South Dakota Will and Trust Laws: Handwritten Wills, Video Witnesses

South Dakota recognizes two kinds of written will. A holographic will is valid "whether or not witnessed, if the signature and material portions of the document are in the testator's handwriting" (SDCL 29A-2-502(a)). Any other will must be in writing, signed by the testator, and signed in the testator's conscious presence by two or more individuals who witnessed the signing or the testator's acknowledgment (29A-2-502(b)), and since 2022 those witnesses may take part by video under SDCL 18-8-2, though a person signing the will for the testator must be with the testator in person (18-8-1(5)). The testator must be 18 or older and of sound mind (29A-2-501).

Living trusts work differently in South Dakota than in most states. South Dakota has its own trust law in Title 55 of the Codified Laws rather than the Uniform Trust Code, and under SDCL 55-3-6 a trust is irrevocable unless its terms expressly reserve to the settlor a power to revoke or modify it. That reverses the revocable-by-default rule many readers expect from other wills and trusts laws by state.

Information last verified on 2026-10-20. This article has not been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

Jurisdiction scope: This article covers South Dakota statutes on making, signing, changing and revoking wills (SDCL Title 29A, South Dakota's Uniform Probate Code), remote witnessing of wills (SDCL chapter 18-8), and living trusts (SDCL Title 55). It does not cover what happens when someone dies without a will or how estate administration works (see South Dakota probate), small-estate procedures (see the South Dakota small estate affidavit page), powers of attorney (see South Dakota power of attorney laws), or taxes. A living will is a health-care directive, not a will; see the South Dakota advance directive tool.

What makes a will valid in South Dakota?

Age and capacity

Section 29A-2-501 is one sentence: "An individual eighteen or more years of age who is of sound mind may make a will." The section contains no exception for a married or emancipated person under 18.

Holographic wills

South Dakota accepts a will in the testator's own handwriting without witnesses:

"A will is valid as a holographic will, whether or not witnessed, if the signature and material portions of the document are in the testator's handwriting." (SDCL 29A-2-502(a))

The test is the signature and the "material portions," not every word. Section 29A-2-502(c) adds: "Intent that the document constitute the testator's will can be established by extrinsic evidence, including, for holographic wills, portions of the document that are not in the testator's handwriting."

Witnessed (non-holographic) wills

Every will that does not qualify as holographic must meet 29A-2-502(b):

"(b) A will not valid as a holographic will must be: (1) In writing; (2) Signed by the testator or in the testator's name by some other individual in the testator's conscious presence and by the testator's direction; and (3) Signed in the conscious presence of the testator by two or more individuals who, in the conscious presence of the testator, witnessed either the signing of the will or the testator's acknowledgment of that signature." (SDCL 29A-2-502(b))

Three points follow from the text:

• Two or more witnesses, each of whom signs in the testator's conscious presence.
• What the witnesses must see: either the signing itself or the testator's acknowledgment of the signature, in the testator's conscious presence.
• No notary and no declaration that the document is a will. Notarization comes in only through the optional self-proving affidavit.

Who may witness

Under 29A-2-505, "(a) An individual generally competent to be a witness may act as a witness to a will. (b) The signing of a will by an interested witness does not invalidate the will or any provision of it." A beneficiary who witnesses a South Dakota will does not lose the gift because of it.

Wills signed in another state

Under 29A-2-506, "A written will is valid if executed in compliance with § 29A-2-502 or 29A-2-503 or if its execution complies with the law at the time of execution of the jurisdiction where the will is executed, or of the law of the jurisdiction where at the time of execution or at the time of death the testator is domiciled, has a place of abode, or is a national."

Witnessing a will by video (since 2022)

South Dakota allows witnesses, and only witnesses, to attend a will signing by video. Chapter 18-8 was added by Senate Bill 107 (2022 Session Laws chapter 56), which the Governor signed on March 24, 2022, and which took effect July 1, 2022. Section 18-8-2 provides:

"A non-holographic will is validly signed when signed in the electronic presence of the testator by two or more individuals who, in the electronic presence of the testator, witnessed either the signing of the will or the testator's acknowledgment of that signature." (SDCL 18-8-2)

The conditions in the text:

