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 Washington: 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 Washington number is estimating. What is genuinely Washington-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 Washington-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: Washington promissory note.
How to make a will in Washington: what the statute says
Each line is a short extract quoted from the Washington statute itself; the section has the exceptions.
- Signing and witnesses. RCW 11.12.020(1): “…every will shall be in writing signed by the testator or by some other person under the testator’s direction in the testator’s presence or electronic presence, and shall be attested by two or more competent witnesses…”
- Interested witnesses. RCW 11.12.160(2): “A will or any of its provisions is not invalid because it is signed by an interested witness. Unless there are at least two other subscribing witnesses to the will who are not interested witnesses, the fact that the will makes a gift to a subscribing witness creates a rebuttable presumption that the witness procured the gift by duress, menace, fraud, or undue influence.”
The cost of settling an estate is a separate question: Washington Probate Cost 2026.
The honest position on Washington 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 Washington and present the result as a Washington figure. When a defensible state-level dataset exists, this page will carry it and say where it came from.
What Washington 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. RCW 11.12.020
- If a beneficiary witnesses it: the will is not invalid; unless two other subscribing witnesses are not interested, a gift to a witness is presumed procured by duress, menace, fraud or undue influence, and if the witness does not rebut the presumption the witness takes only so much of the gift as does not exceed the share the witness would receive if the will were not established. RCW 11.12.160
- Notary required for the will to be valid: no. A notary is not what makes a will valid here — the witnesses are. RCW 11.12.020
- Self-proving affidavit: available. Attesting witnesses can sign an affidavit before an officer authorized to administer oaths, which the court accepts as if the testimony had been taken before it. RCW 11.20.020
- Handwritten (holographic) wills: chapter 11. 12 has no holographic-will rule; every will must be attested by two or more competent witnesses (RCW 11.12.020(1)), though a will executed in the mode prescribed by the law of the place where executed or of the testator’s domicile is treated as validly executed. RCW 11.12.020
- Electronic wills: recognised. RCW 11.12.410 to 11.12.491
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 Washington give you a free form?
No. We found no complete statutory will form in the Washington code. California, Maine, Michigan, New Mexico and Wisconsin each print one in their own codes. In Washington 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 Washington
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 Washington 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 Washington
Washington 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: No percentage schedule: personal representative is allowed “such compensation for his or her services as the court shall deem just and reasonable” unless the will provides for compensation (RCW 11.48.210); attorney fees likewise reasonable. Nonintervention powers (RCW 11.68) keep most administrations out of court supervision.
Small-estate threshold: $100,000 value of the entire estate subject to probate, excluding the surviving spouse’s or domestic partner’s community property interest, less liens and encumbrances (RCW § 11.62.010).
A will does not avoid probate — it directs it. What it prevents is the estate being distributed by Washington’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 Washington.
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 Washington 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 Washington probate filing fee.
Related: how long creditors have to file a claim against an estate in Washington.