Last will and testament
The baseline document that directs who receives your probate assets and who administers your estate. A will only controls assets that pass through probate — not accounts with beneficiary designations or property in a trust.
A will is a signed, witnessed statement that says how your probate estate should be distributed and who should serve as executor. It takes effect only at death, it can be revoked or amended any time before then, and it does not avoid probate — it just tells the probate court what you wanted.
What a will controls: anything titled solely in your name without a beneficiary or /POD designation, and anything that falls to the estate by default. What it does not control: retirement accounts with named beneficiaries, life insurance proceeds, jointly-titled property with right of survivorship, and assets already held in a living trust.
Self-proving affidavit is a notarized add-on (witnesses and testator sign before a notary) that lets the will be admitted to probate without calling the witnesses in later. Both Virginia and West Virginia recognize self-proving affidavits; it saves time and cost during probate with no meaningful downside.
A will is tagged 🟡 rather than 🟢 because the failure modes are severe (invalid execution = intestate succession, drafting mistakes = unintended heirs, mismatch with beneficiary designations = surprises), and because blended families, minor or special-needs beneficiaries, business interests, or multi-state real property all push the complexity beyond what most templates handle safely.
State-specific notes
There is no federal law of wills — wills are governed entirely by state law. Federal estate tax kicks in only above the unified exemption ($13.99M individual / $27.98M married couple in 2026); most estates never file a federal estate return.
Virginia requires two competent witnesses who sign in the testator's presence (§ 64.2-403). Holographic (handwritten) wills are valid without witnesses if wholly in the testator's handwriting and signed — but they are a trap for everything except the simplest estates. Use a self-proving affidavit (§ 64.2-452) — it makes probate materially easier. Virginia has no estate tax (repealed 2007) and no inheritance tax.
West Virginia requires two witnesses (§ 41-1-3). West Virginia also recognizes holographic wills but, as in Virginia, avoid them outside of emergencies. West Virginia repealed its estate tax in 2005; it has no inheritance tax.
Alabama wills are governed by the Alabama Probate Code at Ala. Code § 43-8-130 et seq.; a valid will requires a testator 18 or older, in writing, signed, and witnessed by two competent witnesses (§ 43-8-131). Alabama does NOT recognize holographic (unwitnessed handwritten) or nuncupative (oral) wills. The surviving spouse's elective share under Ala. Code § 43-8-70 (lesser of one-third of the estate or the estate minus the spouse's separate estate) limits pure disinheritance.
References
Draft this document
A state-specific statutory form. Pick your state — the builder walks you through each field, saves a draft you can return to, and produces a print-ready document with the required witness and notary blocks.