How to Write a Last Will and Testament in the United States

Name an executor you trust

Your executor (called a personal representative in many states) is the person who gathers your assets, pays your debts, funeral costs, and any estate or inheritance taxes, and distributes what remains to your beneficiaries. Choose someone organized and trustworthy, and name an alternate in case your first choice cannot or will not serve.

Most wills also address bond. A bond is an insurance policy that protects beneficiaries against executor misconduct; waiving it saves the estate money and is common when you trust the person you have named. If you would rather have that protection, you can require the executor to post bond instead.

Appoint a guardian for minor children

If you have children under the age of majority, the single most important reason to write a will is to name the person who will raise them if you cannot. Without that nomination, a court decides guardianship with no guidance from you. Name a primary guardian and an alternate, and make sure you have actually asked them.

Money left to a minor cannot be handed to the child directly. A common solution is a testamentary trust: the will directs that a minor's inheritance be held by a trustee who spends it on the child's health, education, maintenance, and support, then distributes what is left outright at an age you choose — 21, 25, or 30 are typical.

Make specific gifts, then divide the residuary

Specific gifts are individual items or sums left to named people — a piece of jewelry to a niece, $10,000 to a sibling, a pet with money for its care. If a specific-gift beneficiary dies before you, that gift normally lapses and falls back into the rest of your estate unless the will says otherwise.

The residuary clause is the workhorse of the will: it disposes of everything not given away by a specific gift — the house, the accounts, the property you acquire after signing. Because it catches everything else, no valid will should be without one. You also decide what happens if a residuary beneficiary predeceases you: their share can pass to their own descendants (per stirpes) or be split among the surviving beneficiaries.

Watch the spouse question. If you leave nothing to a surviving spouse, remember that most states grant a spouse an elective share of the estate regardless of what the will says, so an intentional disinheritance may not hold as written.

1. 1.Identify yourself and your marital and family situation, and revoke any prior wills.
2. 2.Name an executor and an alternate, and decide whether to waive bond.
3. 3.If you have minor children, appoint a guardian (and alternate), and consider a trust that holds their inheritance to a set age.
4. 4.List any specific gifts, then write a residuary clause that disposes of everything else.
5. 5.Choose what happens if a beneficiary dies before you (per stirpes or to the survivors).
6. 6.Sign in front of the required number of witnesses, and add a notarized self-proving affidavit.

Sign it correctly: witnesses and the self-proving affidavit

A will is only valid if it is executed with the formalities your state requires. In almost every state that means signing in the presence of two witnesses (some states and cautious drafters use three) who then sign in your presence and each other's. Do not sign before your witnesses are physically present — a defect in execution can invalidate the entire document.

A self-proving affidavit is a short sworn statement, signed by you and the witnesses before a notary, confirming that everyone signed willingly and that you were of sound mind and legal age. It is optional but valuable: without it, your witnesses may have to be located and asked to testify in probate, whereas a self-proving will can usually be admitted on its own.

Avoid the interested-witness trap

A witness should be a disinterested adult — someone who does not inherit under the will. If a beneficiary (or a beneficiary's spouse) serves as a witness, many states treat that person as an interested witness and void the gift to them unless enough other disinterested witnesses also signed. The will itself usually survives, but the interested witness can lose their inheritance.

The fix is simple: always use witnesses who receive nothing under the will. It costs nothing and removes a common, avoidable ground for challenge.

Louisiana is different

The ordinary witnessed will described in this guide is recognized across the United States with one major exception: Louisiana. Louisiana's civil-law system does not accept the common-form witnessed will. It requires a notarial testament signed before a notary and two competent witnesses in a specific statutory form.

If you live in or own property in Louisiana, treat a standard witnessed will as potentially invalid there and follow Louisiana's notarial-testament formalities instead.