Last Will and Testament

MyWill™ - Write a Last Will and Testament

"I used your service to write a Will for my dear wife Christine who passed away this year. The Will was easy to fill out and very straightforward. I never had one problem arise because of the Will." --- Keith Sutton   Read more testimonials

Need to know how to write a will?  Don't know how to get started in writing a will?  If you're asking yourself "How do I write a will?", then you've come to the right place.

Write a Last Will and Testament

This is NOT just a do-it-yourself legal will kit.
Read what makes us better.

We have removed the obstacles to writing a Will.  It is convenient, low cost, and simple.  The MyWill™ service steps you through a series of questions in a "wizard" format.  All questions are written in plain language, so you don't have to be a legal expert to create your own Will.  You simply answer the questions, complete the details, and we automatically and instantly format a document that forms the basis of a legal Will, custom-made for your local jurisdiction.  If you live in the U.S., Canada, England or Wales, this document can then be printed and signed in front of witnesses to become a legally binding document.  There is also plenty of supplementary information to help answer all of your questions.

Make unlimited updates free of charge.  Don't pay a lawyer every time you need to update your Will.  We allow your Will to be kept securely online at ExpatLegalWills.com so that you can make unlimited updates for as long as you are a member here.  For example, if you have a significant change in your life you can revoke your previous Wills and create a new, updated version.  If you change your marital status, have a new child, make a significant purchase, move homes, or get a pet --- all of your revised wishes can be captured in a new version of your Will.  Not only will you have a legal Will, but it will always be kept up to date.

You can still have it reviewed by a lawyer.  We have worked with lawyers in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom to bring you the MyWill™ service and to ensure that it is of the highest quality.  But if you wish, we can still arrange for your Will to be reviewed by a lawyer, who will check the document for consistency and completeness.

Do not put it off any longer.  The vast majority of people do not have a Will.  Some people feel that they do not need one because they believe that the distribution of their estate is obvious.  Others find it to be too time consuming to get organized, find a lawyer, arrange appointments and attend meetings during their already busy schedules.  Many feel that the lawyers' fees surrounding the creation and maintenance of a Will are too expensive.  Whatever your reason may be, you should know that it is extremely important that you have an up to date Will.  If you die without a Will, the courts will decide how your estate is distributed, and this may not be in the best interests of your loved ones.  It is impossible for us to know how your estate will be distributed, but we do know that if you have a Will, then the decisions are in your hands.

 

Create your Will right now using the MyWill™  wizard

Buy It Now

How does it work?

Join for FREE

MyWill™- Frequently Asked Questions

For an informative and eye-opening comparison of the MyWill™ service to do-it-yourself legal will kits, read about it here. 

Quite frankly, there is no comparison.  We have evaluated many existing do-it-yourself legal will kits, including several of the most popular American legal will kits, Canadian legal will kits and UK legal will kits. We were shocked by the poor quality, limited instructions, and low value for money that many of these will kits provide consumers.  We have designed the MyWill™ service to be of the best quality available today.  Furthermore, our membership pricing model also allows us to provide you with the most value for your money at prices that are unprecedented in the legal industry.

First of all, by making use of the MyWill™ service conveniently online over the Internet, there is no need to purchase a do-it-yourself legal will kit in the first place, nor do you need to purchase an upgraded version every year.  Incredible value for money.  Our wizards, help and information are also designed to be the best on the market and are kept up-to-date on an ongoing basis. 

In addition, the MyWill™ service provides you with complete instructions and answers your questions in everyday language, free of legal industry jargon.  We have developed this service based on the requirements of the public, not dictated by the legal profession.

Furthermore, our unique approach allows you to make use of the ultimate convenience of the Internet to create your Will at your own pace, online, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and to make changes online at any time free of charge. 

By storing your Will online, it also becomes easy to locate and access by your designated friends or family members when the time is right.  There is no need for them to try to locate your Will, which may have been documented on paper and stored in an unknown location, or perhaps destroyed by a tragedy such as a house fire.

Combined with this is a strong focus on protecting the privacy and security of your information.  We use industry standard encryption algorithms for storing all of your private information, and the design of this website ensures that the contents of your Will are made available to the specific people designated by yourself, and only at the appropriate time.

