Estate Planning
Making Your Own Will in Pennsylvania
The defect in a will is usually not discovered until the person it was meant to protect needs it. By then the testator is gone and the estate is in court. A will you write yourself is legally valid in Pennsylvania if it meets the execution requirements. Many do not.
A template cannot perform the analysis that precedes drafting. It produces a document that looks like a will. Whether it functions as a will depends on whether it was executed correctly, whether the dispositions reflect how assets are actually titled, and whether the language is consistent with Pennsylvania law.
Lebovitz & Lebovitz, P.A. · Serving Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania since 1933. Based in Swissvale near the Parkway East (Swissvale–Edgewood exit).
The most common DIY will failure is not illegal drafting. It is legal drafting that produces an unintended result: a specific bequest that lapses, a residuary clause that fails, a trust that is never funded because no pour-over provision exists. Each of these failures is preventable. None of them are detectable by reading the will.
If you are considering drafting your own will, call 412-351-4422 or schedule a consultation to understand what the process should address.
A Pittsburgh man typed his will using an online template, printed it, and signed it in front of his wife and adult daughter. Both witnessed it. The will left everything to his wife. His wife predeceased him by three years. He never updated the document. When he died, the residuary clause named his wife as sole beneficiary with no contingent beneficiary and no residuary fallback. Pennsylvania’s lapse statute did not save it — his wife was not a descendant. The estate passed intestate. His daughter received half. His son from a prior marriage, whom he had specifically intended to exclude, received the other half under the intestate statute. The will was validly executed. It did not do what he intended.
A will that is validly executed is not the same as a will that works. Pennsylvania’s execution requirements — two witnesses, signature, and proper acknowledgment — are the threshold, not the standard. Most DIY wills meet the threshold. The ones that fail do so on the analysis that precedes drafting: how assets are titled, whether beneficiary designations override the will, whether the dispositions account for a beneficiary dying first, and whether the language is specific enough to survive a dispute among the people who were supposed to inherit. A template produces a document. An attorney produces a plan.
Witness problems are the second most common DIY will failure after dispositive language errors. Pennsylvania requires two witnesses to a will under 20 Pa.C.S. § 2502. A will signed before only one witness fails execution entirely. A beneficiary who witnesses the will is an interested witness — Pennsylvania does not void the will but the interested witness forfeits their bequest under 20 Pa.C.S. § 2505 unless two other disinterested witnesses also signed. Notarization is not a substitute for witnesses. A notary authenticates the signature — confirming that the person who signed is who they say they are — but says nothing about the document’s legal sufficiency, the testator’s capacity, or whether the execution formalities required for a valid will were met. Many people who notarize a will without two witnesses believe they have done everything correctly. They have not. A will without a self-proving affidavit may also require the witnesses to appear at probate to attest to execution, which creates problems when witnesses have moved, died, or cannot be located years later.
A will that looks right and works right are two different things. The difference usually surfaces after the testator is gone.
If you are considering writing your own will or have already drafted one, call 412-351-4422 or schedule a consultation before it is executed.
The Pour-Over Problem
You can make your own will in Pennsylvania if you are at least 18 years old and of sound mind. Pennsylvania law requires the will to be in writing, signed by you, and witnessed by two people who also sign the document, though mistakes in execution, ambiguous language, or failure to account for tax consequences can create problems that surface only after death when correction is no longer possible.
Many people create a revocable trust and a will at the same time. The will should contain a pour-over clause directing assets into the trust at death. A will that does not include this clause leaves assets stranded outside the trust, subject to probate administration that the trust was designed to avoid. The trust owns nothing at death. Every asset the decedent intended to pass through the trust goes through probate: the delay, the cost, and the public record the trust was created to avoid.
What Pennsylvania Law Requires
Pennsylvania requires a will to be signed by the testator and witnessed by two individuals who are present at the same time. The witnesses should not be beneficiaries. The will must be signed at the end. A holographic will (entirely in the testator’s handwriting and signed) is valid without witnesses, but creates its own problems at probate.
A will that fails attestation (because a witness signed in a different room, or because the testator signed a photocopy rather than the original) is not a will. The estate passes as if the document never existed, distributed by statute to people the decedent may never have intended to benefit. Pennsylvania’s intestacy rules do not ask what the decedent wanted. They follow a formula.
What Goes Wrong After Execution
Most people who draft their own wills are not careless. They are trying to do something responsible without knowing what they do not know. The failure modes in a DIY will are invisible until the estate is in administration and the damage is done.
Specific bequests lapse when the named beneficiary predeceases the testator and the will contains no alternate disposition. Pennsylvania’s anti-lapse statute under 20 Pa.C.S. § 2514 partially addresses this for certain relatives, but not for friends, business partners, or charitable organizations. The named beneficiary receives nothing and has no legal recourse.
Residuary clauses fail when they are ambiguous or fail to account for all property. A clause that does not address what happens when one child predeceases the testator, whether adopted children are included, or whether property acquired after the will was drafted passes under it leaves those questions for a court to resolve.
A will does not control assets that pass by operation of law. The ex-spouse named on the IRA receives the account. The will cannot override it. The intended beneficiary has no claim. These dispositions work together or against each other depending on how they were set up, and most people do not know how they were set up. Life changes — divorce, remarriage, new children, or moves across state lines — require estate plan updates that self-drafted wills rarely receive.
What an Attorney Does Differently
A will drafted by an attorney is preceded by an inventory of how assets are currently titled and how they pass at death. That inventory determines whether the will accomplishes what the client intends or merely creates an additional document that conflicts with existing beneficiary designations and ownership structures. The drafting is secondary to the analysis.
Pennsylvania estate planning documents must satisfy the execution requirements of the Probate, Estates and Fiduciaries Code, found in Pennsylvania statutes. Estate and inheritance tax obligations are administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue.
Frequently Asked Questions About Making Your Own Will in Pennsylvania (FAQ)
Is a handwritten will valid in Pennsylvania?
Yes. A holographic will (entirely in the testator’s handwriting and signed) is valid without witnesses under Pennsylvania law. It must be entirely handwritten; a printed form with handwritten additions is not a holographic will. Holographic wills are more frequently contested because they lack witnesses who can attest to execution.
Can I use an online will template?
Online templates produce documents that look like wills. Whether they function as wills depends on whether they were executed correctly, whether the dispositions reflect how assets are actually titled, and whether the language is consistent with Pennsylvania law. A template cannot perform the analysis that precedes drafting.
What happens if my will is found invalid?
The estate passes under Pennsylvania’s intestate succession statute as if no will existed. Intestate distribution follows a fixed statutory order: spouse, children, parents, siblings, regardless of what the testator intended.
What is a pour-over will?
A pour-over will directs assets remaining outside a revocable trust at death to flow into the trust and be distributed under its terms. Without a pour-over clause, assets left outside the trust pass under the will’s own distribution provisions, or, if the will is silent, under intestate succession.
For related estate planning guidance, see our page on wills and trusts in Pennsylvania; for all estate planning topics, see our wills, estates, trusts, and probate practice area.