• It applies to a non-holographic will. A holographic will needs no witnesses at all.
• Two or more individuals must sign, and each must do so in the testator's electronic presence.
• Each must have witnessed, in the testator's electronic presence, either the signing of the will or the testator's acknowledgment of the signature.
• "Electronic presence" is defined in 18-8-1 as "the relationship of two or more individuals in different locations communicating by means of video communication technology."
• Real-time video. The technology must let the signer and the remote witnesses "communicate in real-time simultaneously by sight and sound" and make any necessary reasonable accommodation for individuals with vision, hearing or speech impairments (18-8-1(4)).
• A proxy signer must be in the room. Chapter 18-8 treats as a signer "an individual who directs another person to sign for the signer in the physical presence of the signer" (18-8-1(5)), so a person signing the testator's name at the testator's direction does so in the testator's physical presence; only the witnesses attend by video.

Chapter 18-8 is not limited to wills. Its definition of "instrument" covers "a will, a declaration, a power of attorney, a pre-need cremation authorization, or an anatomical gift or refusal to make an anatomical gift of the individual's body or part thereof" (18-8-1(3)). The chapter changes how witnesses may be present; 29A-2-502(b) still requires a will "in writing."

Notarization by video is governed by separate notary sections. Under 18-1-11.1, a South Dakota notarial officer, while located in South Dakota, may perform a notarial act on a tangible document signed by a person observed through video communication technology if the officer, among other conditions, "Has personal knowledge of the identity of a person through dealings sufficient to provide reasonable certainty that the person has the identity being claimed." For electronic records, 18-1-11.2 (added in 2024) requires the officer to have "personal knowledge, by means of two different methods of identity proofing, that the person has the identity being claimed," among other conditions.

Does a South Dakota will need to be notarized? The self-proving option

No notary is part of the 29A-2-502 signing rule. Notarization is used for the optional self-proving procedure:

"(a) A will may be simultaneously executed, attested, and made self-proved, by acknowledgment thereof by the testator and affidavits of the witnesses, each made before an officer authorized to administer oaths under the laws of the state in which execution occurs and evidenced by the officer's certificate, under official seal, in substantially the following form:" (SDCL 29A-2-504(a))

The statutory form follows in the section itself; this page does not reproduce it. Section 29A-2-504(b) provides a second form for making an attested will self-proved after it was signed. Under 29A-2-504(c), "A signature affixed to a self-proving affidavit attached to a will is considered a signature affixed to the will, if necessary to prove the will's due execution."

Self-proof matters at probate. Under 29A-3-406, "If the will is self-proved, compliance with signature requirements for execution is conclusively presumed and other requirements of execution are presumed subject to rebuttal without the testimony of any witness upon filing the will and the acknowledgment and affidavits annexed or attached thereto, unless there is proof of fraud or forgery affecting the acknowledgment or affidavit."

Harmless error: when execution is imperfect

South Dakota has adopted the Uniform Probate Code's dispensing power:

"Although a document or writing added upon a document was not executed in compliance with § 29A-2-502, the document or writing is treated as if it had been executed in compliance with that section if the proponent of the document or writing establishes by clear and convincing evidence that the decedent intended the document or writing to constitute (i) the decedent's will, (ii) a partial or complete revocation of the will, (iii) an addition to or an alteration of the will, or (iv) a partial or complete revival of a formerly revoked will or of a formerly revoked portion of the will." (SDCL 29A-2-503)

The burden is on the person offering the document, and the standard is clear and convincing evidence of the decedent's intent.

Are oral (nuncupative) wills valid?

No. Section 29A-2-502(b)(1) requires a non-holographic will to be "In writing," and a holographic will under 29A-2-502(a) depends on the testator's handwriting. Part 5 of Article 2 (sections 29A-2-501 through 29A-2-517) contains no provision for an oral will.

Changing or revoking a South Dakota will

Methods of revocation

A will or part of it is revoked by a later will that revokes it expressly or by inconsistency, or by a revocatory act under 29A-2-507(a): "By performing a revocatory act on the will, if the testator performed the act with the intent and for the purpose of revoking the will or part or if another individual performed the act in the testator's conscious presence and by the testator's direction." When a later will does not say what it does to the earlier one, "The testator is presumed to have intended a subsequent will to replace rather than supplement a previous will if the subsequent will makes a complete disposition of the testator's estate" (29A-2-507).

Reviving a revoked will

Under 29A-2-509(a), when a later will that wholly revoked an earlier one is itself revoked by a revocatory act, "the previous will is revived only if it is evident from the circumstances of the revocation of the subsequent will or from the testator's contemporary or subsequent statements that the testator intended the previous will to take effect as executed."

