Make your own California will.
Yours in about 20 minutes. Legally valid in California. Free to create, or add secure online document storage with the $29/year subscription.
Is a self-written will legal in California?
Yes. California recognizes wills you write yourself, as long as they meet the state's signing requirements. The governing statute is Cal. Prob. Code §6100 et seq.
Your will needs to be in writing, signed by you, and witnessed by 2 adults who are present at the same time. You don't need a notary in California. Your witnesses' signed declaration under penalty of perjury is what makes the will self-proving, and this tool generates that for you automatically. California also recognizes handwritten ("holographic") wills, written entirely in your own handwriting and signed.
You must be at least 18 years old and of sound mind. Choose witnesses who don't inherit under your will: some states void or reduce a gift to a witness, and the exact California rule is covered below. This tool walks you through the rules so you don't trip over them.
A will you write yourself has the same legal force as one drafted by an attorney, provided you follow the signing rules. Courts admit self-written wills to probate every day. An attorney's value is in advising on complex estates, not in drafting the document itself.
What it costs to make a will in California
A California estate-planning attorney typically charges $300 to $600 for a simple will, and $1,000 to $1,500 for a will-plus-revocable-trust package. Rates run higher in dense metros and lower in rural areas. Most attorneys bill at $250 to $400 per hour and need one or two meetings to draft a basic will.
You can also write a will entirely from scratch with a sheet of paper and a pen, with no software at all. California requires the same 2-witness signing process regardless of who drafts the document. The risk with a from-scratch will is technical: a missing self-proving affidavit, a witness who's also a beneficiary, or wording that creates ambiguity for the probate court. That's what this tool prevents.
Will.com is free at the document level. The $29/year subscription adds cloud-stored, zero-knowledge-encrypted access so you can edit and update your plan as life changes.
California will requirements at a glance
How it works
- 1
Answer a few questions
About you, your family, and what you own.
- 2
Download your will
A complete, personalized document, formatted for California courts.
- 3
Sign with witnesses
Print and sign in front of 2 adult witnesses. Keep the signed copy somewhere safe.
When you might want an attorney instead
An online will works for most people. It's the right tool when your situation is straightforward: you want to leave your assets to family or friends, you don't have complex tax issues, and you're not anticipating a fight over your estate.
Consider hiring an attorney if any of these apply:
- Your estate is large enough to trigger federal estate tax (over $15 million in 2026) or California estate or inheritance tax.
- You own a business, complex investments, or assets in multiple states or countries.
- You're in a blended family, especially if you want to leave assets to a current spouse while protecting children from a prior relationship.
- You have a child or beneficiary with special needs and want a supplemental-needs trust that won't disqualify them from public benefits.
- You expect someone to contest the will, or you're disinheriting a close family member.
- You have substantial retirement accounts and want sophisticated beneficiary planning.
If none of these apply, an online will is genuinely fine. The legal validity of your will doesn't depend on who drafted it, only on whether California's signing rules were followed.
Self-proving declaration in California
California recognizes self-proving wills. Your witnesses sign a declaration under penalty of perjury, attached to the will, and that declaration is what makes the will self-proving. A notary is not required. See Cal. Prob. Code §8220.
A self-proven will skips the requirement to track down witnesses years later for the probate court. It's optional, but adding the declaration at signing time saves your executor work. Will.com generates the declaration alongside the will.
Who can witness your will in California
Cal. Prob. Code §6112: any person generally competent to be a witness may act as a witness to a will, and a will is not invalid because it is signed by an interested witness. Unless there are at least two other disinterested subscribing witnesses, a devise to a subscribing witness raises a rebuttable presumption that the witness procured it by duress, menace, fraud, or undue influence; the presumption does not apply to a devise made solely in a fiduciary capacity. A witness who fails to rebut it keeps only up to the share that would pass to the witness by intestacy. On a two-witness California will there is never a second disinterested witness, so the presumption applies whenever a witness is also a beneficiary.
Family changes after you sign
A child born or adopted after the will. A child who arrives after you sign, and who isn't named or accounted for in the will, is covered by California law rather than by your wishes. The safest practice is to update your will when your family changes.
Cal. Prob. Code §21620, §21621, §21622 and §21623: a child born or adopted after the execution of all of the decedent's testamentary instruments, and not provided for in them, receives a share equal in value to what the child would have received had the decedent executed no testamentary instrument at all (§21620). Because the trigger runs to all of the instruments, a later codicil or trust amendment moves the operative execution date. Three exceptions defeat that share: the failure to provide was intentional and that intention appears from the testamentary instruments (§21621(a)); the decedent had one or more children and devised or otherwise directed the disposition of substantially all the estate to the other parent of the omitted child (§21621(b)); or the decedent provided for the child by a transfer outside the estate passing by the instruments and the intent that the transfer be in lieu of a provision in them is shown by the decedent's statements, the amount of the transfer, or other evidence (§21621(c)). The second exception applies only where the decedent already had a child. Separately, a living child left out solely because the decedent believed the child to be dead, or was unaware of the child's birth, receives the same share, and the §21621 exceptions do not reach that claim because they are written only against §21620 (§21622). A share under this chapter is taken first from estate not disposed of by will or trust, and if that is not enough, proportionally from all beneficiaries of the testamentary instruments measured at date-of-death values, except that a specific gift may be exempted and a different apportionment adopted where applying that order would defeat the decedent's obvious intention (§21623).
A spouse you married after signing. Updating the will after marriage avoids relying on whatever California law provides by default.
Cal. Prob. Code §21610, §21611 and §21612: a surviving spouse who married the decedent after the execution of all of the decedent's testamentary instruments, and for whom those instruments fail to provide, receives the decedent's one-half of the community property (§21610(a)), the decedent's one-half of the quasi-community property (§21610(b)), and a share of the decedent's separate property equal in value to what the spouse would have received had the decedent executed no testamentary instrument, capped so that it is in no event more than one-half the value of the separate property in the estate (§21610(c)). That cap is the piece most often left out: the separate-property component is the intestate share or half the separate property, whichever is smaller. Four exceptions defeat the claim: the failure to provide was intentional and that intention appears from the testamentary instruments (§21611(a)); the decedent provided for the spouse by a transfer outside the estate passing by the instruments and the intent that the transfer be in lieu of a provision in them is shown by the decedent's statements, the amount of the transfer, or other evidence (§21611(b)); the spouse made a valid agreement waiving the right to share in the decedent's estate (§21611(c)); or the spouse was a care custodian of the decedent, who was a dependent adult, the marriage began while those services were being provided or within 90 days after they last were, and the decedent died less than six months after the marriage, in which case the spouse still takes if the spouse proves by clear and convincing evidence that the marriage was not the product of fraud or undue influence (§21611(d)). The share is taken first from estate not disposed of by will or trust, and if that is not enough, proportionally from all beneficiaries of the testamentary instruments measured at date-of-death values, subject to the same obvious-intention exemption (§21612).
Recent California will-law changes
California expands fiduciary access to digital assets
SB 1458 broadens RUFADAA to include agents acting under a power of attorney and court-appointed conservators, in addition to executors and trustees. Important for anyone with significant cryptocurrency or cloud accounts.
SB 1458
California remote online notarization law signed, phased rollout
SB 696 authorizes RON in California but delays implementation until the Secretary of State completes its technology project or until January 1, 2030, whichever comes first. Out-of-state RON is currently recognized for California documents.
SB 696 · Effective 2030-01-01
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