Originally published: August 19, 2016 | Last updated: October 6, 2025
TL;DR: Writing your Will follows 10 steps: (1) decide it is important, (2) choose your Executor and guardians, (3) plan asset distribution including charitable gifts, (4) create alternate plans for every scenario, (5) consult family members, (6) choose your approach — online services like USLegalWills.com cost under $50 and use the same software as attorneys, (7) sign with two independent witnesses to make it legal, (8) store it where your Executor can find it, (9) document your assets in a tool like LifeLocker, (10) update it whenever circumstances change. The entire process takes less than 30 minutes online.
The process of creating your Will seems complicated which leads most Americans to skip this important task. The process of writing your Will becomes simple when you do some research because it leads to an easy and affordable experience. The following ten steps will help you create your Will.
Step 1: Why Is Writing Your Will Important?
Every adult needs a Will, but sadly most do not have one. The common excuses are all fundamentally flawed:
| Common Excuse | Why It’s Wrong |
|---|---|
| “I don’t have assets worth leaving” | You cannot predict your estate’s future value. An accidental death payout alone could be worth millions. |
| “Everyone knows what will happen” | Verbal promises have no legal standing. Very few states pass everything to your spouse without a Will. |
| “I’m too young” | You cannot predict when you will die. Even young, single adults need Wills. |
| “I don’t care, I’ll be gone” | Without a Will, no Executor is appointed, no guardian is named for children, and chaos follows — just ask the estates of Prince or Amy Winehouse. |
Step 2: Who Should Be Your Key Appointments?
How Do You Choose an Executor?
Your Executor follows your Will instructions to complete their duties. The courts grant estate administrator powers through probate which enables them to operate as your estate manager. Your Executor must:
- Secure your assets and prevent family members from picking through belongings
- Collect assets from banks and financial institutions
- Pay debts, taxes, and arrange the funeral
- File appropriate paperwork with the IRS
Choose someone trustworthy, strong in dealing with family, and methodical. If no suitable person is available, you can name a bank or law firm – but professional executors typically charge around 3% of the estate plus hourly fees.
How Do You Choose Guardians for Your Children?
The family courts step in to select a guardian when both parents lose their ability to care for their children. A judge will look for guidance from your Will – all things being equal, they will grant guardianship to the person you named. The selection process needs to consider financial support along with moral principles and the candidate’s relationship to the children and their home life. The guardianship process seems straightforward because grandparents stand as natural candidates yet the system requires ten years to implement guardianship which could surpass their life expectancy.
Step 3: How Should You Distribute Your Assets?
Your assets include everything you own which consists of money and property and investments and digital assets. You can leave your estate to whomever you wish through several types of bequests:
- Specific bequests: Individual items like a watch, car, or family heirloom
- Monetary bequests: Fixed sums of money to specific people
- Residual estate: Everything remaining after debts, taxes, funeral expenses, and specific bequests – typically distributed as percentages (e.g., “divided equally among my three children”)
- Charitable bequests: Planned giving through your Will. Your estate will not create any benefit for your beneficiaries when you give 1% to charity but this amount will generate more than $10,000 for a nonprofit organization.
Step 4: What Alternate Plans Should Your Will Include?
The main distribution plan seems obvious to most people but they struggle with the various possible “what-if” situations. When writing your Will, you must imagine every permutation of people predeceasing you:
- If you are married with no children and leave everything to your spouse – what if you are both in a common accident?
- If one child predeceases you, does their share go to your other children or to their own spouse and children?
- What if your entire family is in a common accident? (unlikely, but your Will should cover it)
The service at USLegalWills.com guides you through alternate plans and even second alternate plans, ensuring every scenario is covered.
Step 5: Should You Consult Family Members?
Before writing your Will, certain family conversations are essential:
- Your Executor: They have every right to refuse the appointment. It is better to learn this before you write them into your Will rather than after you have died.
- Your chosen guardian: Discuss the role and responsibilities with them in advance.
- Family members not chosen as guardian: Anyone can apply for guardianship, and your Will is simply a guide for the judge. Your children could face a custody battle if family members are not on board with your decision.
Expect reactions like “why are you writing your Will – are you sick?” Just explain that writing a Will is part of responsible financial planning and you do not expect it to come into effect for many decades.
Step 6: What Are the Three Approaches to Writing a Will?
| Approach | Cost | Best For | Drawbacks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Estate planning attorney | $300–$1,000+ | Complex situations: special needs trusts, royalty bequests, tax optimization | Expensive, inconvenient scheduling, costly to update |
| DIY / blank form kit | $0–$30 | Not recommended for anyone | High error rate — people list assets, make invalid conditional bequests, miss alternate plans |
| Online interactive service | Under $50 | Most people — uses the same software as attorneys | May not handle highly custom clauses |
Online services like USLegalWills.com guide you through the process like tax preparation software. You answer questions, and we generate a custom document that is word-for-word identical to one prepared by a lawyer — at a fraction of the cost, from the comfort of your home, with the ability to update anytime.
Step 7: How Do You Make Your Will Legal?
The process of making your Will legal stays very simple. You must sign your document in the presence of two independent adult witnesses , who then sign it themselves. The witnesses are confirming that you were not under undue influence and knew what you were doing.
Key rules for witnesses:
- They cannot be beneficiaries in the Will
- They should not be related to beneficiaries
- They can be your Executor (this is common)
- They can be friends, neighbors, or co-workers
- All three of you must sign in each other’s presence
Important: There is no requirement to notarize, stamp, register, or sign in the presence of a lawyer or notary. No oath, affidavit, or court filing is needed to make your Will legal.
Step 8: Where Should You Store Your Will?
Every day at USLegalWills.com, we receive calls saying: “My father wrote his Will, but we cannot find it.” This is heartbreaking – someone made the smart decision to prepare their Will but did not tell their Executor where it is. The result is the same as not having a Will at all.
Storage guidelines:
- Keep it in a place known and accessible to your Executor
- Consider giving it to your Executor in a sealed envelope for safekeeping
- This protects against house fire or flood
- Never hide your Will – if it cannot be found, it is useless
Step 9: How Should You Document Your Assets?
Your Executor needs to find and protect your property after they receive probate authority for your Will. Your Executor needs to find every asset you possess if you pass away during the current day.
The Executor needed to examine physical file cabinets along with bank documents during the past. Your Executor needs to access your email account together with all your login credentials to begin the process of asset collection.
USLegalWills.com provides an Executor tool named MyLifeLocker which helps you organize all your assets. The tool lets you track your belongings through an asset management system which stores your digital data and physical items and you can update it whenever needed. The system provides your Executor with a straightforward process to follow which helps them locate all your assets.
Step 10: When Should You Update Your Will?
Your work has reached completion because you finished your Will creation and secured its storage and maintained records of your assets. The only remaining step is to review it regularly. Consider updating when:
- Your appointments are no longer the best choices
- Beneficiaries’ situations have changed
- You want to add charitable bequests
- A beneficiary has had their own financial windfall
- Your guardian has had significant life changes
- You have experienced marriage, divorce, births, or deaths
If you used USLegalWills.com, simply log in, make your updates, and print and sign a new document. Writing your Will is not difficult – it can take you less time than it took to read this article. You should also consider adding a Power of Attorney and Living Will to your estate plan.
He has over 20 years of experience helping people to write their Will and other estate planning documents. He has been interviewed by many of the major news media outlets, and has contributed to articles in The New York Times, NY Metro Parents, U.S. News & World Report, and other leading publications. He has also contributed to a number of financial planning books.
Throughout his career, Tim has written extensively on the subject of Will writing and estate planning.
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