Have your will professionally prepared, not filled into a form
Will preparation services draft a legally structured last will and testament for you from your instructions: who inherits, who serves as executor, and who raises minor children, built to the statutory requirements of your state. Instead of you completing a blank form, a professional drafter prepares the document and a licensed attorney reviews it before it is delivered with signing instructions.
You answer a plain-language questionnaire about your family, your property, and your wishes. We turn those answers into a complete, internally consistent will, an attorney checks it against your state's requirements, and you receive the final document with step-by-step instructions for signing and witnessing. One flat fee, quoted before any drafting starts.
Written and legally reviewed by our editorial team
Drafted · Reviewed · Ready to Sign
Attorney reviewed and delivered with signing instructions for your state
Lawyer will writing versus filling in a form yourself
A fill-in-the-blank will fails in predictable places, and none of them are visible to the person filling it in. Attorney will preparation exists to catch exactly those failure points before the document is ever signed. The difference is not the paper, it is the review pass that reads your answers the way a probate court will.
Gaps in the residuary clause
DIY wills often list specific gifts and never dispose of everything else. Property the will does not reach passes by intestacy, meaning state law, not you, picks who gets it.
Ambiguous or lapsed beneficiaries
Review catches gifts to people identified only by nickname, gifts that fail if a beneficiary dies first, and missing survivorship language that anti-lapse statutes will rewrite for you.
Conflicts with beneficiary designations
Retirement accounts, life insurance, and payable-on-death accounts pass outside the will. Attorney review flags where your will and your account paperwork contradict each other.
State execution requirements
Witness counts, disinterested witness rules, and self-proving affidavit formats differ by state. The review pass confirms the document and its signing instructions match your state.
If your situation is genuinely simple and you want to compare the DIY route first, our downloadable last will and testament template shows what the form-based approach looks like. The prepared service is for people who want the drafting and the review done for them, so the failure points above are someone else's job to catch.
Everything that arrives with a professionally prepared will
The deliverable is not a document alone. It is the will, the review that stands behind it, and the execution package that turns a well-drafted file into a legally valid one.
Your complete last will and testament
Drafted from your questionnaire answers as one internally consistent document: executor appointments, guardianship nominations, specific bequests, and the residuary clause, all pointing the same direction.
Attorney review before anything is delivered
A licensed attorney reads the finished draft the way a probate court will: internal consistency, your state's formal requirements, and whether the clauses actually carry out what you told us.
State-matched signing instructions
Step-by-step execution guidance for your state: how many witnesses, who may legally serve, and how the signing ceremony should run so the document is valid the day you sign it.
Self-proving affidavit, where your state allows
The notarized affidavit form that lets the probate court accept the will without locating your witnesses years later, prepared alongside the will when your state offers it.
Coordination flags for non-probate assets
Notes on where retirement accounts, life insurance, and payable-on-death designations interact with the will, so a beneficiary form does not quietly defeat what the will says.
Encrypted portal delivery
The final package arrives through the secure client portal, and if anything in the draft does not match the instructions you gave us, we correct it before you sign.
How the online will writing service works
Three steps from your kitchen table to a signed, witnessed will, with the drafting and the legal review handled for you in the middle.
- 1
You complete a plain-language questionnaire
Family structure, property, who inherits what, who serves as executor and backup, and guardianship wishes for minor children. No legal vocabulary required; the drafter translates.
- 2
We draft, an attorney reviews
A professional drafter builds the will from your answers and a licensed attorney reviews it for internal consistency and for the formal requirements of your state before anything is delivered.
- 3
You sign with state-matched instructions
The final will arrives with step-by-step execution instructions: how many witnesses your state requires, who may serve, and whether a notarized self-proving affidavit is available. The signing ceremony itself is your step; an unsigned will is a draft, and an incorrectly witnessed one may be worthless.
Working online changes where the drafting happens, not what the law requires. Every state still demands a properly executed paper document in almost all cases, which is why the delivery package leans so heavily on the signing instructions. Pricing follows our flat fee legal drafting model: one number quoted from your questionnaire before work begins.
What drafting a will properly has to cover
A will that holds up is a set of interlocking parts, and leaving any one of them out shifts a decision from you to a judge or a statute. Every will we prepare addresses each of these:
Executor and successor executor. The person who administers the estate, plus a named backup so the court never has to appoint a stranger, with bond-waiver language where your state permits it.
Guardianship nominations. For parents of minor children, the single most consequential clause in the document: who raises the children, and who manages any property they inherit until adulthood.
Specific bequests. Named gifts of identified property or sums to identified people or charities, drafted with fallback language for gifts that fail.
Residuary clause. The catch-all that disposes of everything not specifically given away, which in most estates is most of the property. Its absence is the classic DIY defect.
Survivorship and simultaneous death terms. What happens when a beneficiary dies shortly after you, so a gift does not pass through two probates in quick succession.
Self-proving affidavit. Where your state allows it, a notarized affidavit signed with the will that lets the probate court accept the document without locating the witnesses years later.
Who has a will prepared instead of writing one alone
The people who benefit most from professional preparation are the ones whose situations quietly outgrow a blank form: children, property, blended families, or simply years of putting it off.
