Blog · Trusts and Wills

Can You Write Your Own Will in California? Three Ways That Count, and What None of Them Can Do

By Michael Le, licensed agent, CA #0G82966 · November 10, 2026 · 9 min read

A man in a denim shirt writing in a lined notebook at a round wooden table, a watch on his wrist and a stack of books nearby — Photo: Tima Miroshnichenko on Pexels

Can you write your own will in California? Yes. State law gives you three ways to make a valid will without a lawyer: a will in your own handwriting, the fill in the blanks statutory will form the courts publish, or a typed will signed in front of two witnesses. Each one has rules, and a will that misses them can fail at the exact moment it is supposed to work.

This post walks through what each kind needs, the mistakes that get do it yourself wills thrown out, and what a will cannot do no matter who writes it. If you own a house in Santa Clara County, that last part matters more than the rest.

Quick note on who is talking. opfinances.com is a licensed life insurance and annuity agency in Los Gatos. We are not a law firm, not a tax adviser, not a financial advisor and not a fiduciary, and we do not prepare wills. This is general education about how California's rules work, not legal advice about your own situation.

The short version

Anyone 18 or older and of sound mind can make a will in California (Probate Code 6100). No lawyer and no notary is required.
A handwritten will needs no witnesses if the signature and the material provisions are in your handwriting (Probate Code 6111). Leaving off the date is legal, but it can sink the will.
A typed will needs your signature and two witnesses who are present at the same time (Probate Code 6110). The California Statutory Will is a free form with the same witness rule, and you may not add or cross out words.
A will does not avoid probate. For a California estate over $208,850, or one that includes a house, a will alone still means a court case with statutory fees.

In this post

Yes, you can write your own will in California, three different ways.
A handwritten will is a California holographic will, and it needs no witnesses.
What a handwritten will should say.
The California statutory will form is the state's own fill in the blanks will.
A typed will needs two witnesses in the room at the same time.
What a will cannot do, even a perfect one.
Keep the original where it can be found, and tell someone.
Questions people ask

Yes, you can write your own will in California, three different ways.

Probate Code 6113 says a written will is validly executed if it follows any one of three paths: the witnessed will in section 6110, the holographic will in section 6111, or the statutory will that starts at section 6200. All three are open to anyone 18 or older who is of sound mind (Probate Code 6100). None of them requires a lawyer, and none requires a notary.

One limit up front. Under Probate Code 6101, a will disposes of your separate property and your one half of the community property, never your spouse's half. And it only controls assets that would otherwise go through probate, which we get to below.

A handwritten will is a California holographic will, and it needs no witnesses.

Probate Code 6111 says a will that doesn't meet the witness rules is still valid as a holographic will, witnessed or not, if the signature and the material provisions are in the testator's handwriting. The material provisions are who gets what and who is in charge. You can write it on a legal pad or the back of an envelope. The statement that the document is meant to be your will can even be preprinted on a store bought form, as long as the gifts themselves are in your hand (6111(c)).

The date is optional, and skipping it is the classic mistake.

The statute does not require a date. But 6111(b) spells out what an undated holographic will costs you. If there is doubt about which of two conflicting wills came later, the undated one loses to the extent of the conflict unless its date can be proved. And if you lacked capacity at any point when it could have been written, it is invalid unless someone proves it was written while you had capacity. Write the date next to your signature and both problems go away.

What a handwritten will should say.

A handwritten will does not need legal words. It needs these pieces, in your own handwriting.

A sentence that this is your will and that it revokes every earlier will. A later will revokes an earlier one expressly or by inconsistency (Probate Code 6120), and saying so removes the argument.
Who gets what, including a line for everything left over.
Who you want as executor, and a backup.
If you have children under 18, who you nominate as their guardian. A nomination in a signed writing is effective when made and survives your death (Probate Code 1502).
Your signature and the date.

The California statutory will form is the state's own fill in the blanks will.

California publishes a will you can fill out. Its text sits in Probate Code 6240, and the Judicial Council's self help site posts the current form as a PDF under its wills and estates documents page. It has blanks for cash gifts, specific gifts, who gets the balance, a guardian for minor children, a custodian for a child's share, and an executor with backups.

The rules around the form are strict. Its own instructions say not to add any words beyond filling in the blanks and not to cross anything out. Probate Code 6226 backs that up: additions or deletions outside the instructions take effect only if clear and convincing evidence shows they carry out your clear intent, and otherwise a court can ignore the change or throw out all or part of the will.

Signing works like a typed will. You date and sign it, and two witnesses sign in your presence after watching you sign (Probate Code 6221). The form says notarization will not fulfill the witness requirement.

What the form says it will not do.

The questions and answers printed with the form are honest about its limits. It does not avoid probate. It does not necessarily control nonprobate assets like joint tenancy accounts, life insurance or retirement plans. Trusts are too complicated for it. It tells you to talk to a lawyer if your assets will be worth more than $600,000 or the current federal estate tax exclusion, among other triggers. With Santa Clara County house prices, a lot of homeowners in Los Gatos, Campbell and San Jose cross that $600,000 line on the house alone.

A typed will needs two witnesses in the room at the same time.

People ask how many witnesses for a will in California, and the answer for a typed or printed will is two. Probate Code 6110 says the will must be in writing, signed by you (or by someone else in your name, in your presence and at your direction), and witnessed by at least two people who sign during your lifetime. Each witness has to be present at the same time, see you sign or hear you acknowledge the signature, and understand that the document is your will. There is no notary requirement anywhere in the section.

