Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Wills in Thailand and the importance of witnesses.

There are a number of ways to draft a Will in Thailand legally. Practically in our opinion, there are really only a couple. Notably you will hear about so-called Holographic Wills; I think we did a video on that years ago, sort of handwritten Wills. Yeah depending on circumstances, that might be useful. For the most part not going to be an overly useful exercise in my opinion because there are a number formalities that have to be met and oftentimes people think they have met them and they in fact did not. 

But witnesses are a formality that really are something that come into the Will-making process that is something you need to bear in mind when making a Will. A witness doesn't necessarily have to be somebody who knows you or really has any personal relationship but just basically somebody to attest that the actual person associated with the document actually signed it; notarization helps as well. We do assist with many Wills drafted here in our office we also assist with notarization but witnesses are another key component and having multiple witnesses is a very good idea for purposes associated with the formalities associated with testamentary instruments also called Wills because at the time of going through what we call probate in the Common Law System, one of the main questions by many of the judges that would be associated with probate would be 'were the formalities met?', 'are there witnesses to the document?'. If that is the case, you are probably not going to have a lot of problem moving that document through the Courts and ultimately getting it to execute the way you want it to execute or the way that the person who made the Will intended. Without the proper witnesses and without the proper formalities, you could end up in a situation where the Will is not effectively put through the legal process and Judges are not willing to issue an order based solely on the Will. So for these problems, a good idea to forestall that may be to have proper witnesses at the outset.