Make your own Iowa will.
Yours in about 20 minutes. Legally valid in Iowa. Free to create, or add secure online document storage with the $29/year subscription.
Is a self-written will legal in Iowa?
Yes. Iowa recognizes wills you write yourself, as long as they meet the state's signing requirements. The governing statute is Iowa Code §633.264 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 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 Iowa 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 Iowa
A Iowa 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. Iowa 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.
Iowa 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 Iowa 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 Iowa 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 Iowa's signing rules were followed.
Self-proving affidavit in Iowa
Iowa 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 Iowa Code §633.279(2).
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 Iowa
Iowa Code §633.281: a will is not invalidated because it was attested by an interested witness. Unless the will is also attested by two competent and disinterested witnesses, an interested witness forfeits so much of the provisions of the will as in the aggregate exceeds in value, as of the date of the decedent's death, that which the witness would have received had the testator died intestate.
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 Iowa law rather than by your wishes. The safest practice is to update your will when your family changes.
Iowa Code §633.267: a child born to or adopted by the testator after the will was executed, whether born before or after the testator's death, takes a share equal in value to what the child would have received under §633.219 had the testator died intestate, computed after taking into account the surviving spouse's intestate share under §633.211 or §633.212, unless it appears from the will that the omission was intentional (§633.267(1)). A child conceived and born after the testator's death, or born from an embryo implanted after that death, qualifies only if all three conditions in §633.267(2)(a) are met: a genetic parent-child relationship between the child and the testator is established; the testator either authorized the surviving spouse in a signed writing to use the testator's genetic material to initiate the procedure, or bequeathed that material to the other parent by specific reference in a valid will; and the child is born within two years of the testator's death. Any child of the testator whose share would be reduced by such a birth has one year from that birth to bring an action challenging the posthumous child's right to a share (§633.267(2)(b)).
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