that we can inform their specific data). In addition, we also have the option to include comments to the Notary so that he/she can take them into account when making the provisions of our will.
• Additionally, at this stage, the form also allows us to inform about substitute heirs, that is, those persons who should inherit our estate in the event that those named in the first place are unable or unwilling to accept our inheritance.

Once this screen is completed, you must select the "Next" option (green button at the bottom right), which will take us to the final phase of the process, where we must provide, if necessary in our specific case, "Extended information", that is, comments or doubts that we wish to convey to the Notary. The system will also allow us to attach documents, if necessary.

In addition, in this section, if desired, you can select the option to "request advice with the Notary by videoconference", which will give us the option to make a video consultation with our Notary and solve with him, from our own home, all the doubts we have about our will, our succession, etc. (for this, of course, you must have a computer with a camera and with a Software compatible with the technical specificities of the PNC).

Finally, we must select the notary with whom we want to sign our will, for which we will open a drop-down menu where we can choose from all the Notaries in Spain (you can search by zip code or municipality).

Once you have completed this screen, you must select the "Next" option (green button at the bottom right), which will take you to the final phase of the submission of your application, where a "Summary" screen will be displayed with all the information you have provided. 

After reviewing the summary, if everything is correct, simply select the "Send" option, so that, if the process has been carried out correctly, a final screen will appear with the message "Will application successfully completed". Also, as a confirmation, we will receive an Email and a SMS in our email and cell phone that are informed in the PNC.

Thus, once the application is successfully submitted, in a short period of time, your selected Notary will contact you to complete the process (which you can follow up in the NCP section of "My applications"), after which, on the day and time you agree with your Notary, you can go to the notary's office to sign your will, without further unnecessary procedures or delays.

What are the advantages of requesting my will online through the Notarial Citizen Portal?

As we have just seen, the possibility of requesting online the signing of a will is very useful for the citizen, since any person with testamentary capacity, from home, with his computer, can prepare his will, which is very useful for the citizen:

• It is convenient and time-saving, as you can start preparing your will and the necessary data how, when and where you want.
• Because you can choose the Notary you want to sign your will, in an easy, fast and simple way.
• Because thanks to this channel, if you need it, you can make a videoconsultation with your trusted Notary to solve all the doubts and concerns you may have in this regard.
• Because thanks to this process, you will be able to receive at your home the draft of your will, so that you can review it in depth, calmly and without haste, how, when and with whom you want.

In short, as we can see, although it is true that the signing of the will must be done in person at the notary's office of your trusted Notary, the truth is that this online process will save you a lot of time and will give you much more facilities and comfort, because thanks to it, you will be able to have your will in a much more modern and reflexive way and through a digital process, in such a way that the in-person process at the Notary's office will be limited to the reading and signing of your will, while all the previous preparation work can be done comfortably from wherever you want and whenever you want.

I have legal doubts about the figure of the will, where can I find information of interest to help me solve them?

If you have doubts about your will, beyond the advice that, of course, your Notary will give you, HERE you can find the corresponding section of our web page, where you can find a lot of interesting information about wills, requirements, aspects to take into account, etc., which, without a doubt, will be very useful for you to know in depth this institution and everything you need to know when granting a will.

Can I video-sign my will online?

Unfortunately, as a general rule, this is not currently permitted under existing regulations, since Law 11/2023 only allows video wills to be signed during a declared epidemic situation, for as long as the obligation of confinement lasts (as was the case, for example, during the Covid pandemic).

Thus, as we have indicated, except in exceptional situations, the final phase of obtaining our will, that is, its signature before a Notary, must be done in person at the Notary's office (but not the rest of the phases which, as we have analyzed, can be done online thanks to all the new features that Law 11/2023 brings us).

How can I resolve any doubts I may have about this process of online preparation of my will?

Of course, if you have any doubts about this process, the team of Notaría Jesús Benavides is at your disposal to solve them. You can contact us through our website (HERE) and, with pleasure, our specialists will try to help you with the whole process, if indeed you have the possibility and intention to formalize your will in our Notary's office.