This is a fairly complex legal question. Depending on the size of your estate, you probably want to hire a lawyer. I believe you can find a number of legal services that will do flat-rate wills for (I think) a couple hundred bucks. This is probably most important if you have kids or a lot of assets.
If you don’t have kids, and you don’t have a lot of assets, or you seriously dislike lawyers, you can put together a will from a pre-made form and get witnesses (who are not beneficiaries) to sign the will, ideally in the presence of a notary public.
Legal documents are often highly technical and vary meaningfully from state to state. Some of this is defensible—you’d be surprised how things can get messed up—and some of it exists to keep lawyers employed. If it’s really important—if you are not a mostly asset-free student willing various odds and ends to family—it’s probably worth having it done professionally. Five or ten minutes on google searching for estate lawyers in your area will probably do the trick; or you can look for the fixed-rate will deals from bigger businesses that I mentioned earlier.
This is a fairly complex legal question. Depending on the size of your estate, you probably want to hire a lawyer. I believe you can find a number of legal services that will do flat-rate wills for (I think) a couple hundred bucks. This is probably most important if you have kids or a lot of assets.
If you don’t have kids, and you don’t have a lot of assets, or you seriously dislike lawyers, you can put together a will from a pre-made form and get witnesses (who are not beneficiaries) to sign the will, ideally in the presence of a notary public.
Legal documents are often highly technical and vary meaningfully from state to state. Some of this is defensible—you’d be surprised how things can get messed up—and some of it exists to keep lawyers employed. If it’s really important—if you are not a mostly asset-free student willing various odds and ends to family—it’s probably worth having it done professionally. Five or ten minutes on google searching for estate lawyers in your area will probably do the trick; or you can look for the fixed-rate will deals from bigger businesses that I mentioned earlier.