Dutch Wills 2026: Testament, Codicil and the Central Register

A Dutch will is an uiterste wil, and Boek 4 of the Burgerlijk Wetboek is strict about its form. Almost every will in the Netherlands is a notarial deed, and the handwritten document that many people picture has, on its own, no legal effect at all.

The narrow exception is the codicil, which is real but far smaller than its reputation. A handwritten, dated and signed sheet can leave clothing, personal effects and specified jewellery, and specified household contents and specified books; it can keep those items outside a huwelijksgemeenschap; and it can designate a person under the Auteurswet and the Wet op de naburige rechten. It cannot name an heir, leave a sum of money or appoint an executeur.

Information last verified on 21 July 2026. This page provides general legal information about Netherlands law and does not constitute legal advice in an individual case.

The form requirement

Artikel 4:94 BW is short and closed. Subject to what artikelen 4:97 tot en met 4:107 BW provide, a will can be made only by a notarial deed (notariële akte) or by a private deed handed to a notaris for safekeeping.

Artikel 4:95 BW governs that second route. The private will must be signed by the deceased, and where it was written by someone else or by mechanical means and runs to more than one page, every page must be numbered and initialled by the deceased.

The document is then handed to a notaris, with a declaration that it contains the deceased's will and that those requirements were met (lid 3). The notaris draws up a deed of deposit, signed by both, and the will stays with that notaris's minutes (leden 4 and 6).

A person who could not read the will, through illiteracy or any other cause, cannot make a valid private will at all (lid 1). Artikel 4:96 BW puts the burden of proof on whoever challenges a deposited will for want of a signature or initials.

Artikel 4:93 BW adds a rule that surprises couples. A will made by two or more people in the same deed is void, so partners sign two separate wills even where the contents mirror each other, and either can later be revoked without the other person's involvement.

Wills made where no notaris can be reached

Artikelen 4:98 tot en met 4:104 BW provide a small set of emergency forms. Members of the armed forces in war or on a designated operation may make a will before an officer (artikel 4:98 BW), and people travelling on a seagoing vessel or an aircraft may do so before the captain or first officer (artikel 4:101 BW).

Artikel 4:102 BW covers places where normal contact with a notaris or consular officer is forbidden or broken by disasters, crises, fighting or infectious disease, allowing a will before a consular officer, a mayor, a municipal secretary or alderman, a kandidaat-notaris, an advocaat, a military or fire service officer, or an official designated for the purpose.

All of these require two witnesses and a signed written record (artikel 4:103 BW). They are also temporary: artikel 4:107 lid 1 BW makes such a will voidable where the deceased dies more than six months after the possibility of making one that way ended.

The codicil, and what it cannot do

Artikel 4:97 BW allows a document written entirely by hand by the deceased, dated and signed, to make dispositions without any further formality. The permitted subject matter is a closed list:

Everything outside that table needs a will. A codicil cannot appoint an heir, leave a sum of money or a bank balance, deal with a house, appoint an executeur or disinherit anyone.

The word specified is load-bearing in sub a. The provision contemplates named items rather than a category, so a codicil covering the whole contents of a house is doing the work of a will and does it without the form a will requires.

Funeral wishes are governed elsewhere

This is the point on which published guidance most often goes wrong. Funeral wishes do not appear anywhere in artikel 4:97 BW, and the list in that article is closed, so a codicil is not the instrument for them.

Artikel 19 lid 1 Wet op de lijkbezorging provides its own route, and a wider one. A person aged sixteen or over, even where they are not capable of making a will, may make dispositions about the disposal of their body either by notarial deed or by a handwritten, dated and signed declaration.

Artikel 18 lid 1 Wlb then binds whoever arranges the funeral: it takes place in accordance with the wish or the presumed wish of the deceased, unless that cannot reasonably be required. Lid 2 extends the same rule to what is done with the ashes after a cremation.

Artikel 19 lid 2 Wlb closes a gap that would otherwise catch people. A revocation of testamentary dispositions phrased in general terms is deemed not to revoke a funeral wish expressed earlier, so making a new will does not silently wipe out an existing instruction about the funeral.

Capacity, and who cannot benefit

Artikel 4:55 lid 1 BW opens the capacity to make a will to anyone with full legal capacity, to minors who have reached sixteen, and to people placed under curatele on grounds other than their physical or mental condition.

