Legal Self-Assessment

Sometimes the need arises to have a will prepared very quickly. These instructions will not help you do that. Using these instructions to draft your own will is a time-consuming task. You should expect it to take several hours, most likely spaced over several days. If you answered “yes” then you should contact a lawyer who already has the knowledge of the law to be able to draft your will very quickly.

Drafting a new will that needs to be consistent with an earlier unrevoked will is a complicated task that requires extreme care and advice from an attorney. These instructions assume that you are either making a will for the first time, or that you are willing to completely abandon all of your earlier wills by revoking them in their entirety. If you answered "yes" to this question, you should not try to follow these instructions and should instead consult with an experienced estate planning attorney.

One requirement for a will to be upheld in a Washington State court is that it must have been validly made under the laws of the place where it was made. The information in these instructions is all about the laws governing wills in the State of Washington, and the information is inaccurate to some extent in other places. That means that if you use our instructions to make your will, but then you finalize it outside of Washington, the will might not be valid. These instructions, if used for a will made outside of Washington State, might also have significant unintended consequences. If your answer to this question is “yes” then you should not use the information in these instructions to draft your will. Instead, consult with an estate planning attorney who is licensed to practice law where the will will be finalized.

The information in these instructions is all about making a simple will that will meet the requirements of a valid will under the laws of Washington State. Courts of other states and nations have different, sometimes stricter, requirements of a will for it to be admitted into probate. Unlike courts of Washington State, which may admit a will to probate if it was validly made under the laws of a foreign jurisdiction, courts in other places may refuse to recognize a will that was validly made in Washington according to Washington law. If your answer to this question is "yes" then you should not use the information in these instructions to draft your will. Instead, consult with an estate planning attorney who is licensed to practice law where you plan to live.

The law in Washington State does not allow you to make a will until you are at least 18 years old. If you try to make a will in Washington while you are under the age of 18, the will will not be valid and will not be enforceable. If you are under 18 years old and have serious estate planning concerns, you should consult with an attorney to see what options might be available to you.

If your answer is “yes” then you must immediately stop using the instructions on this website. In many jurisdictions, including Washington State, it is a crime for a "non-lawyer" to practice law. That means if you do not have a license to practice law, it is a crime for you to write a will for somebody else, even for a family member or a close friend.

There may also be other serious consequences for you, the person whose will you are trying to make, their heirs, and your heirs when you write a will without a license to practice law. The will could be invalidated, in whole or in part, due to your participation in drafting it. You could even be financially liable to the testator's heirs for any mistakes you make. Writing a will for somebody else if you do not have a license to practice law is a bad idea.

Lastly, it is a crime, and therefore also a violation of our terms of use, to draft a will for someone else if you are not licensed to practice law.

If your answer is "yes" then you may be acting under undue influence. A will made under undue influence can be attacked in a will contest, and a court may invalidate it in whole or in part. Will contests are expensive, time-consuming, and emotionally draining. Will contests can destroy otherwise harmonious family relationships. If your answer is "yes" then you should consult with an independent lawyer about whether to make a will and how to go about it. The lawyer you choose should be one to whom you will not be giving any gifts in your will.

If you answered “yes” then it is possible that you do not have the legal capacity to make a will. If you make a will while you do not have the necessary legal capacity, then the will will not be valid and will be unenforceable. You should contact an attorney to help you determine whether you have the capacity to make a will and, if you do, to help you establish whatever proof may be needed if your will is ever contested due to someone claiming you are not of sound mind.

Our simple will template and instructions cannot help you make restricted gifts of your property. If you answered “yes” then you need something more than a simple will, and you should contact an attorney for assistance.

Our simple will template and these instructions cannot help you create a trust or leave property to a trust. Although wills are sometimes used to create trusts, our simple will template and these instructions are not designed to be used for such a complex task. Writing the terms of a trust goes far beyond the scope of these instructions. If you answered “yes” then you need something more than a simple will, and you should contact an attorney for assistance. Note that you can use these instructions to give gifts to minor beneficiaries even without a trust. Our simple will template uses custodianships for gifts to minors instead of trusts. Custodianships are far simpler and far less expensive to create and manage than trusts.

Every country has its own legal system and laws. There is no guarantee that a simple will made under the laws of the State of Washington will be enforced in another country’s courts. You may be able to use a simple will to give away property in Washington State in combination with a different legal instrument from another country to give away property in that country. This kind of international estate planning should be undertaken with great care and should be coordinated by the legal practitioners in each of the countries involved. Talk with an attorney before attempting to do this kind of estate planning on your own.

If your answer is “yes” you may still be able to use our simple will. However, you need to be aware that your simple will will likely need to go through probate proceedings in every state where you own real estate. These additional probate proceedings are sometimes called “ancillary probate.” Ancillary probate proceedings can add significant time and expense to the distribution of your estate. Sometimes it is advisable to transfer ownership of your real estate in other states into a trust to avoid ancillary probate proceedings, but this is not always the case. The formation and management of trusts can also be time-consuming and expensive. You should speak with an attorney to decide whether a real property trust is a good choice for you.

A simple will contains no provisions to help you minimize or avoid the estate taxes your estate will owe, and a simple will should never be used if your estate will owe estate taxes. An experienced estate planning lawyer can prepare a more complex estate plan for you that will reduce and possibly even eliminate estate tax liability.

If your answer was “yes” then your estate plan should incorporate a trust, which is not part of a simple will. Note that a simple will does permit you to place funds or other property in a custodianship for your minor children or other minors. In other respects, however, a simple will cannot be used to provide ongoing care for another person after you pass away. Talk with an attorney if you want to add provisions for the ongoing care of another person to your estate plan.

The government keeps track of the Medicaid assistance you receive during your life, and it has the right to collect from your estate what it paid to you after you die. This is called the Medicaid lien. An experienced attorney may be able to protect some of your assets from the Medicaid lien to preserve them for beneficiaries of your choosing. A simple will made using these instructions, however, is incapable of protecting your assets from a Medicaid lien. If you answered “yes” to this question, then you should talk with a lawyer about whether it is possible to protect any of your assets from the Medicaid lien.

Examples include, but are not limited to, mutual wills, community property agreements, prenuptial agreements, postnuptial agreements, divorce decrees, injunctions, and judgments. These kinds of legal documents are likely to interfere with your rights to distribute property under your will. You should have an attorney review any such documents and advise you about your rights to distribute your property in a will before you try to draft your own will using these instructions.

Enrolled members of federally recognized tribes often have rights in land and other valuable rights that require special protections in a will. The will-drafting instructions on this website are not suitable to protect tribal rights, and you should stop using these instructions if you are an enrolled member of a federally recognized tribe. Instead, we encourage you to contact us and ask to be connected with an attorney with knowledge of how to protect your tribal rights.

We think our terms of use are pretty reasonable. They are in place to protect you as much as they are intended to protect us. If you do not agree with them, you are not permitted to use this website to draft your own will.