valid holographic will?

What is the name of the state? California (I am not from CA, CA is where this is taking place)


Recently our family has found a long-lost direct cousin we all lost contact with. He died leaving a large estate and NO will, despite his personal lawyer advising him to do so the last few years of his life.

Suddenly, as his house is being cleaned out, a page out of spiral notebook of questionable origin is found naming a woman who has vague connections and is certainly unrelated to him as sole heir. The page is all in hand-writing, it is NOT dated, and is not signed with his legal name, just what he calls a "nickname" which is preceded by "A.K.A." There are no witnesses on it either. There are no other hand-writing samples available. There ARE several other relatives who are contesting this but I heard CA courts are very loose and bend the probate laws a lot and might even validate this "holographic" will.


Any thoughts?

where did the cousin live?

He lived in CA, in some municipality between Oakland and San Jose.

Section 6110 of the California Probate Code controls a Holographic Will. Under the code the will does NOT have to be witnessed if completely in his hand and signed by him. However, there are two questions regarding the will's validity which may result in it's being found invalid.

1. It is signed with an alias and;
2. it is not dated.

Both are required for the Holographic will to be valid.