A will questionnaire is a structured worksheet you complete before an attorney or drafting program turns your wishes into an actual will. It collects, in one place, every piece of information the drafter needs: who you are, who your family is, what you own, what you owe, who should get what, and who should be in charge of carrying it out. Filling it out carefully means fewer revisions later, lower fees if you’re paying an attorney, and a finished will that reflects what you actually intend.
The questionnaire itself has no legal force. It’s a planning tool. The legal document comes after.
Personal and Family Information
Start with your own identifying details: full legal name (including any former names), date of birth, Social Security number, and current home address. The address matters because the state where you’re domiciled determines which probate laws govern your estate. If you own real estate in more than one state, note that too. Your executor may need to open ancillary probate wherever you hold property.
Record your current marital status and the date of any prior divorces. This isn’t biographical trivia. In most states, a surviving spouse has the right to claim an elective share of the estate regardless of what the will says, and divorce history affects whether a former spouse retains any claim at all. Pennsylvania’s probate code, for example, strips the elective share if the spouse dies during pending divorce proceedings after grounds have been established.1Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 20 Chapter 22 – Elective Share of Surviving Spouse
If you live in a community property state — Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, or Wisconsin — flag that. In those states, most assets acquired during a marriage belong equally to both spouses, which limits what you can give away in your will to your half of community property plus any separate property you owned before the marriage or received as a gift or inheritance.
Children and Other Heirs
List every child by full legal name and date of birth, including biological, adopted, and stepchildren. Note whether any child has a physical or mental disability that might require a special-needs trust to preserve eligibility for public benefits. If a child born or adopted after you sign the will isn’t mentioned in it, most states treat that child as omitted and award them a share as if you had died without a will at all.2Justia. New Mexico Code 45-2-302 – Omitted Children
Include a current mailing address and phone number for every person you plan to name in the will, whether as a beneficiary, executor, guardian, or trustee. Your executor has a legal obligation to notify beneficiaries, heirs, and creditors once probate opens, and current contact information keeps that process from stalling.
Inventorying What You Own and Owe
The asset section is the backbone of the questionnaire. Be specific enough that someone reading the finished will years from now can identify exactly what you meant.
- Real property: street address, how title is held (sole ownership, joint tenancy with right of survivorship, tenancy in common, or community property), and approximate current market value. Title type matters. Property held in joint tenancy with right of survivorship passes automatically to the surviving co-owner and never enters probate, so writing it into your will as a bequest to someone else creates confusion.
- Financial accounts: institution name, account type (checking, savings, brokerage, money market), and whether a payable-on-death or transfer-on-death beneficiary is already named.
- Retirement accounts: 401(k)s, IRAs, 403(b)s, and pensions pass to whoever is named on the beneficiary designation form filed with the account custodian, not through the will. Record each account and confirm the designation is current. An outdated designation naming an ex-spouse can override your will entirely.3Internal Revenue Service. Responsibilities of an Estate Administrator
- Tangible personal property: vehicles (with VIN), jewelry, firearms, artwork, collections, and anything else with meaningful financial or sentimental value. For high-value items, include serial numbers, appraisal dates, or descriptions specific enough to prevent arguments later.
- Business interests: entity type (LLC, S-Corp, sole proprietorship), your ownership percentage, and whether the operating or partnership agreement contains a buy-sell provision that controls what happens to your share.
- Life insurance: like retirement accounts, proceeds go to the named beneficiary on the policy, not through the will. List each policy, the issuing company, the death benefit, and the current beneficiary.
After the assets, document every debt: mortgage balances, car loans, student loans, credit cards, personal loans, and any outstanding tax obligations. Valid debts get paid before anything is distributed to heirs.4Federal Trade Commission. Debts and Deceased Relatives Recording them upfront gives you a realistic picture of what’s actually available.
Assets the Will Doesn’t Control
A common mistake on will questionnaires is treating every asset as though the will controls it. Several categories bypass probate entirely and go straight to a named beneficiary or surviving co-owner:
- Retirement accounts with a beneficiary designation
- Life insurance policies with a named beneficiary
- Bank or brokerage accounts with a payable-on-death or transfer-on-death designation
- Real property held in joint tenancy with right of survivorship
- Assets held in a living trust
- Real property covered by a transfer-on-death deed (available in roughly half of states)
List these on the questionnaire so the overall picture is complete, but mark them clearly as non-probate. The will has no authority over them. If you want to change who receives a retirement account or life insurance payout, you change the beneficiary designation with the financial institution.
Digital Assets and Cryptocurrency
If you have cryptocurrency, online accounts with stored value, or digital media libraries, add a digital asset section. The Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, now adopted in nearly every state, gives executors authority to manage a deceased person’s digital property, but they still need to know what exists and how to reach it.
For cryptocurrency, record the type of currency (Bitcoin, Ethereum, and so on), the approximate amount held, and where each asset is stored: on an exchange, in a software wallet, or on a cold storage device. The critical detail is access. Your executor needs to know where to find your private keys or recovery phrases. A hardware wallet in a safe is worthless if nobody knows the PIN. Store access credentials in a sealed envelope in a secure location and tell your executor where to find it. Do not put passwords directly in the will, which becomes a public record during probate.
For other digital accounts (email, social media, cloud storage, domain names, online storefronts), list the platform, your username, and your wishes: delete, memorialize, or transfer. Some platforms let you designate a legacy contact or inactive account manager through their own settings, which your executor can reference when requesting access or termination.
Distribution: Who Gets What
This is where you say who receives what. The questionnaire splits distributions into two categories: specific bequests and the residuary estate.
A specific bequest is a gift of a particular item or set dollar amount to a named person or organization. The more precise you are, the better. “My Rolex Submariner, serial number 7839204, to my nephew James Whitfield” leaves no room for argument. “My watch to James” invites one. For cash gifts, state the exact amount and the recipient’s full legal name.
