Signing your will and keeping it where it can be found

If you wrote it yourself, make sure it counts

Plenty of people now write their own will: with an AI tool, a form, a kit, or a blank page. How the words were produced matters far less than what happens next. A file on your computer is a draft. It becomes a will when it is signed the way the law where you live requires.

• Print it, then sign and date it in front of adult witnesses, who sign as well. In most places that means two witnesses, and it is safest if neither of them receives anything under the will.
• Check the rule where you live. Some states accept a will written entirely in your own handwriting with no witnesses, and some accept a will signed electronically. Many do not. Your state court's website usually says which.
• Add a notarized statement if your state offers one. Often called a self-proving affidavit, it saves your witnesses from being tracked down years later.
• Name an executor and a backup, and tell them both.

The original is what counts

The paper you signed in front of witnesses is the will. A photocopy, a scan or a photo on your phone is useful for showing what it said and where to look, but in most places it does not replace the original. Proving a copy in court, when it is allowed at all, is slower and costs more.

Good places

• A fireproof box or safe at home. Simple and close to hand. Your executor must know where it is and how to open it.
• With your executor. If they are steady and settled, the person who will need the will can simply hold it. Tell your backup executor that they have it.
• With the probate court. Some courts will hold a will for safekeeping for a small fee. Ask the clerk of the court in your county whether they do.

Places that cause trouble

• A safe deposit box in your name only. After a death the bank may not let anyone open it without a court order, and the court order may need the will. If you use a box, ask the bank exactly who can get in after you die, and whether adding your executor to the box solves it.
• A clever hiding place. Inside a book, under a drawer, in the freezer. If you would struggle to describe it, your family will not find it.
• With a relative who may move, or who benefits from it going missing.

Look after the paper

• Do not write on it, cross anything out or add notes. Changes are made with a new will or a formal amendment, not a pen.
• Do not remove the staple. A will that has been taken apart can raise questions about whether pages were swapped.
• Keep it flat, dry and in an envelope that says what it is.

Tell the right person

Your executor needs to know three things: that a will exists, exactly where the original is, and how to get to it. They do not need to know what it says. Tell your backup executor too.

If you make a new will, destroy the old original and every copy of it, and tell your executor that the new one replaces it. Two wills in two places is a common way for a family to end up in court.

If there is no will yet

That is worth saying out loud as well. Families lose weeks searching for a will that was never written. And if you have been meaning to make one, pick an evening and do it. The writing is the quick part. The signing is the part that makes it real.