A will intake form is the questionnaire an estate planning attorney gives you before your first substantive meeting to collect every detail needed to draft your Last Will and Testament. It covers who you are, who’s in your family, what you own, what you owe, who should inherit, and who should carry out your wishes. Filling it out carefully — and gathering the supporting documents the attorney will ask for alongside it — is what turns the consultation into a drafting session instead of a fact-finding one.
You and Your Family
Start with your full legal name exactly as it appears on your government-issued ID. If you’ve used other names on property deeds, prior wills, or financial accounts, list each one. A maiden name, a former married name, a professional alias — all of it. Inconsistent names across documents cause problems during probate because the court has to confirm that the person who owned a piece of property is the same person whose will is being admitted.
Your current residential address does more than tell the firm where to reach you. The state where you maintain your legal residence determines which probate court has jurisdiction, which state’s inheritance laws apply, and where your executor files paperwork. When legal residence is disputed, courts look at where you vote, where your car is titled, and where you keep bank accounts.
The family section asks for your current marital status and the names, dates of birth, and addresses of your spouse, all living children, and any deceased children. Include adopted children and stepchildren. The attorney needs to know every person who could claim a legal right to your estate, even if you don’t plan to leave them anything. For minor children, ages matter because the attorney will build in guardianship nominations and may propose trust provisions that run until each child reaches adulthood.
Flag Special Circumstances
If any beneficiary receives Supplemental Security Income or Medicaid, note that on the form. A direct inheritance can disqualify someone from those programs, so the attorney needs to know early enough to propose a special needs trust that supplements government benefits without replacing them.
If you intend to leave a family member out of the will entirely, say so explicitly. Your documents should identify all of your children and make clear that a specific person is to receive nothing. Leaving someone off the form without explanation invites a probate challenge on the theory that you simply forgot them. Attorneys sometimes recommend leaving a small bequest paired with a no-contest clause, so the excluded person risks losing something real by filing a challenge.
Everything You Own and Everything You Owe
The asset section is a snapshot of your financial life. Accuracy here determines whether your specific gifts can actually be fulfilled and whether the residuary clause — the catch-all that covers everything not specifically mentioned — leaves your survivors with assets or with debt.
Real Estate
List every property you own or co-own: primary residence, vacation homes, rental properties, vacant land. For each, provide the street address, how the title is held (sole ownership, joint tenancy, tenants in common), the approximate current market value, and any outstanding mortgage balance. How a property is titled controls whether it passes through probate at all. Jointly held real estate with a right of survivorship transfers automatically to the surviving owner regardless of what your will says.
Financial Accounts and Investments
Record each bank account, brokerage account, certificate of deposit, and money market fund. Include the institution, the account type, the approximate balance, and all account holders. The last four digits of each account number are usually enough for the attorney to match the right account to the right bequest without putting full numbers on a document that may change hands during intake.
Personal Property
Vehicles, jewelry, art, collectibles, firearms, and any furniture with meaningful value each get their own line with a description and an estimated dollar figure. Most intake forms include an open field for “any other property you own or have an interest in.” Don’t skip it. Items you forget here get swept into the residuary estate and distributed under the catch-all clause, which may not reflect what you actually want.
Business Interests
If you own a share of any business, note the entity’s legal name, your ownership percentage, and how it’s structured (sole proprietorship, partnership, LLC, corporation). The structure affects what happens when you die. A member-managed LLC, for example, can face operational disruption during probate if the operating agreement doesn’t address succession. Bring any buy-sell agreement, operating agreement, or partnership agreement you’ve signed; these often contain transfer provisions and valuation methods that your will needs to align with rather than contradict.
Debts
List outstanding mortgages, car loans, student loans, personal loans, and credit card balances. Debts get paid from the estate before anyone inherits, so the attorney needs the full picture to calculate what’s actually available and to warn you if a specific bequest might fail because the estate can’t cover it.
Accounts That Pass Outside the Will
This is where many estate plans quietly fall apart. Life insurance policies, 401(k)s, IRAs, annuities, and any account with a payable-on-death or transfer-on-death designation pass directly to the named beneficiary. Your will has no authority over them. Whoever is listed on the account receives the asset, period.
List every policy and retirement account on the intake form along with its current primary and contingent beneficiaries. The attorney isn’t trying to control those assets through the will; the goal is to make sure the beneficiary designations don’t contradict your overall plan. A common disaster: someone names an ex-spouse as the beneficiary of a 401(k) years ago, forgets to update it after remarriage, and the ex inherits the entire account regardless of what the new will says. Listing these accounts brings the conflict to the surface while there’s still time to fix it.
For each, record the company name, account type, approximate value or face amount, and both beneficiary tiers.
Digital Assets
Digital property is easy to overlook, but it can carry real financial and sentimental value. Cryptocurrency wallets, domain names, online business accounts, digital media libraries, and social media profiles all belong on the inventory. Without identifying a crypto asset and explaining how to access it, nobody will know it exists after you’re gone.
Most states have adopted some version of the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, which gives executors a legal framework for managing digital accounts, but only if the will or an accompanying document grants that authority. On the intake form, list each digital asset or account along with the platform or exchange where it’s held. Don’t write passwords directly on the form. Note instead that a separate secure document exists with access credentials, and tell the attorney where it’s kept.
