Last Will and Testament
Say who gets what, who raises your children and who settles your estate — specific and cash gifts with an anti-lapse fallback, a residuary clause, a guardian and an alternate, a trust that holds a minor's share until the age you choose, an executor serving without bond, a pet trust, digital-asset access, the attestation clause and your state's own self-proving affidavit, with step-by-step signing instructions for your state.
View largerSample first page of the Last Will and Testament. Your answers fill in the blanks; the clauses required in your state are added automatically.
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No state matches — try the two-letter code.
Values are shortened; open the state page for the full rule and its citation.
What this document covers
- Testator, domicile and revocation of every earlier will
- Spouse, children and an after-born (pretermitted) child clause
- Debts, funeral expenses and tax apportionment
- Specific bequests with an anti-lapse fallback for each gift
- Cash bequests and charitable gifts
- Residuary estate, per stirpes or per capita, with a contingent taker
- Guardian of the person and guardian of the estate, plus alternates
- Testamentary trust that holds a minor's share to the age you choose
- Health, education, maintenance and support (HEMS) standard and trustee powers
- Executor and alternate, serving without bond where the state allows
- Power to sell real property without a court order
- Pet trust with a caretaker and a fund
- No-contest clause where your state enforces it
- Survivorship period and simultaneous-death clause
- Digital-asset authority under the RUFADAA
- Attestation clause and your state's self-proving affidavit
- A separate How to sign this will page for your state
How to use this Last Will and Testament in US
Start with the people and work outwards. Your full legal name and the county you are domiciled in decide which court opens your estate. Name your spouse and every child, including a child you are deliberately leaving out — an unnamed child is presumed forgotten and takes an intestate share off the top. Then list only the gifts that would otherwise cause an argument: the house, the ring, the business. Everything else belongs in the residuary clause, which catches the accounts you open next year and the gifts that fail.
Decide the two questions that matter most for a family: who raises your minor children, and at what age they get the money. A guardian of the person raises the child; a guardian of the estate handles the child's money; a trust holds the share to 25 or 30 with a health, education, maintenance and support standard in the meantime, instead of handing a teenager the whole inheritance on an eighteenth birthday. Name an alternate for every role — the commonest reason an estate stalls is that the only named person has died or declined.
Then sign it properly, because that is where wills fail. In your state you sign in front of 2 witnesses who are at least 14 and who inherit nothing (Tex. Est. Code § 251.051). Then sign the self-proving affidavit in front of a notary at the same sitting (Tex. Est. Code §§ 251.101-251.104) — that is what lets the will be admitted without finding your witnesses years from now. Do not use a beneficiary as a witness: your state cuts down or voids the gift (Tex. Est. Code § 254.002). Full step-by-step instructions print on their own page at the end. Then keep the signed original where your executor can reach it, and review the will after a marriage, a divorce, a birth, a death or a move to another state.
Other names
- last will and testament
- will
- simple will
- will form
- testament
- last will
- estate will
- will and testament template
- printable will
- will with trust for minors
Related documents
Blank Last Will and Testament forms by state
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Choose your state ▾
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- District of Columbia
- Florida
- Georgia
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming
FormsByState provides self-help document templates and general information, not legal advice. We are not a law firm. For advice about your situation consult a licensed attorney in your state.