If the later will only partly revoked the earlier one, the revoked part is revived unless the circumstances or the testator's statements show the testator did not intend it to take effect (29A-2-509(b)). If the later will is revoked by a still later will, the earlier will is revived only "to the extent that it appears from the terms of the later will that the testator intended the previous will to take effect" (29A-2-509(c)).

Divorce and annulment

Under 29A-2-508, "Except as provided in §§ 29A-2-803 and 29A-2-804, a change of circumstances does not revoke a will or any part of it." Section 29A-2-804 is the divorce rule:

"Except as provided by the express terms of a governing instrument, a court order, or a contract relating to the division of the marital estate made between the divorced individuals before or after the marriage, divorce, or annulment, the divorce or annulment of a marriage: (1) Revokes any revocable (i) disposition or appointment of property made by a divorced individual to a former spouse in a governing instrument and any disposition or appointment created by law or in a governing instrument to a relative of the divorced individual's former spouse," (SDCL 29A-2-804)

The conditions that shape it:

• The instrument must predate the divorce. For this section, ""Governing instrument" means a will, trust, or other governing instrument executed by the divorced individual before the divorce or annulment of the individual's marriage to the former spouse" (29A-2-804(a)(4)).
• Only revocable dispositions and appointments are revoked.
• Relatives of the former spouse lose revocable gifts too, not only the former spouse.
• Express terms, a court order or a marital-estate contract between the divorced individuals can keep the gift in place.
• Fiduciary roles too. The rule also revokes a revocable power of appointment for, and any revocable nomination of, the former spouse or the former spouse's relative "to serve in any fiduciary or representative capacity, including a personal representative, executor, trustee, conservator, agent, or guardian" (29A-2-804(b)(1)).
• Joint survivorship property is severed. Divorce or annulment "severs the interests of the former spouses in property held by them at the time of the divorce or annulment as joint tenants with the right of survivorship, transforming the interests of the former spouses into tenancies in common" (29A-2-804(b)(2)). A good-faith purchaser for value is protected unless a writing declaring the severance was recorded (29A-2-804(c)).
• Separation is not divorce. "A decree of separation that does not terminate the status of husband and wife is not a divorce for purposes of this section" (29A-2-804(a)(2)).
• Remarriage revives. "Provisions revoked solely by this section are revived by the divorced individual's remarriage to the former spouse or by a nullification of the divorce or annulment" (29A-2-804(e)).

South Dakota's code-wide definition of governing instrument is broad: it "means a deed, will, trust, insurance or annuity policy, POD account, security registered in beneficiary form (TOD), pension, profit-sharing, retirement, or similar benefit plan, instrument creating or exercising a power of appointment or a power of attorney, or a dispositive, appointive, or nominative instrument of any similar type" (29A-1-201(19)). Read with 29A-2-804, the rule reaches a revocable trust and revocable beneficiary designations made to the former spouse before the divorce, on the same conditions.

For employer plans governed by ERISA, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Egelhoff v. Egelhoff, 532 U.S. 141 (2001), that federal law pre-empts a state statute revoking a spouse's beneficiary designation on divorce as applied to those plans (see the wills and trusts hub).

A related definition sits in 29A-2-802: "An individual who is divorced from the decedent or whose marriage to the decedent has been annulled is not a surviving spouse unless, by virtue of a subsequent marriage, the individual is married to the decedent at the time of death."

Homicide

Under 29A-2-803, "An individual who feloniously and intentionally kills the decedent forfeits all benefits under this chapter with respect to the decedent's estate, including an intestate share, an elective share, an omitted spouse's or child's share, a homestead allowance, exempt property, and a family allowance."

Keeping and delivering the will

A testator may deposit a will with a court during life: "A will may be deposited by the testator or the testator's agent with any court for safekeeping" (29A-2-515). After death, under 29A-2-516, "on request of an interested person, a person having custody of a will of the testator shall deliver it with reasonable promptness to an appropriate court or to a person able to secure its probate. A person who willfully fails to deliver a will is liable to any person aggrieved for any damages that may be sustained by the failure." The probate process is covered on the South Dakota probate page.