For cryptocurrency, identify the wallet type (hardware, software, exchange-based), the device or service that holds it, and whether any private keys or seed phrases are stored separately. An executor who can’t access a wallet can’t distribute what’s inside it.
The People You Appoint
The form asks you to name the people who will carry out your wishes. These appointments matter as much as the distribution plan itself. A poorly chosen executor can delay probate for years.
Executor and Successor
Your executor files the will with the court, pays debts and taxes, and distributes assets to beneficiaries. Provide the full legal name, address, phone number, and relationship for your first choice and at least one backup. The successor steps in if your primary executor dies, becomes incapacitated, or declines to serve.
If your will doesn’t address executor compensation, state law fills the gap, and the methods vary. Some states use a percentage of the estate value on a sliding scale; others allow “reasonable compensation” determined by the court. If you have a view on what your executor should be paid, tell your attorney so the will can address it directly.
Guardian for Minor Children
If you have children under 18, the form gives you space to nominate a guardian — the person who will raise them if both parents die. Name a first choice and an alternate. Courts give heavy weight to a parent’s written nomination, which makes this one of the most consequential lines on the entire form. Weigh values, parenting style, and geographic stability, not just closeness.
Trustee
If the will creates a trust for minors or other beneficiaries, which is common when children are young, you’ll need a trustee to manage the trust assets. The trustee and guardian don’t have to be the same person, and sometimes it’s better if they aren’t: the guardian focuses on raising the children while the trustee manages the money independently.
How You Want Your Estate Distributed
This section translates your wishes into instructions the attorney can draft into legally precise language. Most forms split distribution into two parts.
Specific Bequests
A specific bequest assigns a particular item or dollar amount to a named person or organization. “My 1967 Gibson guitar to my nephew David” or “$10,000 to the Red Cross” are specific bequests. Be as precise as you can. Vague descriptions invite disputes. For each bequest, list the item or amount, the recipient’s full legal name, their relationship to you, and their address.
Residuary Estate
Everything left after debts are paid and specific bequests are fulfilled falls into the residuary estate. The residuary clause is arguably the most important part of the will because it catches every asset you didn’t specifically name, including property you acquire after the will is signed. On the form, indicate who should receive the residue and in what proportions (for example, “equally among my three children”). Without a residuary clause, leftover assets pass under your state’s intestacy laws as if you had no will at all.
Documents to Bring With the Form
Filling out the form is half the job. The other half is gathering the records that back up what you wrote. Having these ready prevents delays and lets the attorney spot conflicts early.
- Any existing will or codicil, even one you plan to replace entirely.
- Trust agreements for any trust in which you’re a grantor, trustee, or beneficiary.
- Prenuptial or postnuptial agreements, which can restrict what you’re allowed to leave to someone other than your spouse.
- Real estate deeds, to confirm how each property is titled.
- Life insurance policies and retirement account statements, to verify beneficiary designations and face values.
- Buy-sell agreements and business governing documents that may dictate how your ownership interest transfers at death.
- Intellectual property records — copyright registrations, patent certificates, trademark filings, and licensing agreements — if you hold IP with ongoing value.
- Existing powers of attorney and healthcare directives.
Keep everything organized in one place, whether that’s a secure digital folder or a labeled physical binder. The attorney will review these alongside the intake form and flag conflicts, like a deed that lists a joint owner who would inherit the property automatically no matter what the will says.
Submitting the Form Safely
Most firms accept the completed form through a secure client portal with end-to-end encryption, which is the safest route for a document loaded with Social Security numbers, account details, and family information. Some firms also accept encrypted email or physical delivery by registered mail. If you’re emailing, confirm the firm uses encrypted transmission. Standard email isn’t secure enough for this level of personal data.
Information you share with an attorney, even a prospective one you haven’t formally hired, is protected by confidentiality rules. Under the American Bar Association’s Model Rule 1.18, a lawyer who receives information from a prospective client cannot use or reveal it even if you ultimately hire someone else.1American Bar Association. Rule 1.18 Duties to Prospective Client That protection covers everything on the form from the moment the firm receives it.
What Happens After You Send It In
Expect confirmation of receipt within a day or two. The attorney then reviews the form and supporting documents, looking for gaps, conflicts, and questions. Review typically takes three to seven business days before a meeting is scheduled.
At the consultation, the attorney will walk through your goals for distributing your estate, who should care for minor children, whether a trust makes sense for any part of your plan, and who should make medical or financial decisions if you become incapacitated. Come prepared to discuss anything you flagged on the form: special needs beneficiaries, disinheritance, business succession, assets with complicated titling. The more thoroughly you completed the intake, the more productive this meeting will be.
After the consultation, the attorney presents a fee agreement for the drafting work. Professional drafting of a basic will ranges roughly from $250 to over $1,000 depending on complexity, location, and whether the plan includes ancillary documents like trusts or powers of attorney. Some attorneys offer a flat fee for a standard package; others bill hourly.
The intake form gets the process started, but the will isn’t legally valid until it’s properly executed. In nearly every state that means signing in front of two witnesses who also sign, and most attorneys add a self-proving affidavit — a notarized statement from you and your witnesses confirming the signing ceremony followed all legal requirements. A self-proving affidavit means the witnesses don’t have to appear in court later to verify their signatures, which shortens probate. Your attorney will arrange the notary for the signing appointment and confirm the specific rules for your state.