You can download the California Statutory Will PDF for free from the State Bar of California’s website or from a county law library site such as the Sacramento County Public Law Library.1California Legislative Information. California Probate Code 6240 The form is the text of Probate Code Section 6240 itself, and it comes with built-in instructions and a question-and-answer section before the fill-in fields. Print it, complete it by hand, and sign it with two witnesses in the room. California does not recognize electronic wills, so a typed or digitally signed version will not be valid.
Who Can Use the Form
The bar is low on purpose. You must be at least 18 years old and of sound mind.2California Legislative Information. California Probate Code 6220 Sound mind means you understand what you own, who your close family members are, and what it means to leave property to someone. The statute doesn’t require California residency, but the will is governed by California law and built around California probate.
How to Fill It Out
The form walks you through a fixed set of decisions. Do not add language, cross out words, or customize anything beyond the blanks. If you do, the court may ignore your changes or declare the entire will invalid.1California Legislative Information. California Probate Code 6240 Each choice has its own signature box, and you activate that choice only by signing there. Skip the signature and the gift or designation does not count.
Personal Property
Cars, furniture, clothing, jewelry, and other tangible belongings are treated as one group. You pick one recipient for all of it. The form does not let you split personal property among several people.
Cash Gifts
You can leave specific dollar amounts to named individuals or charities. Each gift has its own line and its own signature box. Write the name, write the amount, sign next to it. An unsigned line is not a gift.1California Legislative Information. California Probate Code 6240
The Balance of Your Assets
Everything else — bank accounts, investments, real estate, whatever is left — falls into the balance-of-assets section. Choose one option and sign the matching box. Sign more than one, or sign none, and the court distributes those assets as if you died without a will.
Guardian and Custodian for Minor Children
If you have children under 18, you can nominate a guardian to raise them, naming up to three choices in order of preference. Only individuals can serve as guardian; a bank or trust company cannot.1California Legislative Information. California Probate Code 6240
Separately, you can name a custodian to hold assets a young beneficiary inherits, paying for that beneficiary’s health, education, and support until an age you set between 18 and 25. Skip this section and any assets going to a minor go to a parent or guardian under a court-required bond, adding cost and delay.
Executor
The executor collects your assets, pays debts and taxes, and distributes the rest. Name up to three choices in ranked order. An individual, bank, or trust company can serve. Picking someone organized and geographically close makes the work easier.
Signing and Witnessing
A completed form is not binding until it is properly executed. California requires three things at the same time: you sign the will (or acknowledge your existing signature), two witnesses watch you do it while both are present together, and each witness then signs knowing that this is your will.3California Legislative Information. California Probate Code 6110-6113 The form itself has a witness statement at the end with spaces for printed names and addresses.
Everyone has to be in the same room at the same time. A witness who signs later, or who wasn’t actually watching you sign, can invalidate the document. Notarization is not required for a California will, though it can help establish your identity later.
Don’t Use Beneficiaries as Witnesses
Your witnesses should not be people who inherit under the will. If a beneficiary serves as one of only two witnesses, the law presumes that witness obtained their gift through fraud or undue influence, and they must overcome that presumption to keep it.4California Legislative Information. California Probate Code 6112 If they can’t, they still receive whatever they would have inherited had you died without a will, capped at the amount the will gave them. The presumption doesn’t apply when at least two other disinterested witnesses signed. The clean approach is to pick two witnesses who are not named anywhere in the document.
When the Statutory Will Is the Wrong Tool
The form is designed for simple estates. Its own instructions warn against using it for tax planning or complex situations. Look elsewhere if any of these apply:
- Your estate may exceed the federal estate tax exemption of $15 million per person in 2026.5Internal Revenue Service. What’s New – Estate and Gift Tax
- You want to create a trust, such as an education fund or a structure that controls when beneficiaries receive money.
- You own a business interest that needs succession planning.
- You own real estate or other assets in another state.
- You want to leave a spouse, domestic partner, or descendant less than California law would give them by default.
- You have significant pension or profit-sharing plan interests.
The form also cannot handle conditional gifts, such as “my son gets the house only if he finishes college.” If your plan needs any nuance beyond naming recipients and dollar amounts, the statutory will won’t get you there.
Assets the Will Will Not Control
Several kinds of property pass outside any will, so the form has no effect on them. Life insurance and retirement accounts like 401(k)s and IRAs go to whoever you named on the account. Bank and brokerage accounts with payable-on-death or transfer-on-death designations work the same way. Property held in joint tenancy with right of survivorship passes to the surviving owner the moment you die. Assets in a living trust are owned by the trust, not by you. Before filling out the form, check which of your assets already have beneficiary designations or survivorship features. The statutory will only governs property that doesn’t already have another transfer mechanism.
Storing the Original
Keep the signed original somewhere safe, such as a fireproof safe or locked cabinet, and make sure your executor knows where it is. If the original cannot be found after your death, the court may presume you destroyed it to revoke it, and the plan you made goes with it. Keep a copy clearly marked as a copy with your important papers, and tell at least one trusted person the location of the original.
Changing or Revoking It
You can revoke a California will in two ways: execute a new will that expressly revokes the old one or is so inconsistent that the old one can’t stand, or physically destroy the original with intent to revoke.6California Legislative Information. California Probate Code 6120 Destruction means burning, tearing, or otherwise rendering the document unreadable, and you have to mean it. Someone else can destroy the will for you only if they do it in your presence and at your direction.
A codicil is a separate document that amends part of the will without replacing it, and it has to be signed and witnessed under the same rules as the original. Because you cannot cross out or write over entries on the statutory form, use a codicil or a fresh will for any change.
What Probate Will Cost Later
Even a valid statutory will goes through probate. Filing the initial petition in California superior court costs $435 as of 2026, with slightly higher fees in Riverside, San Bernardino, and San Francisco counties.7California Courts. Statewide Civil Fee Schedule Effective January 1, 2026
Executor and attorney compensation follows a tiered statutory schedule based on the value of the estate: 4% of the first $100,000, 3% of the next $100,000, 2% of the next $800,000, 1% of the next $9 million, and 0.5% of the next $15 million.8California Legislative Information. California Probate Code 10810 The executor and the estate’s attorney are each entitled to this fee, so the total effectively doubles. On a $1 million estate, that is roughly $23,000 to the executor and another $23,000 to the attorney, before any extraordinary fees the court approves. Many Californians with estates above a few hundred thousand dollars look into living trusts for this reason.
Smaller estates have an easier path. If the total value of the deceased person’s California property (excluding certain jointly held and trust assets) does not exceed $208,850, heirs may be able to use a small estate affidavit instead of full probate.9California Courts. Maximum Values for Small Estate Set-Aside and Disposition The statutory will still does its job of naming who gets what; the process on the other side is just cheaper and faster.