Make your own New Jersey will.
Yours in about 20 minutes. Legally valid in New Jersey. Free to create, or add secure online document storage with the $29/year subscription.
Is a self-written will legal in New Jersey?
Yes. New Jersey recognizes wills you write yourself, as long as they meet the state's signing requirements. The governing statute is N.J. Stat. §3B:3-1 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). New Jersey 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 New Jersey 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 New Jersey
A New Jersey 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. New Jersey 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.
New Jersey 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 New Jersey 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 New Jersey 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 New Jersey's signing rules were followed.
Self-proving affidavit in New Jersey
New Jersey 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 New Jersey
N.J. Stat. §3B:3-7: any individual generally competent to be a witness may act as a witness to a will and may testify concerning its execution. Under N.J. Stat. §3B:3-8, a will or any provision of it is not invalid because the will is signed by an interested witness. New Jersey 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 New Jersey law rather than by your wishes. The safest practice is to update your will when your family changes.
N.J.S.A. 3B:5-16: a child born or adopted after the will was executed and not provided for in it takes a full intestate share only if the testator had no living child when the will was executed, and not even then if the will devised all or substantially all of the estate to the child's other parent, or to a trust primarily for the benefit of that other parent, and that other parent survives the testator and is entitled to take under the will (§3B:5-16.a.(1)). If the testator already had one or more living children when the will was executed and the will devised property or an interest in property to one or more of them, the omitted child's share is limited to the devises made to those then-living children, computed as though the testator had included every omitted after-born or after-adopted child with the children who took and given an equal share to each, of the same character, equitable or legal, present or future, so far as feasible, with those devises abating ratably while the court preserves the character of the testamentary plan to the maximum extent possible (§3B:5-16.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 (§3B:5-16.b.); a transfer alone, without that showing, does not defeat the claim. A living child left out solely because the testator believed the child to be dead is treated as an omitted after-born child (§3B:5-16.c.). A share arising under the first branch is taken from the devisees under the will ratably and in proportion to their respective interests (§3B:5-16.d.).
A spouse you married after signing. Updating the will after marriage avoids relying on whatever New Jersey law provides by default.
N.J.S.A. 3B:5-15: a surviving spouse who married the testator, or a domestic partner who formed a domestic partnership with the testator, after the will was executed takes no less than the value of an intestate share. Unlike the 1990 Uniform Probate Code states, New Jersey does not narrow the base of that share, so there is no carve-out for property devised to a child of the testator born before the marriage. Three exceptions defeat it: it appears from the will or other evidence that the will was made in contemplation of that marriage or partnership (§3B:5-15.a.(1)); the will expresses the intention that it is to be effective notwithstanding any subsequent marriage or domestic partnership (§3B:5-15.a.(2)); or the testator provided for the spouse or partner 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 (§3B:5-15.a.(3)). 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 or partner are applied first and other devises abate ratably and in proportion to their respective interests (§3B:5-15.b.). The section applies only to wills executed on or after September 1, 1978 (§3B:5-15.c.). Section 3B:5-15 names spouses and domestic partners; it was not amended by 2023 c.238, which added partners in a civil union to the elective-share section, N.J.S.A. 3B:8-1. Whether a surviving civil-union partner is nonetheless within this section is not settled on the face of the statute, and a civil-union partner in that position should ask a New Jersey attorney.
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