Lid 2 handles the remaining case. Someone under curatele because of their physical or mental condition may make testamentary dispositions only with the kantonrechter's permission, and the kantonrechter may attach conditions to it.

Lid 3 fixes the moment of assessment: capacity is judged by the state the deceased was in when the disposition was made, not later. That is what makes the notaris's own record of the meeting so important where capacity is afterwards questioned.

Several people are barred from taking a benefit at all. Artikel 4:57 BW excludes a guardian who held that office when the disposition was made, artikel 4:58 BW excludes a minor's teachers living in the same household, and artikel 4:59 BW excludes healthcare professionals and clergy who attended the deceased during the illness they died of.

Artikel 4:61 BW is the one that shapes how a will is executed in practice. The notaris or other person who executed the will or the deed of deposit, and the witnesses present, cannot be benefited by that will.

Artikel 4:60 BW then carves out two exceptions, and it does so to the two preceding articles, which are artikelen 4:58 and 4:59 BW. The guardian ban in artikel 4:57 BW is not among them, and carries its own exception in lid 3 for ascendants who are or have been the guardian. The two carve-outs are modest legacies rewarding services rendered, judged against both the deceased's means and the services, and dispositions in favour of a blood relative or relative by marriage within the fourth degree, or of the spouse.

Breach does not automatically destroy the will. Artikel 4:62 lid 1 BW makes such a disposition voidable, and only so far as annulment is needed to remove the prejudice to the person invoking it. Leden 2 and 3 extend that to benefits routed through an intermediary (tussenbeidekomende persoon). The excluded person's father, mother, descendants and spouse are presumed to be such an intermediary, except where they are themselves a blood relative in the direct line of the deceased, or the deceased's spouse.

The Centraal Testamentenregister

The Centraal Testamentenregister, the CTR, is the national index of wills. Artikel 1 lid 3 Wet op het centraal testamentenregister puts the Koninklijke Notariële Beroepsorganisatie in charge of setting it up and keeping it.

Artikel 1 lid 1 Wctr lists what goes in: notarial deeds containing wills or their revocation, deeds of deposit or return of a will, wills made under artikel 4:105 BW, deeds of appointment taking effect on death, and notarial gift agreements meant to be performed only after the giver's death.

Artikel 2 Wctr sets out the data recorded, and the list is the whole point of the register:

• the name, first names, place and date of birth of the person who had the deed executed
• the date of the deed
• the notaris, and the office number allocated by the Koninklijke Notariële Beroepsorganisatie
• the type of deed
• for a will, whether all earlier wills were revoked by it

The contents of the will are not in the register. The CTR answers whether a will exists, when it was made and who holds it, and nothing about what it says.

Artikel 6 lid 1 Wctr governs access after a death: information from the register about people who have died is given to anyone, free of charge. Before a death the register stays closed to third parties, and notaris.nl states that only the person themselves, their bewindvoerder or curator, or in certain cases someone holding a notarial power of attorney, can ask whether a living person has made a will.

A search therefore has two steps. The register identifies the notaris holding the deed, and the text is then requested from that notaris, who may disclose it only to directly interested parties such as the heirs or the executeur.

The Koninklijke Notariële Beroepsorganisatie sets out the request procedure on notaris.nl, where a CTR request can be made online, by email or by post. Notaris.nl gives three conditions for a digital request: the death occurred after 30 September 1994, the deceased both lived and died in the Netherlands, and no apostille from a rechtbank is required.

Changing or revoking a will

A will binds nobody during life and can be replaced at any time. Artikel 4:111 BW requires the same formalities for revoking a disposition as for making it, so a notarial will is revoked by a further notarial deed.

Artikel 4:112 BW deals with the common case where a new will does not say in terms that it revokes the old one. The earlier disposition lapses so far as the later one has made it unworkable or has replaced it, which leaves anything untouched by the new will still standing.

Artikel 4:113 BW allows the deceased to reclaim a deposited private will at any time, provided the return is recorded in a deed before the notaris holding it; the return itself revokes the will. Artikel 4:114 BW revokes a private will that was never deposited where the deceased destroys it, and destruction is presumed to have been their act.

