How to Make a Will in Vermont (2026): Requirements, Witnesses, Self-Proving Affidavit

Updated August 4, 2026. Quick answer for Vermont: 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 Vermont number is estimating. What is genuinely Vermont-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 Vermont-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: Vermont promissory note.

The honest position on Vermont 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 Vermont and present the result as a Vermont figure. When a defensible state-level dataset exists, this page will carry it and say where it came from.

What Vermont 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. 14 V.S.A. § 5
• If a beneficiary witnesses it: the gift to that witness or the witness’s spouse is voidable unless there are two other competent, subscribing witnesses. 14 V.S.A. § 10
• Notary required for the will to be valid: no. A notary is not what makes a will valid here — the witnesses are. 14 V.S.A. § 5
• Self-proving affidavit: available. Signing one at the same time as the will is what saves your executor from tracking witnesses down years later. 14 V.S.A. § 108
• Handwritten (holographic) wills: not recognised. 14 V.S.A. ch. 1 (§§ 1-11)
• Electronic wills: not recognised. Title 14 chapter index – no electronic-wills chapter

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 Vermont give you a free form?

No. We found no complete statutory will form in the Vermont code. California, Maine, Michigan, New Mexico and Wisconsin each print one in their own codes. In Vermont your realistic routes are a DIY platform, a flat-fee attorney will, or an hourly engagement if the estate is complicated.

What skipping it costs in Vermont

Vermont 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 statutory percentage schedule; executor/administrator and attorney compensation is allowed by the Probate Division as reasonable. Exact compensation section not pinned to a primary source this pass.

Small-estate threshold: $45,000 fair market value, of an estate consisting entirely of personal property (a time-share estate may be included) — 14 V.S.A. § 1901(a).

A will does not avoid probate — it directs it. What it prevents is the estate being distributed by Vermont’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 Vermont.

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.