Will.com / Wills / District of Columbia
Make your own District of Columbia will.
Yours in about 20 minutes. Legally valid in District of Columbia. Free to create, or add secure online document storage with the $29/year subscription.
Is a self-written will legal in District of Columbia?
Yes. District of Columbia recognizes wills you write yourself, as long as they meet the state's signing requirements. The governing statute is D.C. Code §18-101 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 District of Columbia 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 District of Columbia
A District of Columbia 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. District of Columbia 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.
District of Columbia 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 District of Columbia 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 District of Columbia 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 District of Columbia's signing rules were followed.
Self-proving affidavit in District of Columbia
District of Columbia 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. See D.C. Code §20-312(b).
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 District of Columbia
D.C. Code §18-104: a beneficial devise, legacy, estate, interest, gift, or power of appointment given to an attesting witness is void as to that witness and persons claiming under them (§18-104(a)), except that (b) a witness who would be entitled to a share in intestacy may take up to that intestate share and (c) the voidance does not reach charges on real estate for the payment of debts. Unlike NY, WA, IN and AR, D.C. has no rule under which additional disinterested attesting witnesses save the gift. The interested witness is not disqualified as a competent witness to the execution (§18-104(d)).
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 District of Columbia law rather than by your wishes. The safest practice is to update your will when your family changes.
No codified pretermitted-heir or omitted-child statute appears in D.C. Code Title 18, Chapter 3 (§§18-301 et seq.). D.C. doctrine on omitted-children and after-born-children claims is governed by case law and the common-law presumption-of-revocation rules; consult D.C. counsel for current appellate guidance.
A spouse you married after signing. Updating the will after marriage avoids relying on whatever District of Columbia law provides by default.
No standalone omitted-spouse statute in the D.C. Code. Where the decedent made no devise or bequest to the surviving spouse or surviving domestic partner, or nothing passes under a purported one, the survivor takes the legal share without filing a written renunciation (D.C. Code §19-113(d)). That legal share is what the survivor would have taken had the decedent died intestate, not to exceed one-half of the net estate bequeathed and devised by the will (§19-113(e)). The 6-month renunciation-and-election procedure applies only where the will did make a devise or bequest to the survivor, because it is that devise or bequest which otherwise bars the survivor's statutory rights (§19-112, §19-113(a)). A valid antenuptial or postnuptial agreement instead determines the survivor's rights, though the survivor may still accept the benefits of a devise or bequest (§19-113(f)).
Two tiers, both private
Free: nothing leaves your browser. No account, no storage. Clear your answers whenever.
Subscription ($29/year): zero-knowledge encrypted storage. We store the ciphertext; only you hold the key. Edit and update as life changes.
Ready to write your will?
Whatever you decide today, your family won’t have to guess. Start free, or save it to your account for $29 a year.