Two neighbors sign your will once, at the kitchen table, and that's supposed to be the end of their involvement. Without a self-proving affidavit stapled to the back of that will, it usually isn't: your executor may still have to track those same two people down years later and pull them into an Indiana probate court to swear, again, that they watched you sign it. That one page is one of the simplest probate shortcuts in estate planning, and it's exactly the kind of DIY legal step WillMaker builds in as a single checkbox, if you don't click past it.
Most of the questions I get aren't about paperwork mechanics, they're about whether the notary trip is worth it at all, the kind of question that comes up while you're re-reading a clause for the third time with nothing but the refrigerator humming behind you. It is worth it, and here's what that trip actually buys you, question by question, instead of one long story.
What a Self-Proving Affidavit Actually Does
A self-proving affidavit is a sworn statement, signed by you and your witnesses in front of a notary, that gets stapled to the back of your will. Think of it as a pre-verified hold: instead of the probate court pulling your will off the shelf and demanding proof the signatures are real, the affidavit already answers that question. Without it, the court can still accept the will, but your executor has to go find the original witnesses, or find some other way to prove the handwriting is genuine, before anything moves forward. The exact wording WillMaker prints on that page is a separate rabbit hole; what matters here is what happens once it's signed and notarized.
Do You Need a Notary, a Witness, or Both?
Both, and they're not interchangeable. Indiana requires two witnesses for a will to be valid at all, full stop, no notary needed for that part of the process. In practice that just means finding two people willing to sit at the table for five minutes, one of mine happened to be a neighbor who fosters rescue cats between adoptions and signed between drop-offs. Handwritten wills without witnesses, the kind people picture scrawled on a napkin, aren't recognized in Indiana no matter how sincere the handwriting looks. The affidavit is the separate layer that needs a notary: witnesses swear to your state of mind and your signature, the notary swears to the identity of everyone in the room. Skip the notary and the will can still be valid, technically, it just doesn't prove itself anymore.
My mother's notarized power of attorney taught me how much that second layer matters, even though it's a completely different document from a will. I remember her holding the laminated page up near the window after the notary stamped it, checking it like she didn't quite believe one piece of paper could do that much, visibly less rattled than she'd been an hour earlier. A self-proving affidavit does the same job for a will: it turns a document people have to take on faith into one that already carries its own proof.
The WillMaker Checkbox Most People Skip
WillMaker asks, in one line, whether you want to add this page, and it's easy to click past it thinking the witness clause already covers you. It doesn't, not on its own. The checkbox produces a separate signing page with its own instructions, and the software's beneficiary worksheet, the part where you name who gets what, is a completely different fork in the process with nothing to do with this step. Treat the two as unrelated errands: naming your people is one job, proving your signatures is another.
Is Indiana Different From Other States Here?
Yes, in a few specific ways worth knowing before you assume a national template covers you. Indiana's two-witness rule is stricter than states that accept just one, and Indiana won't recognize a will written entirely in your own handwriting with no witnesses, something a handful of other states still allow. Some states require a notary just to make the will itself valid; Indiana doesn't, it only requires one for this affidavit page. None of that changes because you used DIY software instead of a lawyer. The rules apply the same regardless of who typed the document.
What a Self-Proving Affidavit Doesn't Cover
This page proves your will and stops there. A durable power of attorney covers decisions made while you're still alive and comes with its own separate signing rules. A living will spells out medical wishes for a time when you can't speak for yourself and has nothing to do with probate. A revocable living trust moves property outside of probate entirely instead of just smoothing the process after you're gone, and a transfer-on-death deed does something similar for one specific piece of real estate. None of those four documents get any easier or harder because you added a self-proving affidavit to your will. They're just neighbors on the same shelf.
It also won't finish anyone's final tax return. I found that out when I tried running an estate return through TurboTax and it stalled the moment it asked about probate schedules I didn't have in hand yet, a completely separate fight from getting the will itself in order. Pairing your notarized will with a how to write a letter of instruction for your executor online gives whoever handles your estate the reasoning behind your choices, not just the paperwork. And if the estate turns out to be small enough, a notarized will can make it easier to qualify for a small estate affidavit for parents instead of a full probate case.
Is the Extra Step Worth It for DIY Estate Planning?
For most households doing estate planning without a lawyer, yes, and the math is straightforward: the affidavit costs maybe twenty minutes and one stop at a notary, against months of your executor chasing down two people who might have moved, or worse. If your estate is a house, a car, and a handful of accounts, add the page and be done with it. If you're dealing with a blended family, a disputed relationship, or assets nobody agrees on, that's the moment to stop treating this as a DIY project and put it in front of an actual attorney, because probate shortcuts stop working the moment someone decides to fight.
None of this replaces real legal advice once a situation gets complicated, and no software checkbox changes that math. For a straightforward will, though, the self-proving affidavit is about the cheapest safeguard you'll add all year against a probate court that has no reason to take your witnesses' word for anything.