If you wish, we can even inform you by email about any changes in legislation which may have occurred in your jurisdiction that may require changes to your Will.  Or we can send you simple email reminders, no more than once a year, to remind you to consider updating your Will if any significant changes have occurred in your life. 

Do-it-yourself legal will kits simply do not compare.

The MyWill™ service steps you through a simple question and answer wizard, formats your answers into a readable format,  and allows you to make unlimited updates to your Will while allowing you to store your information securely online.  You can then designate your own personal "Keyholders® ", who with their unique ID can unlock your Will at the appropriate time.

The complete pricing structure is available on our Products & Prices page.

The MyWill™ service can be used to generate a custom-made Last Will and Testament in the U.S. (except Louisiana), Canada and the UK (England and Wales only).  In order to make this a legal document, you should first print it and read it thoroughly. Make sure that it accurately reflects your wishes and that you understand everything that is contained in the document. According to the current laws in most jurisdictions, in order to be a legal document your Will must be signed in the presence of at least two witnesses, and the two witnesses must also sign the Will, in the presence of the "testator" (yourself) and in the presence of each other. You and the witnesses should also initial each page, so that it is not possible to alter any pages after the Will has been signed. In most jurisdictions, a witness cannot be a beneficiary of the Will, they cannot be the spouse of a beneficiary (at the time of signing), they cannot be a minor, and, like the "testator" (you), they must be of sound mind.

Although the unsigned version of your Will stored online at ExpatLegalWills.com is not a legal document, if you wish you can allow one or more of your designated Keyholders® to have access to the Will that you have created here at ExpatLegalWills.com.  This could be important if your legally signed copy cannot be located (for example, if it burned in a house fire).  In this situation, your ExpatLegalWills.com Will can still provide some guidance to a loving family, as they can understand how you wanted your property to be distributed.

However, "digital signature" laws are moving rapidly and we are closely monitoring these laws to support the future electronic notarization of documents, including the digital signature of your Will.  It is only a matter of time before this becomes standard practice in preparing legal documents.

More details on the process to be followed for creating a legal document are included in the help text of the MyWill™ service. If these instructions are followed, then your Will is a legally binding document.

It is important to review your Will every few years and after any new financial or personal events, such as a significant business arrangement, a wedding, the birth of a child, a divorce or if you move outside of your state, province or country.

You can choose to have a 1-year, 10-year, 25-year or Life membership at ExpatLegalWills.com, during which time you can make as many updates or amendments to your Will as you wish at no extra charge.  Details of the membership packages available can be found on our Products & Prices page.

This really depends on the complexity of your Will.  The essence of a Will is simply stating that you leave something to somebody.  If you are leaving everything to one person, and you have no other dependents or family members, particularly from previous marriages, your Will could be very simple and quick to create.

However, ExpatLegalWills.com will also allow you to create quite complex Wills that will require a great deal more thought and consideration.  In this case we would also recommend that you have the Will reviewed by a professional lawyer, which will be a longer overall process, but can still be done conveniently from our website. 

You do not need to complete your Will in one sitting.  You can answer a couple of questions and then store these wishes securely online here at ExpatLegalWills.com until you have a few more minutes to answer additional questions.  If you prefer, you can spend many weeks or months making unlimited updates until you are happy with your final results, at which point you could have your final copy reviewed and signed.

All of your information stored at ExpatLegalWills.com is safe and secure.  Your information is so highly encrypted that nobody has access to this information other than yourself and your trusted Keyholders® using their randomly generated personal key.  Even the owners and administrators of ExpatLegalWills.com are not able to access your information due to the software design and encryption methods used.

Note, however, that some services require temporary decryption of a member's documents as part of the operation of providing that service.  For example, if the member wants to have their Will reviewed by one of our legal professionals, or wants to have their documents printed and mailed to them, then the software will automatically decrypt these documents as part of the member's instructions to have these services performed.

