Will.com / Wills / Connecticut
Make your own Connecticut will.
Yours in about 20 minutes. Legally valid in Connecticut. Free to create, or add secure online document storage with the $29/year subscription.
Is a self-written will legal in Connecticut?
Yes. Connecticut recognizes wills you write yourself, as long as they meet the state's signing requirements. The governing statute is Conn. Gen. Stat. §45a-250 et seq.
Your will needs to be in writing, signed by you, and witnessed by 2 adults. You don't need a notary for the will itself to be valid, but adding a notarized "self-proving" affidavit makes the probate process faster later (this tool generates that for you automatically).
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 Connecticut 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 Connecticut
A Connecticut 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. Connecticut 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.
Connecticut 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 Connecticut 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 Connecticut 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 Connecticut's signing rules were followed.
Self-proving affidavit in Connecticut
Connecticut recognizes self-proving affidavits. Will.com attaches one to your will: a short statement your witnesses sign in front of a notary, swearing to what they saw when you signed.
A self-proven will skips the requirement to track down witnesses years later for the probate court. It's optional, but adding the affidavit at signing time saves your executor work. Will.com generates the affidavit alongside the will.
Who can witness your will in Connecticut
Conn. Gen. Stat. §45a-258 (formerly §45-172): every devise or bequest to a subscribing witness, or to the husband or wife of a subscribing witness, is VOID unless the will is legally attested without that witness's signature or the devisee/legatee is also an heir to the testator; the witness's competency is not affected, and a witness's mere interest in a community/church/society/association/corporation beneficially interested in a devise does not affect either the devise or the witness's competency
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 Connecticut law rather than by your wishes. The safest practice is to update your will when your family changes.
Conn. Gen. Stat. §45a-257b: a child born or adopted after the will was executed, including a child born by assisted reproduction or after the testator's death, is protected, but the size of the share depends on the will. If the testator had no living child when the will was signed, the omitted child takes an intestate share, unless the will left all or substantially all of the estate to the child's other parent, who survives the testator and takes under the will. If the testator already had living children and the will gave them property, the omitted child instead shares only in the gifts made to those then-living children, computed as an equal share among all of them, with those gifts abating ratably and the character of the testamentary plan preserved so far as possible; the intestate share applies instead where the will shows an intention to make a limited provision applying only to the children living at execution. Neither rule applies if the omission was intentional on the face of the will or the testator provided for the child by a transfer outside the will intended in lieu of a testamentary provision.
A spouse you married after signing. Updating the will after marriage avoids relying on whatever Connecticut law provides by default.
Conn. Gen. Stat. §45a-257a: a surviving spouse who married the testator after the will was executed, and for whom the will fails to provide, receives the same share of the estate the spouse would have received if the decedent had left no will. Two exceptions defeat the claim: it appears from the will itself that the omission was intentional, or the testator provided for the spouse by a transfer outside the will and the intent that the transfer be in lieu of a testamentary provision is shown by the testator's statements or is reasonably inferred from the amount of the transfer or other evidence. In satisfying the share, the devises and legacies made by the will abate in accordance with Connecticut's general abatement statute. A spouse who takes under this section may not also elect the §45a-436 statutory share.
Recent Connecticut will-law changes
Connecticut permanent RON takes effect, estate documents excluded
Public Act 23-28 authorizes remote online notarization but explicitly excludes wills, codicils, trusts, powers of attorney, and healthcare instructions.
PA 23-28
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