Can I Write My Own California Will Without a Lawyer?

[Music] Hi this Keith Davidson with Albertson and Davidson in this video I want to talk to you about whether or not you're able to write your own will in California well this is America you can do anything you want and so if you want to write your own will by gosh you can do that that may not be a good idea in all cases but you certainly have the right in the ability to create your own will there's two real easy ways to write your own will one is to use the California statutory will so there's actually a will that's outlined in our California Probate Code that's kind of a form document that you can get online and we'll put a link in this video so you can see it and you can print it out you can fill it out by hand or type it up if you want and then you do have to have it signed and it must be witnessed by two witnesses otherwise it's not valid and please whatever you do do not notarize a will notarizing a will does not make it valid it does nothing for a will and California wills are not notarized to skip the notary and go right with the two witnesses the other way that you can easily create your own will is what we call a holographic will and that's a will that's written in your own handwriting that you date and sign and a holographic will can be written on anything you want preferably a clean sheet of paper in very clear writing so we can read it when the time comes but we've seen holographic wills on envelopes on napkins on post-it notes almost anything could potentially be a holographic will but if you want to do your own will properly get a nice clean sheet of paper and write it out now where people really make mistakes in creating their own will is when they start to say things that make sense in their mind but later on when the court is trying to implement those terms become confusing so for example let's say you write your own handwritten will and you say I want my house to go to my son and my wife has the right to live there well that might make sense in your mind but the problem is is that from a legal perspective when a lawyer looks at it and when a judge looks at it there's a lot of thorny issues in there does the own does the son own the house outright from day one or does the wife own the house until her death is the wife entitled to a life estate she can live there rent-free for the rest of her life or does she have to pay rent who pays for the maintenance costs and the upkeep on the home if you don't specify any of that it's all subject to later fights between the beneficiaries and ultimately the courts going to have to decide that for you so if you're going to have anything that's a little out of the ordinary you really should consider getting some legal advice from a competent estate planning lawyer if you're just gonna write something out saying I leave my estate to my kids equally you can do that and there's not going to be probably too much confusion but if you're gonna make anything that goes beyond that I strongly advise you get proper legal advice so that's a little information about how you can create your own will in California if you choose to do so. [Music] [Applause] [Music]