Limits on what a South Dakota will can do

Spouse's elective share. Under 29A-2-202(a), "The surviving spouse of a decedent who dies domiciled in this State has a right of election, under the limitations and conditions stated in this Part, to take an elective-share amount equal to the value of the elective-share percentage of the augmented estate, determined by the length of time the spouse and the decedent were married to each other." The percentage in the section's schedule runs from 3 percent after one year of marriage up to 50 percent after 15 years or more. Section 29A-2-202(b) adds a supplemental amount: the spouse "is entitled to take a supplemental elective-share amount equal to $50,000, minus the sum of the amounts described in those sections."

The augmented estate reaches beyond the will. It includes, among other things, "Property over which the decedent alone, immediately before death, held a presently exercisable general power of appointment" (29A-2-205(1)(i)), and property transferred during the marriage over which the decedent kept a power "exercisable by the decedent alone or in conjunction with any other person, or exercisable by a nonadverse party, to or for the benefit of the decedent" (29A-2-205(2)(ii)). The petition must be filed "within nine months after the date of the decedent's death, or within four months after the admission to either informal or formal probate of the will of the decedent to which the election applies, whichever limitation later expires" (29A-2-211(a)). But the decedent's nonprobate transfers to others "are not included within the augmented estate for the purpose of computing the elective share if the petition is filed more than nine months after the decedent's death or beyond the time extended by the court" on a petition for extension filed within those nine months (29A-2-211(a), (b)).

Omitted spouse. A spouse who married the testator after the will "is entitled to receive, as an intestate share, no less than the value of the share of the estate the surviving spouse would have received if the testator had died intestate," unless an exception listed in 29A-2-301(a) applies.

Omitted children. Under 29A-2-302(a), "If the testator had no child living when the will was executed, the omitted after-born or after-adopted child receives a share in the estate equal in value to that which the child would have received had the testator died intestate, unless the will devised all or substantially all of the estate to the other parent of the omitted child and that other parent survives the testator and is entitled to take under the will." Different rules in the same section apply when the testator had children living when the will was signed.

Gifts to people who die first. Under 29A-2-702, "an individual who does not survive an event, including the death of another individual, by 120 hours is deemed to have predeceased the event." South Dakota's anti-lapse rule saves a gift to a deceased devisee only if "(i) the devisee is a grandparent, a descendant of a grandparent, a stepchild, or a descendant of the stepchild of the testator and (ii) the devisee left descendants who survive the testator" (29A-2-603(a)).

No-contest clauses in wills. "A provision in a will purporting to penalize an interested person for contesting the will or instituting other proceedings relating to the estate is unenforceable if probable cause exists for instituting proceedings" (29A-2-517; 29A-3-905 uses the same words). Trusts follow a different rule, covered below.

What heirs receive without a will is covered on the South Dakota probate page.

Living trusts in South Dakota

South Dakota's own trust law

South Dakota has not adopted the Uniform Trust Code. Its trust statutes are in Title 55 of the Codified Laws, whose chapters include "Classification And Creation Of Trusts" (chapter 55-1), "Directed Trusts" (55-1B), "Express Trusts For Third Party Beneficiaries" (55-3) and the "Uniform Trusts Act" (55-4), an older uniform act.

Creating a trust

Section 55-1-4 sets the test:

"An express trust is created as to the trustor and beneficiary by any words or acts of the trustor indicating with reasonable certainty: (1) An intention on the part of the trustor to create a trust; and (2) The subject, purpose, and beneficiary of the trust. Any express trust that concerns real property shall also be evidenced in writing." (SDCL 55-1-4)

Chapters 55-1, 55-3 and 55-4 contain no witness or notary requirement for a living trust instrument and no separate section on the capacity needed to create one. The writing requirement in 55-1-4 applies to a trust that concerns real property.

Two more sections support the usual living-trust structure. Under 55-1-15, "A trust which provides for one or more successor beneficiaries upon the death of the trustor is not invalid, merged or terminated if: (1) There is a trustor who is the sole trustee and the sole beneficiary during the trustor's lifetime;" along with the section's other conditions. Under 55-1-55, a trust is valid and enforceable even if it is not funded at a given time, or from time to time, or does not initially contain any asset. Registration is optional: the trustee of a trust administered in South Dakota "may register the trust in the court of this state at the principal place of administration" (55-1-56).

Irrevocable unless the power is reserved

This is South Dakota's central trust rule:

"Unless the terms of a trust expressly reserve a power to the settlor to revoke or modify a trust, a trust shall be irrevocable." (SDCL 55-3-6)

A trust meant to be revocable must therefore say so expressly.

