Make your own Michigan will.
Yours in about 20 minutes. Legally valid in Michigan. Free to create, or add secure online document storage with the $29/year subscription.
Is a self-written will legal in Michigan?
Yes. Michigan recognizes wills you write yourself, as long as they meet the state's signing requirements. The governing statute is Mich. Comp. Laws §700.2501 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). Michigan also recognizes handwritten ("holographic") wills, written entirely in your own handwriting and signed.
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 Michigan 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 Michigan
A Michigan 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. Michigan 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.
Michigan 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 Michigan 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 Michigan 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 Michigan's signing rules were followed.
Self-proving affidavit in Michigan
Michigan 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 Michigan
Mich. Comp. Laws §700.2505: an individual generally competent to be a witness may act as a witness to a will, and the signing of a will by an interested witness does not invalidate the will or any provision of it. Michigan follows the UPC rule and has no purge statute, so a gift to an attesting witness remains effective. Using witnesses who take nothing under the will is still the safer practice.
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 Michigan law rather than by your wishes. The safest practice is to update your will when your family changes.
MCL §700.2302: an after-born or after-adopted child omitted from the will receives a share unless (1) it appears from the will that the omission was intentional, or (2) the testator provided for the child by a transfer outside the will and the intent that the transfer be a substitute for a testamentary provision is shown by the testator's statements or is reasonably inferred from the amount of the transfer or other evidence (§700.2302(2)); the transfer alone, without that showing, does not defeat the claim. If the testator had no living child when the will was executed, the omitted child receives an intestate-equivalent share, unless the will devised all or substantially all of the estate to the omitted child's other parent and that other parent survives the testator and is entitled to take under the will (§700.2302(1)(a)); a share under that branch abates under §700.3902 (§700.2302(4)). If the testator had a living child at execution and devised property or an interest in property to one or more of them, the omitted child shares only in the devises made to the then-living children, taking the share the child would have received had all omitted after-born and after-adopted children been included and each child given an equal share, of the same character, equitable or legal, present or future, so far as feasible; those devises abate ratably, and in abating them the court preserves the character of the testamentary plan to the maximum extent possible (§700.2302(1)(b)). A living child omitted solely because the testator believed the child dead is treated as an after-born child (§700.2302(3)).
A spouse you married after signing. Updating the will after marriage avoids relying on whatever Michigan law provides by default.
MCL §700.2301: a surviving spouse who married the testator after the testator executed the will is entitled to receive, as an intestate share, not 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 not (a) property devised to or in trust for the benefit of a child of the testator born before the marriage who is not the surviving spouse's child, (b) property devised to or in trust for the benefit of a descendant of such a child, or (c) property passing under §700.2603 or §700.2604 to such a child or that child's descendant. 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: from the will or other evidence it appears that the will was made in contemplation of the testator's marriage to the surviving spouse (§700.2301(2)(a)); the will expresses the intention that it is to be effective notwithstanding a subsequent marriage (§700.2301(2)(b)); or the testator provided for the spouse by a transfer outside the will and the intent that the transfer be a substitute for a testamentary provision is shown by the testator's statements or is reasonably inferred from the amount of the transfer or other evidence (§700.2301(2)(c)). The first may be shown by evidence outside the will, and the third is not made out by the transfer alone. In satisfying the share, devises made by the will to the surviving spouse are applied first and other devises abate under §700.3902, leaving out devises to or in trust for that pre-marriage child and substitute gifts under §700.2603 or §700.2604 to the child's descendant (§700.2301(3)). A spouse who takes an intestate share under this section may also elect under §700.2202, but the intestate share reduces the sum available to the spouse under §700.2202(2)(b) (§700.2301(4)).
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