Updated August 3, 2026. Quick answer for California: 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 California number is estimating. What is genuinely California-specific, and what actually decides whether your will works, is how it has to be executed — and that California publishes a free statutory will form written into its own probate code. The detail worth knowing before you sign anything: California is one of the few states with no execution-time self-proving affidavit at all, so who you choose as witnesses has consequences your executor will feel years later.
The honest position on California 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 — see the note on state pricing below. Geographic multipliers are widely republished, but the primary source for them blocks automated verification, so we will not apply one to California and present the result as a California figure. When a defensible state-level dataset exists, this page will carry it and say where it came from.
What California 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. Cal. Prob. Code § 6110(c)(1)
- If a beneficiary witnesses it: the gift to that witness is cut down, but the will still stands (purging statute). Cal. Prob. Code § 6112(c)-(d)
- Notary required for the will to be valid: no. A notary is not what makes a will valid here — the witnesses are. Cal. Prob. Code § 6110
- Self-proving affidavit: California has no execution-time mechanism. This is unusual and it matters: proof of the will happens after death instead, so who you pick as witnesses has consequences your executor will feel. Cal. Prob. Code § 8220
- Handwritten (holographic) wills: recognised. Signature and material provisions must be in the testator’s own handwriting; no witnesses required. Cal. Prob. Code § 6111(a)
- Electronic wills: not recognised. AB 1667 (2019-2020) added only a temporary study directive at former Prob. Code § 6110.4, repealed 1/1/2025; no substantive electronic-wills authorization enacted
The full 44-jurisdiction comparison is on what each state requires for a will to be valid.
California publishes a free will form — and most people have never heard of it
California is one of only four states we can verify that write a complete fill-in-the-blank will into the statute itself: California, Maine, Michigan and Wisconsin. The California form appears verbatim in the code at Cal. Prob. Code §6240, and it costs nothing. It is deliberately narrow — it will not do a trust, it will not handle a blended family, and it will not solve a taxable estate — but for a straightforward estate it is a valid will, and the price is zero. It still has to be signed and witnessed exactly as described below.
What skipping it costs in California
California sets probate compensation using a percentage schedule written into statute. The two numbers that decide what an estate actually pays are the fee basis and the small-estate threshold.
A will does not avoid probate — it directs it. What it prevents is the estate being distributed by California’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 California, and what the executor is paid in California.
If the California statutory form is too narrow for your estate
The free form above is a real will, but it is a fixed one. Where you need to say more than it allows and the estate still does not justify an attorney, a guided form is the middle route. LawDepot builds a state-specific last will and testament, which you then sign and witness under the California 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 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.