The residuary estate is everything left after specific bequests are fulfilled and debts are paid. Most people leave the residue to a spouse, split it among children, or direct it to a trust. Name a residuary beneficiary and specify how the residue should be divided among multiple recipients (equal shares, specific percentages, or some other arrangement).
Alternate Beneficiaries and Per Stirpes
For every bequest, specific and residuary, name a backup recipient in case the primary beneficiary dies before you do. Without an alternate, a lapsed gift typically falls into the residuary estate or, if the residuary clause itself fails, passes under your state’s intestacy laws as though you had no will at all.5Legal Information Institute. Intestate Succession The questionnaire should also ask whether you want per stirpes distribution, meaning that if a child predeceases you, that child’s share passes down to their own children rather than being redistributed among your surviving children.
Disinheriting Someone
If you intend to leave someone out, name that person explicitly on the questionnaire and state that the omission is intentional. Simply leaving a name off the list is not enough. A probate court may treat the silence as an accidental oversight and award the omitted heir a share anyway. An explicit disinheritance clause built from the questionnaire prevents that argument. Surviving spouses generally cannot be fully disinherited because of elective-share protections, so talk to an attorney if that’s your situation.
Letter of Instruction
Some questionnaires include a section for a letter of instruction, a separate, non-binding document written in your own words that explains the reasoning behind your decisions and gives your executor practical guidance the will itself won’t contain. You might use it to explain why you left unequal shares, describe the location of important documents, list account passwords, or express funeral and burial preferences. It has no legal weight, but it can prevent family conflict by giving context the formal language of a will never captures.
Executor, Guardians, and Other Fiduciaries
The executor (called a personal representative in some states) carries out the instructions in your will: gathering assets, paying debts and taxes, filing returns, and distributing what’s left.3Internal Revenue Service. Responsibilities of an Estate Administrator The questionnaire should collect the full legal name, address, and phone number of your first-choice executor and at least one alternate.
Choose someone organized, trustworthy, and geographically close enough to handle in-person court appearances and property management. Being a beneficiary doesn’t disqualify someone from serving, but the dual role can invite scrutiny from other heirs if disputes arise.
Executor Compensation
Most questionnaires ask whether you want to specify a fee for the executor’s work or defer to whatever your state allows. Some states set compensation by statute; others leave it to the probate court to determine reasonable compensation based on the complexity of the work. If you want your executor to serve without a fee (common when the executor is also a major beneficiary), state that clearly so the drafter includes a fee-waiver clause.
Guardians for Minor Children
If you have children under 18, the guardian section is arguably the most important part of the questionnaire. Name a primary guardian and at least one alternate, with full names, addresses, and relationship to your children. The court makes the final appointment, but a clearly expressed preference in a properly executed will carries significant weight.
You can split roles if you want one person to raise your children but a different person to manage their inheritance. Name a separate trustee to oversee funds held in trust for the children until they reach a specified age. The questionnaire should ask what age you want each child to receive their full inheritance outright: 18, 21, 25, or older.
Pet Caretakers
Most states allow enforceable pet trusts, and many questionnaires now include a section for them. Name a caretaker (and an alternate), describe the animals, and indicate how much money you want set aside for their care. A pet trust ensures the funds are actually used for the animal rather than treated as a general bequest the caretaker can spend however they want.
Optional Provisions Worth Flagging
Some questionnaires ask whether you want a no-contest clause, a provision that strips any beneficiary of their inheritance if they challenge the will in court. Most states enforce these clauses, though courts tend to interpret them narrowly.6Legal Information Institute. No-Contest Clause Several states carve out a probable-cause exception: if the challenger had a reasonable basis for believing the will was the product of fraud or undue influence, the clause won’t apply. Florida doesn’t enforce no-contest clauses at all. If you’re considering one, note it on the questionnaire for the drafter, but the decision is worth discussing with an attorney given the state-by-state variation.
From Questionnaire to Signed Will
Once the questionnaire feeds into a drafted will, the document has to be formally executed to have legal effect. In most states, you sign the will in the presence of at least two witnesses, who then sign it themselves.7Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 64.2-403 – Execution of Wills; Requirements The witnesses need to be present at the same time and must see you sign or hear you acknowledge your signature.
Use disinterested witnesses, meaning people who don’t receive anything under the will. Most states allow an interested witness (a named beneficiary) to sign without invalidating the will, but doing so creates a rebuttable presumption that the interested witness obtained their bequest through undue influence.8Justia. California Code Probate Code – Execution of Wills Avoiding that fight is as simple as asking two people who aren’t in the will to serve as witnesses.
Self-Proving Affidavit
After signing, attach a self-proving affidavit, a notarized statement in which the witnesses swear under oath that they watched you sign voluntarily and that you appeared to be of sound mind.9The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 732.503 – Self-Proof of Will Without it, the probate court may need to track down your witnesses years later and have them testify that the signature is genuine. Nearly every state permits self-proving affidavits; the District of Columbia, Maryland, Ohio, and Vermont are the notable exceptions. Notary fees for the affidavit generally run between $5 and $20 per signature depending on the state.10Pennsylvania Department of State. Notary Public Fees
Storing the Signed Will
The questionnaire is your working document; the signed will is the legal one. Store the original where your executor can access it without a court order: a fireproof safe at home, a secure digital vault designed for legal documents, or your attorney’s office. A bank safe-deposit box works but can create delays because in some states the box is sealed at the owner’s death until a court order permits access. Wherever you choose, tell your executor exactly where the will is and how to retrieve it. A perfectly drafted will nobody can find is functionally the same as having no will at all.