Clear Money Guide
What this state guide covers
A quick view of the questions, practical details and source notes below.
Updated August 4, 2026. Quick answer for Connecticut: nobody publishes a reliable, state-specific median for what a will costs here, and the figures you will see quoted — including ours — are national. Anyone showing you a precise Connecticut number is estimating. What is genuinely Connecticut-specific, and what actually decides whether your will works, is how it has to be executed. The detail worth knowing before you sign anything: what is genuinely Connecticut-specific is how a will has to be executed, and that is what decides whether the document works at all.
Putting a loan in writing? The interest limit, the signing rules and the time limit to sue, from the state’s own statutes: Connecticut promissory note.
How to make a will in Connecticut: what the statute says
Each line is a passage quoted from the Connecticut statute itself; the section has the exceptions.
- Signing and witnesses, for a will made in Connecticut. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 45a-251: “A will or codicil shall not be valid to pass any property unless it is in writing, subscribed by the testator and attested by two witnesses, each of them subscribing in the testator’s presence; but any will executed according to the laws of the state or country where it was executed may be admitted to probate in this state and shall be effectual to pass any property of the testator situated in this state.”
- Gift to a witness. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 45a-258: “Every devise or bequest given in any will or codicil to a subscribing witness, or to the husband or wife of such subscribing witness, shall be void unless such will or codicil is legally attested without the signature of such witness, or unless such devisee or legatee is an heir to the testator.”
The cost of settling an estate is a separate question: Connecticut Probate Cost 2026.
The honest position on Connecticut pricing
We publish a national attorney median for a simple will of $625 (middle 50% $450–$1,000) and a DIY platform range of $129–$599. Attorney figures are the national medians from the LegalTemplates 2026 survey of 909 firms, verified July 23, 2026. They are national, not state-specific. Geographic multipliers are widely republished, but the primary source for them blocks automated verification, so we will not apply one to Connecticut and present the result as a Connecticut figure. When a defensible state-level dataset exists, this page will carry it and say where it came from.
What Connecticut law actually requires
This is the part that is genuinely state-specific, and the part that decides whether the document works at all. Every line below is read from the statute, with the citation attached:
- Witnesses: 2. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 45a-251
- If a beneficiary witnesses it: the gift to that witness is void or cut back, but the will still stands (purging statute). Conn. Gen. Stat. § 45a-258
- Notary required for the will to be valid: no. A notary is not what makes a will valid here — the witnesses are. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 45a-251
- Self-proving affidavit: available in limited form. At the request of the testator, the attesting witnesses may sign an affidavit before an officer authorized to administer oaths, written on the will, and the Probate Court accepts it as if it had been taken before the court. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 45a-285
- Handwritten (holographic) wills: not recognised. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 45a-251
- Electronic wills: not recognised. The 2023 remote-notarial-acts law expressly excludes wills: no record may be acknowledged remotely in the making and execution of a will, codicil, trust or trust instrument. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 45a-251; Public Act 23-28 § 1(i)(1)
The full 44-jurisdiction comparison is on what each state requires for a will to be valid. Whether a beneficiary may witness is covered nationally on can a beneficiary witness a will, and the notary question on does a will need to be notarised.
Does Connecticut give you a free form?
No. We found no complete statutory will form in the Connecticut code. California, Maine, Michigan, New Mexico and Wisconsin each print one in their own codes. In Connecticut your realistic routes are a DIY platform, a flat-fee attorney will, or an hourly engagement if the estate is complicated.
If a DIY will is the right route for you in Connecticut
Where the estate is straightforward and none of the complications above apply, a properly executed DIY will does the job, and how it is signed matters far more than where the document came from. LawDepot builds a state-specific last will and testament, which you then sign and witness under the Connecticut rules above.
LawDepot pays us a commission if you buy through this link — it costs you nothing extra. We are not a law firm and this is not legal advice. Affiliate Disclosure.
What skipping it costs in Connecticut
Connecticut sets probate compensation using “reasonable” compensation with no percentage schedule. The two numbers that decide what an estate actually pays are the fee basis and the small-estate threshold.
Fee basis: Fiduciary and attorney compensation is a ‘reasonable compensation’ standard (case law: Hayward v. Plant factors); no statutory percentage for compensation. BUT Connecticut’s probate COURT fees are statutory and percentage-based on the gross estate (C.G.S. §45a-107) — a distinctive cost driver, e.g., for a decedent who dies on or after July 1, 2016, $1,865 plus 0.25% of the basis over $500,000 up to $2,000,000, with a maximum fee of $40,000 at a basis of $8,877,000 and over; any portion of the basis determined by property passing to the surviving spouse is reduced by fifty per cent.
Small-estate threshold: $40,000 aggregate value of the decedent’s solely owned tangible and intangible personal property, excluding property that passes outside of probate by operation of law, and only if the decedent had no solely owned real property in this state (C.G.S. § 45a-273).
A will does not avoid probate — it directs it. What it prevents is the estate being distributed by Connecticut’s intestacy statute instead of by you, and it lets you name the executor rather than leaving the court to appoint one. The arithmetic on the other side is on what probate costs in Connecticut.
What a will costs nationally — every route priced, and the four situations where DIY fails.
Statutory text read at the state’s own legislature or official code site. Pricing figures are national and dated above. General information, not legal advice.
Related: whether Connecticut requires the executor to post a bond.
The court’s own filing fee to open probate is a separate cost from what’s on this page, see the Connecticut probate filing fee.
Related: how long creditors have to file a claim against an estate in Connecticut.
Related: how long you have to contest a will in Connecticut.