You made your will online. Here is how to sign it so it is valid

The website that made your will cannot make it valid. Signing does that. A will made on FreeWill, Trust & Will, LegalZoom or Quicken WillMaker & Trust is an ordinary printed will, and it becomes legally effective the same way any will does: you sign it, with witnesses, following your state’s rules.

The good news is that the rules are short and the same in outline across most states. This page turns them into a signing session you can run at your kitchen table. The state rules quoted here come from the statute text on official state sites; the service rules come from each company’s own pages, read on the date in the facts table. This is general information, not legal advice for your state.

What do you need before you start?

• The printed will. Print it single-sided on plain paper. Do not staple and unstaple pages; if you need to, staple once and leave it.
• Two witnesses. Adults, mentally competent, who receive nothing under your will and are not your spouse. Neighbours, colleagues and friends are ideal.
• A notary, if you are adding a self-proving affidavit. Most services include one with your will. In Louisiana, the notary is required for the will itself.
• Photo ID for you, and for the witnesses if a notary is present.
• A blue or black pen. Blue makes the original easy to tell from copies.

The signing session, step by step

1. Everyone in the same room at the same time. You, both witnesses, and the notary if you have one. Do not sign first and get witnesses to sign later.
2. Tell the witnesses this is your will. New York’s statute requires this declaration. It is good practice everywhere. You do not have to show them what it says.
3. Sign at the end of the will, where the signature line is, while the witnesses watch. Florida’s statute is explicit: “The testator must sign the will at the end.” Initial each page if your service’s instructions say so.
4. The witnesses sign, in your presence and in each other’s presence, and print their names and addresses. Florida requires that the witnesses sign “in the presence of the testator and in the presence of each other.”
5. Sign the self-proving affidavit if you have one. You and the witnesses sign it in front of the notary, who notarises it. This is the moment the notary matters.
6. Do not change anything afterwards. No handwritten additions or crossings-out. To change the will, make a new one and sign it the same way.

That is the whole procedure. It takes about fifteen minutes.

What is a self-proving affidavit, and do you need one?

A self-proving affidavit is a short sworn statement, signed by you and your witnesses before a notary, saying the will was signed properly. It is attached to the will.

You do not need it for the will to be valid in most states. What it does is let the probate court accept the will without tracking down your witnesses, who may have moved or died by then. That can save your executor weeks.

So the rule is: the will needs witnesses; the affidavit needs a notary. If your service includes an affidavit, it is worth the notary’s fee. FreeWill puts it plainly: a notary is Required only in Louisiana; elsewhere optional, for a self-proving affidavit.

Some services’ marketing gets this wrong. Ethos’s free-will page says wills must be notarised to be valid; Rocket Lawyer’s will page says the same “in most states”, though its own affidavit text correctly says the affidavit has nothing to do with the will’s legality. In most states, the will itself does not need a notary.

What each service tells you to do

Service	How the will is signed	Notary help
FreeWill	Two witnesses, 18 or older, not named in the will	Through Proof, paid to Proof; bring your own witnesses or pay Proof for them
Quicken WillMaker & Trust	Wills witnessed; living trusts and financial powers of attorney notarized	Not offered
Trust & Will	Two witnesses, with state-specific instructions	Mobile notary partner: $170 to $210
LawDepot	Witnesses, with a self-proving affidavit	Online notary for wills in Idaho, Illinois, Minnesota, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Utah and Washington; in Nevada the will but not the self-proving affidavit

Trust & Will’s mobile notary partner prices vary by plan: the low end is for one person’s will plan and the high end for separate trusts for a couple. A mobile notary who can also bring witnesses solves the hardest practical problem, which is finding two uninvolved adults at the same time.

Signing for a couple

If you and your spouse each made a will, sign both in one session with the same two witnesses and notary. The rules are the same; you just do it twice.

• Each of you signs your own will. Never sign your spouse’s.
• You cannot witness each other’s will. You are an interested party.
• Check the two wills match where they should: the same guardian for the children, the same executor if that is your plan.

Signing a living trust at the same time

If you also made a living trust, it is usually signed before a notary. Florida is stricter: its trust code says the parts of a revocable trust that take effect at death are invalid unless the trust is signed “with the formalities required for the execution of a will”, which means two witnesses as well. New York requires a lifetime trust to be acknowledged before a notary or signed before two witnesses. Signing the trust in the same session as the will, with witnesses and a notary present, covers every state’s rule. Then fund the trust: signing it is only half the job.

Can you sign remotely?

Some states allow wills to be witnessed or notarised over video, under specific rules. Florida’s remote witnessing law is a good example of how narrow they can be: remote witnessing of a will does not count if the person signing is a “vulnerable adult”, and the person must be told that documents witnessed by video are not valid if they are one. LawDepot offers online notarisation for wills in Idaho, Illinois, Minnesota, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Utah and Washington; in Nevada the will but not the self-proving affidavit, and FreeWill users can use Proof, which charges its own fee.

Unless you are sure your state allows it and your service supports it, sign on paper in person. It is cheaper and removes any doubt.

The mistakes that cause problems

• Witnesses who inherit under the will, or your spouse as a witness.
• Witnesses signing at a different time, or not seeing you sign.
• Signing somewhere other than the end. Anything written below your signature may be ignored.
• Handwritten changes after signing. Make a new will instead.
• Unstapling pages, which invites the question of whether pages were swapped.
• Signing several originals.
• Signing a will with someone else’s details. Couples’ documents look alike; check the name on the first page.

What about handwritten wills?

Some states, including California, accept a will written entirely in your own handwriting and signed by you, with no witnesses. California’s court self-help page calls this a holographic will. Others, such as New York, accept them only from members of the armed forces in wartime and mariners at sea. A printed online will is not a handwritten will, so it always needs witnesses.

After you sign

1. Store the original somewhere safe and accessible to your executor.
2. Scan it and keep a digital copy, marked as a copy.
3. Tell your executor where the original is.
4. Shred any unsigned drafts, so there is no confusion about which document is your will.
5. Diarise a review after any marriage, divorce, birth or move; our page on updating a will after a life change explains which events matter most.