All data passing from your computer to ExpatLegalWills.com is authenticated and encrypted using 256-bit "SSL encryption".  This is the most advanced level of encryption available today, and it means that any information sent from your computer is scrambled in a way which makes it completely unintelligible if intercepted.  When you are on a secure section within the ExpatLegalWills.com site, a padlock will appear on your web browser.  This is your assurance that the encryption is in place and that you are communicating across a secure link.

Furthermore, ExpatLegalWills.com uses an industry standard high security streaming-encryption algorithm known as "RSA" to encrypt all of your information before it is stored online.  To give you a feeling for the level of security provided by this encryption, it has been estimated that with the most efficient algorithms known to date, it would take a computer operating at 1 million instructions per second over 300 quintillion years (that's 3 with 20 zeros behind it!) to break the encryption. That's several trillion times longer than the age of the Earth.

Here are a few common reasons that people indicate there is no point in writing a Will:

  • "I don't really care who gets my estate.  I'll be gone anyway."
    Without a Will, your property may not go to the people that you wish to benefit. In most countries there is a law that decides how property should be distributed if a person dies 'intestate' (without a Will). The actual administration of your estate will also be complicated and difficult. The courts will usually decide who will act as a personal representative or 'executor' for distributing your possessions, and the laws in your local jurisdiction will determine who will get what. This may lead to acrimonious legal disputes between your survivors. Note that if you have no heirs, all of your assets, property and possessions can pass to your local government. The effort required to draft your Will is insignificant compared to the difficulties that dying without a Will presents to your survivors.
  • "It's obvious who will get my estate.  It will go to my spouse."
    Local laws will determine who will receive your possessions, which may or may not reflect your intentions. If you die without a Will and you are married, your assets will not automatically go to your surviving spouse.  Local laws may determine that others, including children, may be entitled to a share.  This will be determined by the laws of "Intestate Succession" which vary from state to state, province to province, country to country, and will frequently lead to messy legal cases.
  • "I don't have an estate of any value."
    Even if you don't believe that you have an estate of any value, your death itself may generate a sizeable benefit.  For example, your beneficiaries may be entitled to the proceeds of a life insurance claim, a wrongful death suit, a claim in the event of some negligence resulting in your death.  These can be significant sums of money.

Quite clearly, there is never a situation where a Will is unnecessary.  In many cases, this can be a simple declaration of your wishes for how your estate should be distributed, and this can be achieved by working through the MyWill™ wizard here at ExpatLegalWills.com.  You should draft a Will while you are still young and healthy, even if you don't feel that your assets are substantial.  There is absolutely no benefit in waiting until you are older.  To die without a Will is irresponsible and places a tremendous burden on your survivors.

A joint Will is a single document, signed by "co-testators" (usually spouses), intended to reflect the wishes of both parties. This is generally considered to be an extremely bad idea, and probably worse than having no Will at all. Often, the intent of a joint Will is to declare that each person would leave everything to the surviving partner, and in the event that both partners are victims of a common disaster, everything would go to their children. The problem is that it is unclear whether a surviving partner can revoke a joint Will and many messy legal cases have arisen as a result of this confusion.

In short, do not make a joint Will, as there could be problems if either party changes their mind, or wishes to amend the Will.  There may also be problems if the surviving spouse tries to make any changes to a joint Will, as they may be bound to the original terms.  Furthermore, there is no reason to create a joint Will, as there is no disadvantage to drawing up a separate Will for each partner.

Although the MyWill™ question-and-answer wizard is applicable for most cases, there are circumstances where it is advisable to seek legal advice.  In particular:

  • If you are a resident of Louisiana (U.S.A.), or of Northern Ireland or Scotland (U.K.).
  • If you are involved in a matrimonial dispute, or wish to disinherit your spouse or children.
  • If you have a history of mental illness, or the question of your mental capacity may be raised in objection to the statements in the Will.
  • If you own personal property or real estate in multiple countries.
  • If you are under the age of adulthood.
  • If you have complicated business investments (e.g. you are part owner of property or businesses where ownership may be challenged).
  • If you are about to be married and are preparing a Will in contemplation of that marriage.
  • If you have a large, complex estate and feel that you would benefit from some advice on estate planning and tax reduction.
  • If you own a farm, as there may be significant estate planning implications.
  • If you need to provide for long term medical care for a dependent.
  • If you have any litigation pending which involve large sums of money or where a prison term is possible.
  • If you think that somebody may challenge your Will in court or you have any other doubts about your situation.

