Make your own New York will. No lawyer needed.
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Start my New York will →Is a DIY will legal in New York?
Yes. New York recognizes wills you write yourself, as long as they meet the state's signing requirements. The governing statute is N.Y. EPTL §3-2.1.
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. Witnesses cannot be people who inherit under your will (or in some states, the spouse of a person who inherits). 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 a lawyer drafts, provided you follow the signing rules. Courts admit DIY wills to probate every day. The lawyer's value is in advising on complex estates, not in the will document itself.
What it costs: lawyer vs DIY
A New York 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 lawyers 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 York 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 for the will itself. Save $300 or more without sacrificing legal validity.
New York 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 York courts.
- 3
Sign with witnesses
Print and sign in front of 2 adult witnesses. Keep the signed copy somewhere safe.
When you might want a lawyer instead
A DIY 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 $13.99 million in 2025) or New York 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, a DIY will is genuinely fine. The legal validity of your will doesn't depend on who drafted it, only on whether New York's signing rules were followed.
No account, nothing stored on our servers
Will.com doesn’t store the content of your documents. There’s no account to create and no email required. Your draft answers are saved on your device so you can pick up where you left off, and you can clear them anytime.
Want it saved? A subscription stores your will privately to your account with zero-knowledge encryption, so you can update it as life changes. $29 per year.
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