A trust that is irrevocable can still be changed in limited ways: under 55-3-24 it "may be modified or terminated by the written consent of the trustor and all beneficiaries," or by judicial action or the written consent of all beneficiaries where continuing it on its existing terms is not necessary to carry out a material purpose, with written notice to the fiduciaries thirty days before the change takes effect unless the notice is waived.

How to revoke or amend

Chapter 55-3 does not prescribe a statutory method for revoking a revocable trust. Section 55-3-23 lists revocation among the ways a trust ends ("a trust terminates if: ... (4) The trust is revoked"), so the method is the one set by the power the trust instrument reserves.

Divorce and trusts

The divorce rule in 29A-2-804, described above, applies to a "will, trust, or other governing instrument" signed before the divorce, so revocable trust provisions for a former spouse and the former spouse's relatives are revoked on the same conditions.

While the settlor is alive

Under 55-2-14, unless the trust instrument provides otherwise, the trustee of a revocable trust "does not have a duty to inform a trust beneficiary of the trust and its administration, other than the settlor or, if the trustor is an incapacitated person, the trustor's designated agent."

Certificate of trust

A trustee does not have to show the whole trust. Under 55-4-51, "one or more trustees may furnish to the person a certificate of trust signed by a trustee, settlor, grantor, or trustor containing the following:" followed by the list of required contents in the section.

After the settlor dies

Notice. Once a revocable trust becomes irrevocable, 55-2-13 requires the trustee to notify the qualified beneficiaries "within sixty days after the date the trustee acquires knowledge that a formerly revocable trust has become irrevocable," unless the instrument or the trustor's written directions provide otherwise. The section's notice rules apply to trusts created, amended or restated after June 30, 2002.

Creditors. Under 55-4-58(a), "the property of a trust that was revocable at the settlor's death is subject to claims of the settlor's creditors, costs of administration of the settlor's estate, the expenses of the settlor's funeral and disposal of remains, and statutory allowances to a surviving spouse and children to the extent the settlor's probate estate is inadequate to satisfy those claims, costs, and expenses."

The contest deadline. South Dakota's window is short:

"A judicial proceeding to contest whether a revocable trust or any amendment thereto, or an irrevocable trust was validly created may not be commenced later than the first to occur of: (1) One year after the settlor's death; (2) Sixty days after the trustee, trust advisor, trust protector, or the settlor sent the person who is contesting the trust a copy of the trust instrument and a notice informing the person of the trust's existence, of the trustee's name and address, and of the time allowed for commencing a proceeding;" (SDCL 55-4-57(a))

The section lists further events after these two; the deadline is whichever listed event comes first.

No-contest clauses in trusts

Trusts have their own, stricter rule. Under 55-1-46, "Except as provided in §§ 55-1-47 to 55-1-51, inclusive, a no contest clause shall be enforced unless probable cause exists for instituting the proceeding on the grounds of: (1) Fraud; (2) Duress; (3) Revocation; (4) Lack of contractual capacity; (5) Undue influence; (6) Mistake; (7) Forgery; or (8) Irregularity in the execution of the trust document." Under 55-1-49, a no-contest clause "is enforceable against a beneficiary to the extent the beneficiary elects to contest or otherwise challenge the settlor's signature" if "the settlor's signature was witnessed by nonrelative witnesses or a duly qualified nonrelative notary public or both."

Pour-over wills

A will may leave property to the trustee of a trust. Section 29A-2-511 provides that the devise "is not invalid because the trust is amendable or revocable, or because the trust was amended after the execution of the will or the testator's death." But "Unless the testator's will provides otherwise, a revocation or termination of the trust before the testator's death causes the devise to lapse" (29A-2-511(c)).

Section 29A-2-513 separately allows a list of certain tangible personal property outside the will: "the writing must be signed by the testator and must describe the items and the devisees with reasonable certainty."

South Dakota wills and trusts at a glance

Recent changes

• Senate Bill 107 (2022 Session Laws chapter 56). Signed March 24, 2022 and effective July 1, 2022, it created chapter 18-8, which lets witnesses to a non-holographic will act in the testator's electronic presence by video; a person signing for the testator must still be physically present.
• 2024 Session Laws chapter 71. Added 18-1-11.2 on remote online notarization of electronic records.
• Senate Bill 100 (2026 Session Laws chapter 198). Signed by the Governor on March 10, 2026, it amended Title 55 effective July 1, 2026 (SDCL 2-14-16). Among other changes, property given from a revocable trust during the trustor's lifetime to a beneficiary other than the trustor "is not treated as an advancement against the beneficiary's share" unless the trustor or beneficiary declares otherwise in writing. It is not a rule on how wills or trusts are validly made.

