Writing a will takes anywhere from about 20 minutes to three weeks, depending on how you do it. An online platform runs roughly 20 to 40 minutes of active work. An attorney-drafted will usually wraps up in one to three weeks from first consultation to final signature. A handwritten will, in states that recognize them, can be done in an afternoon. The drafting itself is rarely the bottleneck — how long it takes to write a will depends mostly on how much time you spend gathering financial information and deciding who gets what.
What Actually Eats the Time
The complexity of your estate is the biggest factor. A spouse, kids, a house, and a retirement account is a fast will. Add a second property, a small business, brokerage accounts spread across firms, or a beneficiary with special needs, and drafting stretches because each asset may need its own instructions.
Minor children add more time than people expect. You need a guardian and a backup, a decision about whether assets should sit in trust until the kids reach a certain age, and someone to manage those funds. These usually involve conversations with family before anyone signs anything, and those conversations run on their own schedule.
Your own indecision is the quietest time-eater. Opening a will platform or sitting down with a lawyer without knowing who inherits what means you’ll stop halfway through to think. The people who finish fastest have already made the calls before they start.
The Prep Phase Is Where the Calendar Really Goes
If your financial life is scattered across multiple institutions with no central list, expect to spend a few hours just compiling what you own. That’s normal, and it’s the single biggest predictor of how quickly the rest goes. Have this ready before you start:
- An asset inventory: real estate deeds, bank and brokerage account numbers, retirement accounts, vehicle titles, life insurance policies, and valuable personal property.
- Debts and liabilities: mortgage balances, car loans, student loans, credit cards. Your executor settles these before beneficiaries get anything.
- Beneficiary details: full legal names and contact information for everyone you want to inherit, plus alternates in case your first choice dies before you do.
- Your executor pick, ideally after asking them if they’re willing.
- Guardian nominations for any minor children, with a backup.
- Digital assets like cryptocurrency wallets, domain names, and online business accounts. Don’t put passwords in the will itself, since it becomes public during probate; store credentials separately somewhere your executor can reach.
Do this work first and the drafting shrinks to a single sitting. Skip it and you’ll bounce in and out of the process for weeks.
Online Will Platforms: Under an Hour
Online will services are the fastest route when your situation is straightforward. Testing by the National Council on Aging found most online will makers take around 20 to 40 minutes to complete, with the average at 23 minutes. The platform asks questions, you answer them, and it generates a document you print and sign.
The speed depends on your estate fitting the template. Online tools handle a spouse, children, a house, and standard accounts well. They struggle with blended families, business ownership, property in more than one state, or conditional bequests like “my daughter gets the house only if she’s living in it.” If your situation has those wrinkles, an online will can create ambiguity that surfaces during probate.
Cost runs from free to a few hundred dollars. For simple estates, these platforms genuinely work. For complex ones, treat them as a starting point.
Working With an Attorney: One to Three Weeks
An attorney-drafted will follows a standard rhythm: an initial consultation of 30 minutes to an hour, a drafting period of a few days to a week, and a review meeting where you read the draft, request changes, and sign. Start to finish, plan on one to three weeks for a basic will.
Complex estates take longer. A business, significant assets, trust provisions for minor children, or built-in tax planning may need multiple drafting rounds. Estates above the federal estate tax exemption — $15,000,000 per person in 2026 — require careful planning to minimize tax liability, and the will is usually part of a broader package that includes trusts.1Internal Revenue Service. What’s New — Estate and Gift Tax A full plan at that level can take a month or more.
Attorney fees for a basic will generally run from a few hundred dollars to around $1,500, depending on location and experience. Most charge a flat fee for simple wills. What the time and money buy is someone who catches issues you wouldn’t, like a retirement account beneficiary designation that contradicts the will, or state-specific rules about how certain property passes.
Holographic Wills: An Afternoon
About half of U.S. states recognize holographic wills, which are handwritten and don’t require witnesses to be valid.2Legal Information Institute. Holographic Will In those states, you can write out your wishes by hand, sign it, and be done in an afternoon.
Requirements vary. Some states require the entire document be in your handwriting; others only require the material portions — the key provisions about who gets what — be handwritten.2Legal Information Institute. Holographic Will A few states, including New York, only recognize holographic wills from military members serving during armed conflict.
The speed comes at a cost. Handwritten wills are challenged in court more often than witnessed ones. Sloppy handwriting, vague language, or missing details invite disputes. A holographic will is better than no will, but treat it as a stopgap.
Signing: The Step That Makes It Legal
Drafting isn’t the finish line. A will isn’t valid until you execute it with the proper formalities. In nearly every state, that means signing in front of at least two witnesses who also sign. A handful of states, like Colorado, allow a notary in place of witnesses.3Justia. Wills Legal Forms: 50-State Survey You also need to be at least 18 and have testamentary capacity, meaning you understand what you own, who your natural beneficiaries are, and how the will distributes your assets.4Legal Information Institute. Testamentary Capacity
Coordinating two witnesses and a notary in the same room usually takes a few hours to arrange and a few minutes to complete. Most attorney offices handle the signing at the final appointment. If you drafted the will yourself, mobile notary services can come to you, typically for $15 to $25 plus travel.
The Self-Proving Affidavit
A self-proving affidavit is a sworn statement attached to the will, signed by your witnesses in front of a notary, confirming they watched you sign. It’s not required for the will to be valid, but it saves your witnesses from having to testify in probate court after you die, which matters because witnesses move, forget, or die themselves. Most states allow self-proving wills; the District of Columbia, Maryland, Ohio, and Vermont do not.5Legal Information Institute. Self-Proving Will Adding the affidavit takes a few extra minutes at the signing.
Time You’ll Spend Later: Updates
A will isn’t a one-and-done document. Plan to review it every three to five years, and revisit it right after any major life change:
- Marriage or divorce. Most states automatically revoke bequests to a former spouse, but the default isn’t a substitute for a real update.
- Birth or adoption of a child. Children born after signing may be entitled to a share under state law, but the outcome may not match what you’d want.
- Death of a beneficiary or executor. Without updates, courts step in to pick replacements.
- Major financial changes: selling a business, receiving an inheritance, acquiring significant assets.
- Moving to a different state. A will valid where signed is generally still valid, but state-specific rules on community property, witnesses, or taxes may warrant a fresh document.
For minor changes like swapping an executor or fixing a single bequest, a codicil works. It’s a short amendment that references and modifies the existing will, and it needs the same signing formalities as the original. Drafting is faster because you’re only touching specific provisions. For anything beyond a small tweak, draft a new will. Stacked codicils create confusion during probate when changes overlap or contradict. A new will that expressly revokes all prior versions gives your executor one clean document. It takes about as long as the first will did, but since most of the decisions are already made, it usually moves faster in practice.