A will executed when the testator is gravely ill, dying, or facing imminent death. While legally valid if properly executed, deathbed wills face heightened scrutiny because the testator may be vulnerable to influence or lack capacity due to illness or medication.
A will you make when you're dying—in hospital, a nursing home, or at home in your final days or weeks. These are legally valid but often challenged, especially if they change an earlier will or benefit caregivers.
⏱ When you'll encounter this term
- Someone makes or changes their will while seriously ill
- A will is signed in hospital shortly before death
- Long-standing arrangements are changed in final days
- A caregiver is suddenly added as a beneficiary
- Challenges to wills made under suspicious circumstances
"Mum made a new will three days before she died, leaving everything to her nurse instead of us kids. We're challenging it because she was heavily medicated and confused."
💡 Did you know?
Courts apply extra scrutiny to deathbed wills made in "suspicious circumstances"—like when a beneficiary helped prepare the will, or the testator was very frail or medicated. The burden of proof may shift to those defending the will.