Making a will in practice

The site's free South Dakota will-maker tool can help draft a basic will. Whatever produces the document, signing must follow 29A-2-502: a typed will needs two witnesses who sign in the testator's conscious or electronic presence (only the witnesses may be remote; anyone signing for the testator must be physically present), and the optional self-proving acknowledgment and affidavits under 29A-2-504 simplify proof at probate. A living trust drafted in South Dakota must expressly reserve the power to revoke if it is meant to be revocable (55-3-6). Complex estates, blended families, business interests or tax questions are reasons to consult a lawyer licensed in South Dakota. The tool is not legal advice.

Members of the armed forces have one federal option as well: under 10 U.S.C. 1044d, a military testamentary instrument is exempt from state formalities and has the same legal effect as a will executed under the law of the state where it is presented for probate (see the wills and trusts hub for the federal layer).

Related pages

• Wills and trusts laws by state
• South Dakota probate
• South Dakota small estate affidavit
• South Dakota power of attorney laws

This article provides general legal information about South Dakota law on wills and trusts as of 2026-10-20. It is not legal advice. For advice about a specific situation, contact a lawyer licensed in South Dakota or the clerk of courts in your county.

Last updated: 2026-10-20.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is a handwritten will valid in South Dakota?

Yes. Under SDCL 29A-2-502(a), a will is valid as a holographic will, whether or not witnessed, if the signature and material portions of the document are in the testator's handwriting.

How many witnesses does a will need in South Dakota?

A will that is not holographic needs two or more witnesses who sign in the testator's conscious presence and who, in that presence, witnessed the signing or the testator's acknowledgment of the signature (29A-2-502(b)). Under 18-8-2, the witnesses may instead sign in the testator's electronic presence by video; a person signing for the testator must still be in the testator's physical presence (18-8-1(5)).

Can will witnesses appear by video in South Dakota?

Yes, since July 1, 2022. Under SDCL 18-8-2, a non-holographic will is validly signed when two or more individuals sign in the testator's electronic presence and, in that electronic presence, witnessed the signing or the testator's acknowledgment. Electronic presence means individuals in different locations communicating by video communication technology (18-8-1). Only the witnesses may be remote: a person who signs the will for the testator must do so in the testator's physical presence (18-8-1(5)).

Does a will have to be notarized in South Dakota?

No. A notary or other officer authorized to administer oaths is used only to make a will self-proved under 29A-2-504, so that, without witness testimony, compliance with the signature requirements is conclusively presumed and the other execution requirements are presumed subject to rebuttal, unless there is proof of fraud or forgery affecting the acknowledgment or affidavit (29A-3-406(b)).

Are oral wills valid in South Dakota?

No. A non-holographic will must be in writing (29A-2-502(b)), and a holographic will depends on the testator's handwriting (29A-2-502(a)).

Does divorce revoke a will in South Dakota?

Divorce or annulment revokes revocable gifts to the former spouse and the former spouse's relatives in a will signed before the divorce, unless the will, a court order or a marital-estate contract provides otherwise, and remarriage to the former spouse revives them (29A-2-804(e)). The same section reaches trusts and other governing instruments; see the divorce section above.

Is a living trust revocable in South Dakota?

Only if its terms say so. Under SDCL 55-3-6, unless the terms of a trust expressly reserve to the settlor a power to revoke or modify it, the trust is irrevocable.

How long do you have to contest a revocable trust in South Dakota?

Under 55-4-57(a), the deadline is the first to occur of one year after the settlor's death, sixty days after the trustee or another listed person sent the contestant a copy of the trust and the required notice, or another event listed in the section.

What is the spouse's elective share in South Dakota?

A percentage of the augmented estate set by the length of the marriage, from 3 percent after one year to 50 percent after 15 years or more, with a supplemental amount of $50,000 minus the amounts described in 29A-2-202(b). The petition is due within nine months after death or four months after the will is admitted to probate, whichever is later, but filing after nine months excludes nonprobate transfers unless the court extended the time (29A-2-211).