The ordinary forms of will provided for by law are the holographic will and the will notarised by a Notary Public. A will notarised by a Notary Public can be either public or secret.

The two names should not be misleading: in both cases, the document remains strictly secret throughout the testator’s lifetime. In view of the secondary importance of the secret will, we shall refer only to the public will. The holographic will must be written in full, dated and signed by the testator. The signature must be placed at the end of the testamentary provisions. The date must include the day, month and year. The holographic will can therefore be drawn up independently by a person, even without the presence of a Notary Public. The public will, on the other hand, is received by the Notary Public in the presence of two witnesses; in other words, it is a proper notarial deed.

In a public will, the testator declares his/her will to the Notary Public in the presence of the witnesses and the Notary Public writes it down. The Notary Public then reads the will to the testator in the presence of the witnesses. The public will contains an indication of the place and date of receipt of the will and the time of signing, and must be signed by the testator, the witnesses and the Notary Public.

The law provides for special formalities in the case of a public will, in the event that the testator is unable to sign (or can only sign with great difficulty) and for the will of a speech impaired, hearing impaired or hearing and speech impaired person, while other formalities are provided for secret wills and special wills. A will is a document of great legal importance and must be drawn up with due care and attention in order, on the one hand, to avoid the invalidity of the will itself and, on the other hand, to achieve the effects intended by the testator within the limits of the law. The holographic will, for example, has the advantage of being drawn up even without the presence of a Notary Public, but it does not offer adequate guarantees of preservation, since it may be lost or destroyed and may even be invalid if it is not drawn up in accordance with the law.

In practice, it is not unusual for serious problems to arise with wills drawn up without the assistance of a legal expert. For these reasons, the role of the Notary Public in testamentary matters is very significant:– at the time of drawing up the will, since the Notary Public, in addition to being able to provide all the information necessary to prevent the will from being invalidated, is also the person authorised by law to receive the public will and, in any event, to inform the testator of the various ways in which the law provides for the succession of the estate; – after death, the Notary Public will ensure the publication of the holographic will left by the deceased as well as the registration of the public will; furthermore, the Notary Public, when drawing up the will, will inform in detail the testator about the specific application of the rules of inheritance in force in the particular case.