Attorney Thomas B. Burton answers a reader question about whether an Online Will is legal in Wisconsin. Attorney Burton discusses the legal ways to create an #OnlineWill in Wisconsin using an online Will making service and also discusses a free online Will available from the Wisconsin Legislature in the Wisconsin statutes.
Transcript of Video: Is an Online Will Legal in Wisconsin?
Okay welcome back this is attorney
Thomas B Burton and today's question
comes from Beloit Wisconsin down near
the Illinois border and the writer asks
the following is it legal in Wisconsin
to do an online will we would like to
fill out a basic will my husband and I
are both 59 with this coronavirus we
felt we should get on that so yes I
salute you I think it's a great idea for
everyone to have a will put a plan in
place their plan for what they have want
to happen to their assets versus the
plan the legislature has written in the
statutes and so the great thing about
creating a will is you get to make all
the decisions about who will be your
personal representative who are the
heirs how do you want your estate handled
and how do you want it distributed in
Wisconsin you can create a legally valid
will using an online service so to
answer your question I would say an
online will meaning one purely online
would not be valid we need to have a
paper will so you can't just create it
in the cloud and store it but you can
create a will online using an online
service and then print out the final
document and prepare and sign and date
it in front of two disinterested
witnesses so the key here is that you
can't do it all online it has to be
reduced to paper at the end and you have
to observe those will formalities which
is you sign the will in front of two
disinterested witnesses not related by
blood or marriage and that's what you
need to make a valid will so but in
terms of actually drafting it up there
are online services you can use to do
this now I always caution folks I feel I
could use one of those online
will makers and make a perfectly valid
legal will in Wisconsin but that's
because I am a lawyer and I understand
the questions it's asking me and why it's
asking me those questions I haven't
gotten through one of these lately but I
do think it's harder when you aren't
trained in this area to know why the
online program is asking you a certain
question if you watch some of my other
videos you'll see some questions related
to this and part of the benefit to
working with a lawyer is we can have
that conversation give-and-take and I
can ask you well what are you really
trying to accomplish here and then I
help you design a plan to meet those
goals whereas the program can't ask you
a follow-up question like that so you
can do the online will the other thing I
would tell you is if you don't have the
funds to hire a lawyer
the legislature has created a basic will
in the Wisconsin Statutes you can go to
the statutes just Google that was got
some basic will and you could print that
out and sign it and it has all the
statutory language right in there so if
you didn't want to attempt the online
will maker you could do that or I always
recommend if you can afford it working
with a qualified estate planning
attorney many attorneys do flat fee
rates on estate planning like I do so
that you can know the cost upfront and
in fact at my office right now we're
doing drive-thru will signings during
the social distancing part of
coronavirus because we know it's on a
lot of people's minds so again I don't
want to discourage you at all great job
working on this and you can use one of
these programs I would just make sure
it's a reputable one and that your Will
conforms with Wisconsin Statutes and
again make sure you observe the right
formalities signing and dating the will
in front of two disinterested witnesses
to make sure when you're all done you
have a legally valid document that will
hold up in court so great question and
thank you for asking.
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