In the above situations and in other more complex situations (the above is not an exhaustive list), it would not be advisable to rely on the output of the MyWill™ wizard as an accurate expression of your wishes.  However, even in these circumstances there is value in stepping through the MyWill™ wizard in preparation for a consultation with an attorney.

Some people may benefit from more extensive estate planning techniques, such as: setting up trusts, limiting probate, and tax reduction schemes.  However, these usually require detailed (and often expensive) professional guidance.  Quite often, younger people and people with straightforward plans for their estate do not pursue the creation of extensive estate plans. Others postpone extensive estate planning for later in life, when their financial and family circumstances settle down.  Nevertheless, regardless of your age or your financial situation, it is imperative to have a Will.  Detailed estate planning can come later.

Services such as MyFuneral™, MyLifeLocker™, MyVault™, and MyMessages™ do not create legal documents and make no assumptions about your country of residence. 

In the US, Canada, England and Wales, we have worked extensively to ensure that the legal documents created by the MyWill™, MyExpatWill™ and MyLivingWill™ services are up to date with the laws in all of the states in the United States and the provinces in Canada, including: Alabama, Alaska, Alberta, Arizona, Arkansas, British Columbia, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Manitoba, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, Nunavut, Ohio, Oklahoma, Ontario, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Prince Edward Island, Québec, Rhode Island, Saskatchewan, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Washington D.C., West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, and Yukon.  Hence, these services can be used to generate legal documents in any state in the United States with the exception of Louisiana, and any Canadian Province or Territory, and in England and Wales in the United Kingdom.

Furthermore, the MyPowerOfAttorney™ service is available for all States in the United States except Louisiana, and for all Provinces and Territories in Canada. In the UK, power of attorney forms are provided free of charge by the government.

Note that even in unsupported areas, there is value in stepping through the wizards provided in these services in preparation for a consultation with an attorney.  It is strongly recommended that residents outside of the above supported states/provinces/countries seek legal advice even after completing the wizards. Local laws in these unsupported areas have not been considered in the structure of the legal documents.

If you have any doubts about the legal standing of any documents in your jurisdiction, feel free to seek legal counsel in your area to have your documents reviewed.

There is no requirement to use the services of a lawyer or notary public to prepare your own legal Last Will and Testament. The law that defines the legality of a Will is written specifically for each Province, State and Country, but in summary the law requires that the Will is written on a piece of paper and signed in the presence of two witnesses who cannot be beneficiaries to the Will. Lawyers can certainly help you to prepare your Will, but everybody has a legal right to write their own Will. If you create a document using our service, it must be printed, signed and witnessed according to our instructions, and then it becomes a legal Last Will and Testament.

There is a considerable amount of information included in the on-line help of the MyWill™ wizard.  This will answer most of the common questions regarding the steps included in creating your own Will. 

For information about the other services available, or about ExpatLegalWills.com in general, you can browse this website or send an email to [email protected].  We will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

How It Works

When you create a Will or legal document at LegalWills, you can designate up to 20 different Keyholders®. Your chosen Keyholders® will be given the trust and power to unlock specific information within your account such as health care directives, funeral wishes, final messages, uploaded files, Power of Attorney, or Last Will and Testament.

You can also implement security mechanisms to prevent premature access to these documents. The entire process of creating your Will and other legal documents at LegalWills is seamless and iterative, meaning you can continue to make changes until you're happy with the final product.
Click. Print. Sign.

It's really that easy.

ExpatLegalWills.com Scales Logo

Create Your Documents in Five Easy Steps

file
Create Your Documents

Creating your documents is quick and easy with LegalWills. Simply fill out the required fields and proceed to the next step.

key
Select Your Keyholders®

Entrust up to 20 individuals to unlock your wishes when the time is right.

pencil
Edit Your Documents for Up To One Year for Free

Make any changes to your documents using our online service.

lock
Keyholders® Request Access

When the time is right, your selected Keyholders® will have the ability to unlock your wishes.

folder
Documents are Released to Keyholders®

When the time comes and your Keyholders® request access to your documents, your wishes will be entrusted in their hands.

