Wills, formulas compared: only 0.1% choose the secret one

Giorgio Armani also wanted to be unique in the way he dictated his last will and testament: he made use of a 'secret' will, i.e. a formula that is used by 0.1% of testators (in 2024, only 83 secret, international and special wills were published out of more than 87,000). Approximately 79% of testators prefer the holographic will while 21% resort to the public will.

Alongside special forms of wills for very particular cases (such as the will drawn up on board a ship during a 'sea voyage' and received by the master: Article 611), the Italian Civil Code provides that the testamentary will may be dictated according tothree 'ordinary' forms (Article 601): the holographic will and the will 'per atto di notaio'; the latter may be 'public' or 'secret'. The holographic will (Article 602) is the one written in full, dated and signed 'by hand' by the testator. Its virtue is the ease of compilation, its drawbacks are the absence of qualified advice (unless the testator writes it with the assistance of an expert) and the risks pertaining to its preservation and retrieval once the succession opens.The public will (Article 603) is that written by the notary in the form of a public deed in the presence of two witnesses, once the testator, in this context, has expressed his will by confronting the culture and experience of the notary.

A secret will is one that the testator writes himself (it does not need to be autographed, it can be written on a computer and then printed out) or that he has written by a third party, by mechanical means or by hand: the important thing is that the testator signs it at the foot and also on each half-sheet if it is not written by him or if it is written by mechanical means. The paper containing the will (or the envelope in which the will is inserted) must then be sealed in such a way that it cannot be opened except by breaking the seal: this operation may be carried out personally by the testator or by a person he trusts or (as is usually the case) commissioned from a notary public. Finally, in the presence of two witnesses, the testator delivers the envelope thus formed and sealed to the notary, declaring that it contains the testator's last will and testament. The notary receives the envelope in deposit and on the same paper on which the will is written or wrapped by the testator (or on a further envelope prepared by the notary and then duly sealed), the notary draws up the deed of receipt of the secret will in which the fact of the delivery of the secret will and the declaration of the testator, the number and imprint of the seals and the assistance of the witnesses to all these formalities are indicated (sections 604 and 605).

It is widely held that the secret will combines the 'advantages' of the public will and the holographic will. Compared with the former, the secret will has the advantage of absolute secrecy (if the testator so wishes), as not even the notary and the witnesses do not know the content, whereas the notary (who is in any case bound by professional secrecy) and the witnesses know the content of the public will as the testator has dictated it in their presence. Compared with the holographic will, the secret will has the advantage of its preservation over time, which is entrusted to the diligence of the depositary notary while he is in office (and to the notarial archives after the notary ceases to hold office due to death, retirement, etc.); and it also has the merit of its recoverability, because the news of the drawing up of wills by notary (of course, not their contents) is entered in the General Register of Wills (in Italy kept by the Ministry of Justice) which can be queried by producing a death certificate of the deceased person whose will is being sought.

As in the case of the holograph, the secret will, on the other hand, has the defect that, if the testator does not seek expert advice (as appears to be the case, in certain limited respects, with Armani's will), he runs the risk of writing defective dispositions, either because they are not easily comprehensible, or because they are difficult to execute, or because they are affected by flaws that compromise their validity.