What a will cannot override

Two rules limit what a Dutch will can achieve, and both are covered in full elsewhere in this section.

A descendant who is left out still has a claim in money. Only descendants are forced heirs (legitimarissen) under artikel 4:63 lid 2 BW, so the surviving spouse is not one, and the forced share page sets out how the claim is computed and the five-year deadline that ends it.

The statutory division of artikel 4:13 BW also applies unless the will excludes the whole afdeling, so a will that simply appoints the spouse and children as heirs leaves it in place. The Dutch inheritance page covers that division and the choice each heir then has to make about accepting or rejecting.

Erfbelasting is levied from the acquirer under artikel 36 Successiewet 1956, so how an estate is divided by will changes who pays and how much; the Dutch inheritance tax page has the rates and exemptions.

The wider structure of Dutch succession is set out on the Netherlands wills and estates section page, and the codes and offices referred to above on the Netherlands law overview.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does a Dutch will have to be made by a notaris?

In practice yes. Artikel 4:94 BW allows only two ordinary forms: a notarial deed, or a private deed handed to a notaris for safekeeping under artikel 4:95 BW, and the second still requires a notaris to draw up a deed of deposit. The only document that works without any notaris is the codicil of artikel 4:97 BW, whose subject matter is closed and very narrow.

What can a codicil cover in the Netherlands?

Artikel 4:97 BW allows a document written entirely by hand, dated and signed, to do three things and no more: make legacies of clothing, personal effects and specified jewellery, and of specified household contents and specified books; state that those items fall outside a huwelijksgemeenschap; and designate a person under artikel 25 lid 2 and lid 4 Auteurswet and artikel 5 lid 2 Wet op de naburige rechten. Anything else, including naming heirs, a sum of money, a house or an executeur, needs a will.

Can funeral wishes be put in a codicil?

The codicil list in artikel 4:97 BW is closed and does not include funeral wishes, so a codicil is not the instrument for them. Artikel 19 lid 1 Wet op de lijkbezorging provides a separate route: a person aged sixteen or over, even if they cannot make a will, may make dispositions about the disposal of their body either by notarial deed or by a handwritten, dated and signed declaration. Artikel 18 lid 1 Wlb then requires the funeral to follow the wish or presumed wish of the deceased unless that cannot reasonably be required.

How can it be established whether someone left a will?

Through the Centraal Testamentenregister, kept by the Koninklijke Notariële Beroepsorganisatie under artikel 1 lid 3 Wet op het centraal testamentenregister. Artikel 6 lid 1 Wctr makes information from it about deceased persons available to anyone, free of charge. The register shows only that a deed exists, its date, the notaris and the type of deed, so the text itself has to be requested from the notaris who holds it.

At what age can a will be made in the Netherlands?

Artikel 4:55 lid 1 BW sets sixteen as the age, alongside anyone with full legal capacity and a person placed under curatele on grounds other than their physical or mental condition. Someone under curatele because of their physical or mental condition may make a will only with the kantonrechter's permission, which may carry conditions (lid 2). Lid 3 makes capacity a question about the moment the disposition was made.

Can a Dutch will be changed or revoked?

Yes, and at any time. Artikel 4:111 BW requires the same formalities for revoking a disposition as for making it, so a notarial will is revoked by a further notarial deed. Artikel 4:112 BW has a later disposition override an earlier one so far as the earlier has become unworkable or has been replaced, artikel 4:113 BW treats withdrawing a deposited private will as a revocation, and artikel 4:114 BW treats destruction of a private will that was never deposited as one.

Can a couple make a single joint will in the Netherlands?

No. Artikel 4:93 BW declares void a will made by two or more people in the same deed, so partners sign separate wills even where the contents mirror each other. The practical consequence is that each will can be revoked independently, without the other person's agreement or knowledge.

Can a notaris or a witness inherit under the will they helped make?

No. Artikel 4:61 BW excludes the notaris or other person who executed the will or the deed of deposit, and the witnesses present, from being benefited by that will. Artikel 4:59 BW separately excludes healthcare professionals and clergy who attended the deceased during the illness they died of, subject to the exceptions in artikel 4:60 BW for modest legacies rewarding services and for close relatives. Artikel 4:62 lid 1 BW makes such a disposition voidable, and only so far as needed to remove the prejudice.