Updated September 3, 2026. Quick answer for Arkansas: 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 Arkansas number is estimating. What is genuinely Arkansas-specific, and what actually decides whether your will works, is how it has to be executed.
The honest position on Arkansas 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 Arkansas and present the result as a Arkansas figure. When a defensible state-level dataset exists, this page will carry it and say where it came from.
What Arkansas 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. Ark. Code Ann. §§ 28-25-102, 28-25-104
- If a beneficiary witnesses it: Purging statute: Ark. Code Ann. § 28-25-102(b): a will is not invalidated by an interested witness, but unless attested by two qualified disinterested witnesses, the interested witness forfeits so much of the gift as exceeds what they’d have received intestate.
- Notary required for the will to be valid: No
- Handwritten wills: Recognized: Ark. Code Ann. § 28-25-104: if the entire body and signature are in the testator’s own handwriting, no attesting witnesses are required; established by testimony of three disinterested witnesses to the handwriting.
- Electronic wills: No
The full 44-jurisdiction comparison is on what each state requires for a will to be valid.
Does Arkansas give you a free form?
No. Only four states we can verify publish a complete statutory will form in their own code: California, Maine, Michigan and Wisconsin. In Arkansas 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 Arkansas
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 Arkansas 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 Arkansas
A will does not avoid probate: it directs it. What it prevents is the estate being distributed by Arkansas’s intestacy statute instead of by you, and it lets you name the executor rather than leaving the court to appoint one.
What a will costs nationally: every route priced, and the four situations where DIY fails.
Also for Arkansas: Arkansas Power of Attorney Requirements.
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 Arkansas 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 Arkansas probate filing fee.
Related: how long creditors have to file a claim against an estate in Arkansas.