Pick witnesses who get nothing under the will. Probate Code 6112 says a will is not invalid because a beneficiary signed as a witness, but a gift to a witness raises a presumption of duress, menace, fraud or undue influence unless two other disinterested witnesses also signed. A witness who cannot rebut it takes no more than they would have received with no will at all. A neighbor or a coworker is a better witness than your daughter.

Hands reaching into a black file box of colored folders on a dark wooden desk beside a green banker's lamp — Photo: Dziana Hasanbekava on Pexels

What a will cannot do, even a perfect one.

So, can you write your own will in California and call the planning done? For a lot of households, no.

First, a will does not avoid probate. If the gross value of what you own in California is over the small estate limit, which is $208,850 for deaths on or after April 1, 2025 (Probate Code 13100, as adjusted), your executor generally has to open a probate case. One warning: the court's own self help page still printed the old $184,500 figure when we checked, so use the Sacramento County Public Law Library's small estate chart for the current number. Probate pays the attorney and the executor each a statutory fee on the gross estate under Probate Code 10810: 4 percent of the first $100,000, 3 percent of the next $100,000, 2 percent of the next $800,000 and 1 percent of the next $9,000,000.

Second, a will does not control nonprobate assets. Life insurance, retirement accounts, pay on death bank accounts and joint tenancy property pass under their own paperwork. Probate Code 5000 says a beneficiary designation on an insurance policy or similar instrument is valid even though it was never signed like a will, and the insurer pays whoever that form names. Our answer on how much life insurance you need is the place to start on that side, and our life insurance page explains how we handle the forms.

A worked example with illustrative numbers.

These figures are made up to show the math. A widow in Campbell writes a clean holographic will leaving everything to her two children. She owns a house worth $1,100,000, titled in her name alone, and $100,000 in bank and brokerage accounts with no beneficiary named. Gross estate: $1,200,000.

The will is valid. It still goes to probate, because the estate is far over $208,850 and the house has no other way to change hands. On $1,200,000, the Probate Code 10810 schedule produces $4,000 plus $3,000 plus $16,000 plus $2,000, which is $25,000 for the attorney and the same for the executor, $50,000 combined before court costs. The fee is figured on gross value, so a mortgage does not lower it.

If the same house sat in a revocable living trust, with the will as a backup, the house would skip the court process. That pairing is what our post on the pour over will in California describes, and our post on funding a living trust shows the deed step. For a homeowner, a will on its own is rarely the whole plan.

Keep the original where it can be found, and tell someone.

A will nobody can find is treated as a will you destroyed. Probate Code 6124 says that if the will was last in your possession, you were competent until death, and neither the original nor a duplicate original can be found afterward, the law presumes you destroyed it with intent to revoke. The statutory will's own instructions say to keep it in a safe deposit box or another safe place and tell trusted family members where it is.

Under Probate Code 8200, whoever holds the original has to deliver it to the clerk of the superior court within 30 days of learning of the death, personally or by registered or certified mail, and send a copy to the named executor. A custodian who doesn't is liable for the damage that causes.

To change a will, write a new one or a codicil with the same formalities. Crossing things out on the original is how fights start. Without a will at all, our post on what happens if you die without a will in California explains who inherits.

If you have written your own will and want a lawyer to look it over, a legal plan membership is one way to do that, and the note below explains how we are connected to one. You can reach us through our contact page.

FAQ

Questions people ask.

Is a handwritten will legal in California?

Yes. Under Probate Code 6111, a will is valid as a holographic will, with or without witnesses, if the signature and the material provisions are in the testator's handwriting. Date it, or it can lose to a conflicting will.

How many witnesses do you need for a will in California?

Two for a typed, printed or statutory will, under Probate Code 6110. Both must be present at the same time and see you sign or acknowledge the will. A handwritten holographic will needs none. A notary does not replace the witnesses.

Can you write your own will in California for free?

Yes. You can handwrite one under Probate Code 6111, or download the California Statutory Will form from the Judicial Council's self help site and fill in the blanks. The statutory form needs two witnesses and cannot be altered beyond the blanks.

Does writing a will keep my house out of probate in California?

No. A house titled in your name alone still goes through probate if the estate's gross value is over $208,850, and the statutory fees are figured on the gross value. A revocable living trust, or in some cases a transfer on death deed, is what keeps a house out of probate.

Getting it done

Getting the documents in place.

Reading about a will or a trust does not put one in place. If you want an attorney to draft or review your will, living trust, or power of attorney, a LegalShield membership gives you access to a provider law firm for a flat monthly fee instead of an hourly bill. You can also call with a question before it turns into a problem.

See LegalShield plans

Disclosure: Michael Le, the licensed agent behind opfinances.com, is also an independent LegalShield associate and may earn a commission if you enroll. LegalShield is not a law firm; it provides access to legal services offered by independent provider law firms. On Point Finances is not a law firm and does not give legal advice. Plan prices and coverage vary by state.

Where this fits.

This post covers one piece of a bigger plan. Life Insurance walks through the whole decision, and the answer library takes the follow up questions one at a time.

On Point Finances is a licensed insurance agency, not a tax, legal, or investment adviser. This post is general education, not a recommendation, and reading it does not create a client relationship.

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Sources

Checked November 10, 2026. Rules and limits change; confirm current figures with the source or your own tax or legal professional before acting.