Make your own Georgia will.
Yours in about 20 minutes. Legally valid in Georgia. Free to create, or add secure online document storage with the $29/year subscription.
Is a self-written will legal in Georgia?
Yes. Georgia recognizes wills you write yourself, as long as they meet the state's signing requirements. The governing statute is Ga. Code §53-4-1 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 14 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 Georgia 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 Georgia
A Georgia 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. Georgia 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.
Georgia 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 Georgia 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 Georgia 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 Georgia's signing rules were followed.
Self-proving affidavit in Georgia
Georgia 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 Ga. Code §53-4-24.
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 Georgia
Ga. Code §53-4-23(a): a subscribing witness who is also a beneficiary remains competent, but the testamentary gift to that witness is void unless at least two other subscribing witnesses who are not beneficiaries also signed, an exception a two-witness Georgia will can never meet. Under §53-4-23(b), a gift to a witness's spouse is not voided; the marriage goes only to the witness's credibility. Georgia purges the gift, not the will: the rest of the will stands.
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 Georgia law rather than by your wishes. The safest practice is to update your will when your family changes.
O.C.G.A. §53-4-48: a child born to or adopted by the testator after the will was made, including a posthumous child born within ten months of the testator's death, takes the share the child would have received by intestacy where the will contains no provision made in contemplation of that event, and the will is revoked only to that extent (§53-4-48(a)), except as §53-4-49 otherwise provides. Per Hobbs v. Winfield, 805 S.E.2d 74 (Ga. 2017), generic disinheritance or a successor-beneficiary clause is insufficient; the will must clearly contemplate the birth or adoption of after-born children. A provision for a class of the testator's children is presumed to be made in contemplation of the birth or adoption of additional members of that class, absent an indication of a contrary intent, and merely identifying in the will the children already born or adopted when it was executed does not defeat that presumption (§53-4-48(b)). The share is paid from the net residuum remaining after all debts and expenses of administration, including taxes, have been paid; if the residuum is insufficient, testamentary gifts abate as provided in §53-4-63(b). Any bequest in the will in favor of that child is given effect and counts toward the intestate share, and if the bequest equals or exceeds that share the child takes the bequest in lieu of it (§53-4-48(c)).
A spouse you married after signing. Updating the will after marriage avoids relying on whatever Georgia law provides by default.
O.C.G.A. §53-4-48, the same section that governs after-born children: if the testator marries after making a will and the will contains no provision made in contemplation of that marriage, the subsequent spouse takes the share the spouse would have received by intestacy, and the will is revoked only to that extent (§53-4-48(a)), except as §53-4-49 otherwise provides. Per Johnson v. Cromer, a generic disinheritance clause is insufficient; the will must in clear and unmistakable terms contemplate the future marriage. The share is paid from the net residuum after debts and expenses of administration including taxes, with abatement under §53-4-63(b) if the residuum falls short, and any bequest in the will in favor of the subsequent spouse is given effect and counts toward the intestate share, so that a bequest equal to or greater than the intestate share is taken in lieu of it (§53-4-48(c)). The §53-4-49 carve-out matters to remarried couples: where a testator divorces and later remarries the same former spouse without revoking or amending the pre-divorce will, the remarriage does not revoke that will, and the provisions that were revoked solely because of the divorce are revived.
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