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.
The Pour-Over Problem
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 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.
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.
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.