View Sample Will
 

Frequently Asked Questions

There is no requirement to use the services of a lawyer or notary public to prepare your own estate planning documents, including your Last Will and Testament.

The law that defines the legality of a Will is written specifically for each Province, State and Country, but in summary the law requires that the Will is written on a piece of paper and signed in the presence of two witnesses who cannot be beneficiaries to the Will.

Lawyers can certainly help you to prepare your Will, but everybody has a legal right to write their own Will. If you create a document using our service, it must be printed, signed and witnessed according to our instructions, and then it becomes a legal Last Will and Testament.
Quite simply, because we do not provide you with legal advice.

We are giving you direct access to the same software that lawyers use to prepare their documents, but you are doing it yourself. However, if you need custom clauses written to cover an unusual situation, we cannot do that, and we recommend that you seek legal advice. For example, if you have a child with special needs, they would need a trust written for their inheritance. We don't do that.

In most cases, a document written using our service will be word-for-word identical to one prepared by a lawyer.

There are no other payments required to prepare your legal Will. You can have a legal Will in your hands for $49.95USD with nothing else to pay, ever.

What other options are there?
If you wish, you can have your Will reviewed by one of our lawyers for $69.00USD. Most people do not need this, and would not benefit from it, but if you have selected an option such as "None of the above. Let me describe in detail how to distribute my estate.", then you may want to consider this.

Your Will must first be printed, and then signed in the presence of two witnesses. If you do not have access to a printer, we can print it for you and mail it out. The cost for this is $9.95USD, but again, most people do not need this option.

We also offer other services like MyLifeLocker™, a Financial Power of Attorney, and a Living Will. They are not required, but they may be useful to you depending on your situation.

What about document storage?
We do not store physical documents, but we allow you to maintain an account with us if you want to update your document in the future.

The Will service costs $49.95USD. With this payment, you are able to prepare your Will. It also gives you one year of unlimited updates to the document. You are able to print the document as often as you wish during that first year. You can download it as a PDF or Word file, but to make your document a legal Will, it must first be printed, and then signed in the presence of two witnesses. The online version is there for your convenience only.

If you choose not to maintain an account with us after the first year, your initial payment is all you will ever pay. We do not keep credit card details on file and cannot automatically charge beyond this initial payment.

If you wish, you can choose to store your documents online for longer than a year, which will make it easier to make updates in the future to reflect any changes in your personal or financial situation (rather than returning to a lawyer each time). This is of course optional, but it does make the process of maintaining your document more convenient. $11.95USD will give you one additional year of updates, or you can purchase multiple years: 5 years at $29.95USD, 10 years at $39.95USD, 25 years at $79.95USD ($3.20USD per year).

Every time you make an update to your Will, it must first be printed, and then signed in the presence of two witnesses again. If you choose not to maintain an account with us, you will always have your printed, signed document. If you don't need to make changes to that document, it will last you for the rest of your life, whether or not you have an account with us.

What happens if I don't maintain an account, and then in a few years I need to update it?
If your account has not been touched in years, and it is inactive, we reserve the right to remove the account. You will receive an email notification that your account might be removed. However, in practice, we have never actually removed any accounts in our over 24 years of operation.

So, in all likelihood, you will be able to simply login to your account and pay $11.95USD to reactivate it. This will give you one year of unlimited updates from the date of payment. (You will not have to pay for your inactive years.)

Yes, if you reside in Canada, the United States, England or Wales.

A Will covers the distribution of the assets that you own, often those that are located in your home country.

A Power of Attorney (also known as a Power of Attorney for Finances) and Living Will (also known as a Power of Attorney for Health Care), are very important documents that should be created and updated at the same time as your Will.

This website allows you to create a Will, Expatriate Will, Power of Attorney and Living Will.
Here are just a few differences:

  • We have designed our legal document creation services to be of the best quality available today.   We have evaluated many existing do-it-yourself kits and web-based services. We were shocked by the poor quality, limited instructions, and low value for money that many of these do-it-yourself kits provide consumers. 

