How to Make a Simple Will (Without Paying $1,000)

Roughly two-thirds of American adults don't have a will. Not because it's expensive — a valid simple will costs between $0 and $200 — but because it requires an hour of thinking about your own death, and there's always a more appealing hour available. Here's what that avoidance actually buys: if you die without a will, your state's intestacy statute decides who gets everything, a judge decides who raises your minor children, and your family handles all of it while grieving, on the court's timeline.

The state's default rules are not neutral, either. Depending on where you live, an unmarried partner of twenty years may get nothing, an estranged parent may inherit, and assets may split between a spouse and children in proportions nobody would have chosen. A simple will fixes all of this in an afternoon.

What a will does — and the big thing it doesn't

• Names who inherits your assets: money, property, possessions, and the sentimental items families actually fight over.
• Names a guardian for minor children. For parents, this is the single most important clause in the document — without it, a judge chooses, possibly from competing relatives.
• Names an executor: the person who pays final bills, files paperwork, and distributes everything. Pick someone organized who can deal with institutions, and name a backup.
• Can name who cares for pets and set aside money for them.
• Does NOT control accounts with beneficiary designations. Life insurance, 401(k)s, IRAs, and any bank account with a payable-on-death designation go to the named beneficiary regardless of what the will says. An ex-spouse still listed on a 401(k) from 2011 generally beats the will. Reviewing your beneficiary designations is arguably more important than the will itself — do both.

Your options, cheapest to most thorough

1. FreeWill.com — actually free. A nonprofit-funded service that walks you through a legally valid simple will in about 20 minutes. The catch is a mild pitch to leave a charitable bequest, which you can skip. For a straightforward situation, this is the best price in estate planning.
2. Paid online services ($100-$250): Trust & Will, LegalZoom, Nolo's Quicken WillMaker, Rocket Lawyer. More hand-holding, spouse packages, and add-ons like powers of attorney and healthcare directives. Worth it if you want the full document set in one sitting.
3. State statutory will forms ($0-$20): a handful of states, including California, publish fill-in-the-blank will forms. Rigid but valid.
4. An estate attorney ($300-$1,200 for a will; $1,500-$3,500 for a full package with a trust): the right answer for anyone with a blended family, an estate large enough to worry about taxes, a child with special needs, a business, real estate in multiple states, or a family member likely to contest. Attorneys don't just draft — they catch the problem you didn't know you had.

The honest dividing line: married-or-single, kids-or-not, house-and-retirement-accounts situations are what online tools were built for. The moment your situation needs the word "except" — except my son from my first marriage, except if my partner remarries — pay the attorney. The $800 difference is trivial against what estate litigation costs, which starts in five figures.

Making it legally valid

A will isn't valid because you wrote it and meant it. The formalities are the whole ballgame, and this is where DIY wills die in court:

• You must be an adult of sound mind, and the will must be in writing. Typed and printed is standard. (Some states accept handwritten "holographic" wills, but they're litigation magnets — don't rely on one.)
• You sign at the end, in front of two witnesses, who then sign in front of you. All three of you, same room, same sitting.
• Witnesses should be adults who inherit nothing under the will. In many states a gift to a witness is void or voidable, which is a brutal way to disinherit someone you meant to include.
• Notarization generally isn't required for validity — but signing a "self-proving affidavit" before a notary (your online service will include one) means the court can accept the will without tracking down your witnesses years later. Do it; it's ten minutes at a bank or UPS store.
• No videos, no emails, no note in your phone. Courts want the paper.

Where to keep it, who to tell

The original signed document is what counts — copies usually won't be admitted without a fight. Keep it in a fireproof box at home or with your attorney, and tell your executor exactly where it is. Skip the bank safe-deposit box: in many states it gets sealed at death, and your executor may need a court order to open the box containing the document that names them executor. Yes, really.

When to update it

A will is not a tattoo. Redo or amend it after a marriage, divorce, birth, adoption, a named person dying, a move to another state, or buying property that changes the picture. Divorce especially: state laws vary on whether an ex-spouse is automatically cut out, and "we assumed the law handled it" is a sentence estate lawyers hear a lot. A five-year checkup is a good default even when nothing obvious has changed — and check those beneficiary designations at the same time, because that's where the real money usually is.

While you're at it, a complete basic estate plan is really three documents, and the other two protect you while you're alive: a durable financial power of attorney and a healthcare directive. Most online services bundle all three for under $250 total. One afternoon, three documents, and the people you love never have to guess.