Read this first: a template, not legal advice

The Last Will and Testament Generator turns the details you type into a structured draft will in plain text. It is an educational template. It is not legal advice, it is not reviewed by a lawyer, and it does not check the law where you live. Whether a will is valid depends on local rules about who may sign, how many witnesses must watch, whether a notary is needed, and what you are allowed to leave to whom. In some places, family members have fixed shares that a will cannot override, and in others a will must follow religious inheritance rules. Use the draft to organise your wishes and to make a meeting with a lawyer or notary shorter and cheaper, not as a substitute for one.

Where your will is created

The whole document is assembled in your browser by JavaScript on this page. Names, addresses, bequests and instructions are not sent to our server, and nothing is saved between visits. When you press Download .txt, the file is built in your browser and saved straight to your device as last-will.txt. Because nothing is stored, closing or reloading the tab loses the draft, so copy or download it before you leave.

What goes into the draft

The generator writes the will as a series of articles, numbered in order, followed by a signature block and witness lines. Optional articles are only added when you fill them in, and the numbering closes up around any that are left out.

Article numbers are assigned in order as the draft is built. If you name no primary beneficiaries and skip the guardian, the articles that remain are still numbered 1, 2, 3 and so on without gaps.

The form, field by field

Required fields

The Generate Last Will & Testament button will not produce a draft until these are filled: Testator Full Name, Testator Address, Residuary Beneficiary(ies), Executor Name and Will Date. A red message names the first missing one.

About you

• Testator Full Name: your legal name, exactly as on your identity documents. It is printed in capitals in the title.
• Testator Address: your full residential address.
• Marital Status: Single, Married, Divorced or Widowed. Choosing Married reveals Spouse's Name.

Who inherits

• Primary Beneficiaries (People who inherit): rows of name and relationship, added with Add Beneficiary. At least one row must stay. Every row with a name is printed in its own Primary Beneficiaries article, for example "- Jennifer Smith (Daughter)". That article names the people; it does not say what each receives, so give property through specific bequests or the residuary field.
• Specific Bequests: an item or amount and the person who receives it, added with Add Specific Bequest. Each row becomes a sentence such as "I give my 2020 Honda Accord to Michael T. Smith."
• Residuary Beneficiary(ies): who gets everything not given away specifically. Write it as a full phrase, for example "my spouse, Linda Smith, and my children, Jennifer Smith and Michael Smith, in equal shares". The draft adds a per stirpes clause so a beneficiary's share passes to their descendants if they die first.

Who carries it out

• Executor Name and Executor Address: the person who administers your estate.
• Guardian for Minor Children (if applicable) and Alternate Guardian (optional).

Advanced options (optional)

Click the Advanced options (optional) row to open Alternate Executor, Digital Assets / Online Accounts, Funeral / Burial Instructions, the Self-Proving Affidavit checkbox and Additional Clauses. The affidavit is a United States style form with blanks for State and County and a notary signature line. It is unticked by default; tick it only if it applies where you live, because it means nothing in many other countries.

Making your draft, step by step

1. Press Sample once to see a complete example. It fills the form with a fictional married couple and generates a will so you can see the output shape. Press Reset to clear it.
2. Fill in the five required fields and anything else that applies.
3. Press Generate Last Will & Testament. The status line reads "Will generated. Ready to copy or download."
4. Read it on the Preview tab.
5. Switch to the Text tab to edit. Anything you change there is the version that Copy and Download use, and the preview follows your edits.
6. Press Copy to paste it into a word processor, or Download .txt to save last-will.txt.

Lines you should edit before using the draft

• Children. The form has no field for children, and the draft does not list them. If you want your children named, add a sentence in the Text tab or in Additional Clauses.
• The signing date. The closing line is built from the Will Date field and reads like "on this 26th day of October, 2026". If you will sign on a different day, change it or leave a blank to fill in by hand.
• Article numbers if you add or remove articles by hand in the Text tab.
• The affidavit, if you ticked it, when your country does not use one.

Good practice

• Describe property so nobody can argue about it: "my 2020 Honda Civic, registration ABC-1234" is better than "my car".
• Name an alternate executor and an alternate guardian. People move, fall ill or decline.
• Use full legal names for every person, and say how they are related to you.
• For digital assets, describe what should happen to accounts, but do not write passwords into the will; it may become a public record after death.
• Store the signed original somewhere safe and tell your executor where it is.
• Review the will after major life events: marriage, divorce, a birth, a death in the family, a move abroad or buying property.

Avoid these mistakes

• Do not sign the draft as-is without checking your local signing and witnessing rules.
• Do not ask a beneficiary, or a beneficiary's spouse, to act as a witness. In many places that can cancel their gift.
• Do not rely on a no-contest clause or any other additional clause without advice; some courts will not enforce them.
• Do not rely on the Primary Beneficiaries article alone to pass property. It names people but does not give them anything; use specific bequests or the residuary clause for that.
• Do not write instructions that conflict with each other, such as giving the same item to two people.

Limitations

• One generic English template, written in a common law style. It does not adapt to any country, state or religion.
• Output is plain text only; there is no Word or PDF export.
• No signature, witnessing or notarisation happens online. Those must be done on paper according to local law.
• Nothing is saved, so a reload loses the draft.
• Trusts, business interests, foreign property and tax planning are out of scope.

Frequently Asked Questions