  • Incredible value for money.   Our membership pricing model allows us to provide you with the most value for your money at prices that are unprecedented in the legal industry. We worked with lawyers to bring you this service, and we paid for their legal services so you don't have to. 

  • Plain language help and instructions.  In addition, all of our services provide you with complete instructions and answer your questions in everyday language, free of legal industry jargon.  We have developed our services based on the requirements of the public, not dictated by the legal profession.  Our wizards, help and information are also designed to be the best on the market and are kept up-to-date on an ongoing basis.  

  • Create your legal documents from the comfort of your own home.  No lawyer required.  Our unique approach allows you to make use of the ultimate convenience of the Internet to write your Expatriate Will and other documents at your own pace, online, and to make changes online at any time free of charge. 

  • Free unlimited updates.  Don't pay a lawyer every time you need to update your documents. We allow your documents to be kept securely online so that you can make free unlimited updates for as long as you are a member.

  • You can still have it reviewed by a lawyer. We have worked with lawyers in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom to bring you these services and to ensure that they are of the highest quality. But if you wish, we can still arrange for your documents to be reviewed by one of our lawyers, who will check the documents for consistency and completeness.

  • The Keyholder® Advantage. You can take advantage of our unique messaging service which allows you to describe the exact location of your documents and to provide a detailed list of assets for your Executor. All for no extra charge. When you pass away, let us worry about communicating this information to the people you specify. There is simply no other company that provides such a complete and convenient service to their customers. For more information, read about The Keyholder® Advantage.

  • We employ a strong focus on protecting the privacy and security of your information.  We use industry standard encryption algorithms for storing all of your private information, and the design of our services ensures that the contents of your information are made available to the specific people designated by yourself, and only at the appropriate time. 

  • Keep informed and up to date.  If you wish, we can inform you by email about any changes in legislation which may have occurred in your jurisdiction that may require changes to your documents.  Or we can send you simple email reminders, no more than once a year, to remind you to consider updating your documents if any significant changes have occurred in your life.  

Other websites and do-it-yourself kits simply do not compare.

Let Us Answer Your Questions

See All Questions
Creating a Will and other legal documents doesn't have to be complicated or expensive. We have hundreds of articles that simplify the process.
Browse Our Blog
Feel free to contact us during office hours, or get answers instantly with our online chatbot.
Contact Us

Popular Articles

Browse Our Blog
Spanish Will

The International Will

The basics of a Will are pretty much the same in any jurisdiction in the World.

The document needs to identify the person making the Will, describe the distribution of the estate, and be signed in the presence of two witnesses. It should also ideally name an Executor or estate administrator to carry out the instructions in the Will.

If a Last Will and Testament is that simple, you would think that a Will written in any jurisdiction would be accepted in any other jurisdiction, but unfortunately things are not as simply as that. Our partner websites at LegalWills.ca, USLegalWills.com and LegalWills.co.uk all offer interactive Will services that are very different from each other, even though the over-riding principles are the same. In fact, the Canadian and US services adapt the final document and help text across different States or Provinces.
Continue reading
Last Will and Testament

Can I write my own Last Will and Testament?

This is one of our most frequently asked questions, but it can mean one of two things:

A. Can I sit down with a blank piece of paper and write my own Last Will and Testament?

B. Can I prepare my own legal Will without using a legal professional.

Let us first explore question A...
Continue reading
Passports

Writing a Will when you live outside of the UK

"I am retired in Thailand, lived all over the place so I have assets in numerous countries and I wish to update my Will. On talking with a local lawyer he told me he can establish a will in Thailand to cover my assets here but I will need to do separate ones for other countries."

"As a UK citizen, resident here in Thailand, I want to make a Will which will be effective both here and there. Any ideas about how to go about it? Does it require two separate documents to cover assets in both places?"

When we look through various expat forums this is one of the most common questions asked.

What follows in the forums is a mix of excellent advice, interspersed with some really poor advice.
Continue reading