Will.com / Wills / Massachusetts
Make your own Massachusetts will.
Yours in about 20 minutes. Document generation isn’t currently available in Massachusetts while we review its rules for online legal document services. The signing requirements below still apply.
Document generation isn’t currently available in Massachusetts.
Is a self-written will legal in Massachusetts?
Yes. Massachusetts recognizes wills you write yourself, as long as they meet the state's signing requirements. The governing statute is Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 190B, §2-501 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 Massachusetts 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 Massachusetts
A Massachusetts 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. Massachusetts 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.
Massachusetts 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 Massachusetts 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 Massachusetts 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 Massachusetts's signing rules were followed.
Self-proving affidavit in Massachusetts
Massachusetts 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 M.G.L. c. 190B §2-504.
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 Massachusetts
Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 190B, §2-505: an individual generally competent to be a witness may act as a witness, and the signing of a will by an interested witness does not invalidate the will or any provision of it. A devise to a witness or the witness's spouse is void, however, unless there are two other subscribing witnesses not similarly benefited, or the interested witness establishes that the bequest was not inserted, and the will was not signed, as a result of fraud or undue influence by the witness. On a two-witness Massachusetts will the two-additional-witness escape is never available, so a witness-beneficiary keeps the gift only by making that showing.
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 Massachusetts law rather than by your wishes. The safest practice is to update your will when your family changes.
Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 190B §2-302: a child born or adopted after the will was executed and not provided for in it takes an intestate-equivalent share only if the testator had no child living when the will was executed, and not even then if the will devised all or substantially all the estate to the omitted child's other parent and that other parent survives the testator and is entitled to take under the will (§2-302(a)(1)); a share under that branch abates under §3-902 (§2-302(d)). If the testator did have a child living at execution and the will devised property or an interest in property to one or more of those children, the omitted child shares only in those devises, computed as though every omitted after-born or after-adopted child had been included with the children who took and each given an equal share, of the same character, equitable or legal, present or future, so far as feasible, with the then-living children's devises abating ratably and the court preserving the character of the testamentary plan to the maximum extent possible (§2-302(a)(2)). Neither branch applies if it appears from the will that the omission was intentional, or if the testator provided for the child 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 (§2-302(b)); the transfer alone is not enough. A living child left out solely because the testator believed the child to be dead is treated as an omitted after-born child (§2-302(c)). No omitted child takes any share in real property unless a claim is filed in the registry of probate within 1 year after the decedent's death (§2-302(e)).
A spouse you married after signing. Updating the will after marriage avoids relying on whatever Massachusetts law provides by default.
Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 190B §2-301: a surviving spouse who married the testator after the will was executed is entitled to receive, as an intestate share, no less than the value of the share the spouse would have received had the testator died intestate, but only as to the portion of the estate that is neither devised to a child of the testator who was born before the testator married the surviving spouse and who is not a child of the surviving spouse, nor devised to a descendant of such a child, nor passing under §2-603 or §2-604 to such a child or descendant (§2-301(a)). Both halves of that description have to be true before a child's devise leaves the base: a child born before the marriage who is also the surviving spouse's child stays in it. Three exceptions defeat the entitlement: it appears from the will that the will was made in contemplation of the testator's marriage to the surviving spouse (§2-301(a)(1)); the will expresses the intention that it is to be effective notwithstanding any subsequent marriage (§2-301(a)(2)); or the testator provided for the spouse by a transfer outside the will and any 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 (§2-301(a)(3)). Massachusetts confines the first to the will itself, where several Uniform Probate Code states also admit other evidence. In satisfying the share, devises made by the will to the surviving spouse are applied first and other devises abate under §3-902, leaving out devises to that pre-marriage child or the child's descendant and substitute gifts to them under §2-603 or §2-604 (§2-301(b)).
Recent Massachusetts will-law changes
Massachusetts permanent RON takes effect, but excludes wills and trusts
Chapter 2 of the Acts of 2023 permanently authorizes remote online notarization, but wills, trusts, and documents related to court proceedings remain excluded and still require in-person notarization.
Ch. 2, Acts of 2023
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Document generation isn’t currently available in Massachusetts.