Parents of minor children
The guardianship nomination is the clause that matters most, and it only exists if a valid will exists. Parents use the service to name who raises the children and who manages what they inherit, with backups for both.
Homeowners and account holders
A house, retirement accounts, and life insurance mean the will has to be coordinated with deeds and beneficiary forms. The review pass flags where account paperwork would override what the will says.
Blended families and second marriages
Stepchildren inherit nothing by default in most states, and a spouse's elective share can reshape a plan that ignores it. These are the estates where precise bequest and survivorship drafting earns its keep.
Adults who have put it off
Without a will, state intestacy law picks your heirs and a court picks your estate's administrator. Most clients in this group finish the questionnaire in one sitting and are done with a task they postponed for years.
Wills prepared online for every state
Because the questionnaire, drafting, and attorney review all happen online, we prepare wills nationwide without an office visit. What changes from state to state is the law inside the document: witness requirements, self-proving affidavit availability, spousal elective share rules, and community property treatment in the states that have it. Your state is captured at intake, the will is drafted to that state's statutes, and the signing instructions that arrive with it are specific to that state, not generic boilerplate. If you move after signing, a will validly executed in your old state is generally recognized in the new one, though a review is smart when the move crosses into or out of a community property state.
One will, wills for both of you, or a coordinated plan
Most engagements start with a single will. Couples usually prepare theirs together, and clients with more moving parts pair the will with its companion documents so nothing contradicts.
A single will
One person, one document.
You complete the questionnaire, we draft and review, you sign with state-matched instructions. The most common engagement, and the whole thing runs online without an office visit.
Wills for couples
Two coordinated documents.
Spouses and partners have their wills prepared together so the two documents work as a pair: mirrored where you want them mirrored, deliberately different where you do not, with survivorship terms that agree with each other.
A coordinated estate package
Will plus companion documents.
The will prepared alongside healthcare directives and powers of attorney so the documents name consistent people and never contradict each other. The section below maps when each companion document is the right tool.
When the right document is not a will at all
A will controls what happens to probate property after death, and nothing else. If your goal is avoiding probate itself, providing for incapacity during life, or letting someone act for you while you are alive, the will is the wrong tool for that job and pairing it with the right one matters more than perfecting the will alone.
- A revocable trust holds property outside probate and keeps working if you become incapacitated. Here is when a living trust fits better than a will and when it is unnecessary overhead.
- A living will, despite the name, is not a will at all: it is a healthcare directive stating your medical treatment wishes if you cannot speak for yourself, and it does nothing about property. You can create one in minutes with our free living will generator.
- A durable power of attorney authorizes someone to handle your finances during your lifetime, including incapacity. A will grants no lifetime authority to anyone.
- Most people ultimately need a small set of coordinated documents rather than one. Our estate planning document services page maps how the will, trust, directives, and powers of attorney fit together.
How your estate details stay private
A will questionnaire holds the most personal information a document service ever handles: your family, your assets, and your wishes for both. Four commitments govern how that information is treated.
Encrypted intake and delivery
Your questionnaire answers describe your family, your property, and your wishes. They move through an encrypted client portal from intake to delivery, not through open email attachments.
Access limited to your matter team
Only the drafter assigned to your will and the reviewing attorney can open your file. Your details are never used for anything beyond preparing your documents.
Deletion on request
After your documents are delivered, ask and we remove your intake answers and drafts from the portal. Your estate plan is yours, not a data asset.
Nothing filed, nothing recorded
We do not file anything with any court, registry, or agency. The finished will goes to you alone, and the signing, witnessing, and safekeeping stay entirely in your hands.
Legal Tank is a document preparation service, not a law firm, and no attorney-client relationship is formed. Licensed attorneys review documents for accuracy and state compliance, but we do not provide estate planning advice about what your plan should say. Execution formalities such as witnesses, notarization, and self-proving affidavits vary by state and are completed by you; we prepare state-compliant documents and detailed signing instructions. For advice about your specific situation, consult a licensed attorney in your state.
What clients say about their wills and family documents
Estate and family documents are sensitive work, and the reviews reflect what matters in it: patience, plain explanations, and help with the practical steps like witnessing and notarization.
“Helped me with my will. Sensitive subject and they handled it with a lot of patience. Took time to explain things I didn't understand.”
“They prepared my affidavit and walked me through getting it notarized step by step since I had never done it before. Small thing but it made a stressful situation much easier.”
“I needed a loan agreement between myself and my brother because mixing family and money never ends well without something in writing. They made it formal enough to be enforceable but not so cold that it caused offense. Hard balance to strike and they nailed it.”
Will preparation services FAQ
How much should it cost to have a will prepared?
What are the three basic requirements of a valid will?
What is the biggest mistake with wills?
Which bank accounts avoid probate?
Can I write my own will and have it notarized?
A finished will is one questionnaire away
Tell us about your family and property in the intake form. You get one flat fee for the complete, attorney reviewed will package, quoted before any drafting starts, usually within one business day.
Quotes return same business day on intakes received before 5 PM ET