California Probate Code Section 6240: Statutory Will Signing and Limits

The California Statutory Will is a pre-printed, fill-in-the-blank will form whose exact language is set by California Probate Code Section 6240. California residents can complete it without an attorney to name who inherits their property, who manages the estate, and who raises any minor children. Because the wording is fixed by statute, you fill in blanks and check boxes; you cannot add, delete, or rewrite any of the printed language without risking the will’s validity.¹

Section 6241 quietly does a lot of work alongside the printed form. It builds in mandatory clauses that apply to every statutory will even though they don’t appear on the page: a fallback distribution if your plan fails, broad powers for the executor to sell and invest estate assets, and full parental authority for any guardian you name.²

What You Actually Decide on the Form

The form asks you to make a short list of decisions. The biggest is how to distribute the balance of your estate, meaning everything that isn’t a specific gift. You get two choices. Choice One leaves everything to your surviving spouse or registered domestic partner, and if that person doesn’t survive you, to your descendants. Choice Two leaves nothing to your spouse or partner and sends it all to your descendants.¹ If none of those beneficiaries survive you, the mandatory clauses send the estate to your heirs under California’s intestate succession laws.²

Separately, you can carve out specific gifts. The form has dedicated sections for your principal residence (subject to any mortgage), your automobiles (subject to any loans), and your furniture, clothing, jewelry, and other personal belongings. Each of these is optional and only matters if you want the item to go somewhere other than wherever the balance of the estate is heading.¹

There’s also a section for cash gifts to specific people or charities. Watch this one closely. For every cash gift you make, you must sign your name in the box next to that gift. Skip the signature box and the gift fails, even if you filled in the name and amount.¹

You then nominate an executor, listing up to three choices in priority order so a backup takes over if your first pick can’t serve. If you have children under 18 and no other living parent would have custody at your death, you can nominate a guardian for them, again with up to three names in priority order.¹ A guardian nomination is a strong recommendation to the court rather than a binding order; a judge still has to confirm the appointment, and the child’s best interest controls.

Finally, you can pick an age between 18 and 25 at which a young beneficiary receives their share outright. Leave it blank and the default is 18. Until the beneficiary hits the age you chose, the executor can route that share to a guardian, a Uniform Transfers to Minors Act custodian, or an adult with care and custody of the minor.¹² Twenty-five is the ceiling. If you want to hold assets until 30 or 35, the form can’t do it.

Signing It So It’s Valid

Filling in blanks isn’t enough. A statutory will has to meet the same execution rules as any other California will. Under Probate Code Section 6110, the document must be in writing, you must sign it, and at least two witnesses have to be present at the same time, watch you sign (or hear you acknowledge your signature), and understand they’re signing a will.³

You also need the mental capacity to make a will. Section 6100.5 defines that as understanding what a will does, knowing what property you own, and recognizing the people your will affects, such as your spouse, children, and parents.⁴

Pick witnesses who get nothing under the will. California doesn’t automatically void a will signed by a beneficiary-witness, but if fewer than two of the witnesses are disinterested, the law presumes the interested witness obtained their gift through undue influence. The witness can try to rebut the presumption, and if they fail, they receive only what they would have inherited had you died with no will at all.⁵ The clean fix is to use two witnesses who aren’t named anywhere in the document.

What the Form Cannot Do

The statutory will trades flexibility for accessibility, and the trade is real. Because you cannot change the printed language, you are locked into the choices the legislature wrote. The limits that matter most:

No trusts of any kind. The form cannot create a special needs trust, a revocable living trust, or any other trust. If a beneficiary receives government benefits, an outright inheritance may disqualify them.
Delayed inheritances cap at 25. Custom wills routinely hold assets in trust until 30, 35, or later.¹
No conditional gifts. You cannot require a beneficiary to graduate college, stay sober, or meet any other condition before inheriting.
No digital asset instructions. The form has no provisions for online accounts, cryptocurrency, or digital files.
No tax planning. For estates approaching the federal estate tax threshold of $15,000,000 per individual in 2026, planning through trusts and gifting can meaningfully reduce the tax bill. The form offers none of that.⁶
Blended-family mismatch. If you have children from a prior relationship and a current spouse, the two standardized distribution choices may not reflect what you want.

The statutory will also does not avoid probate. Your estate still goes through the California probate process unless it qualifies as a small estate, currently valued at $184,500 or less for deaths occurring on or after April 1, 2022.⁷ If avoiding probate is a priority, the standard tool is a revocable living trust, which this form cannot create.

Assets the Statutory Will Does Not Control

A will governs less than most people assume. Several common asset types pass directly to a named beneficiary or surviving co-owner regardless of what the will says:

Life insurance and retirement accounts (401(k)s, IRAs, policies with a named beneficiary) transfer directly to that beneficiary.
Real estate or bank accounts held in joint tenancy with right of survivorship pass automatically to the surviving owner.
Payable-on-death and transfer-on-death accounts skip probate entirely.
Property already transferred into a revocable living trust is distributed under the trust’s terms.

Before completing the form, inventory which assets actually need a will to direct them. If most of your wealth sits in retirement accounts, life insurance, or jointly held real estate, the statutory will may control less of your estate than you expect.

Community Property

California is a community property state, so most assets acquired during marriage belong equally to both spouses. Your will can only direct your half. The surviving spouse already owns the other half, and no will can take it. This matters most if you pick Choice Two (nothing to your spouse): that choice controls only your share of community property and your separate property, and your spouse keeps their community property interest regardless.

Changing or Revoking the Will

Under Section 6120, you can revoke a California statutory will two ways: execute a new will that expressly revokes the old one or is inconsistent enough to replace it, or physically destroy the document by burning, tearing, or obliterating it with the intent to revoke.⁸

Because the printed language is locked, you cannot cross out a line and initial the change. To update anything, you have two realistic options: fill out an entirely new statutory will form (which revokes the old one by inconsistency), or have an attorney draft a codicil that meets the same execution requirements as the original. For anything beyond a single minor change, starting fresh with a new form is cleaner than layering amendments on top of a standardized document.

Who the Statutory Will Fits

The form works best for California residents with straightforward family situations, modest estates, and a clear idea of who should inherit. A single parent who wants everything to go to their children, or a married couple where each spouse wants the other to inherit first and then the kids, fits it well. The form is free, available online and at public law libraries, and can be completed in an afternoon.

The real risk in estate planning isn’t an imperfect will. It’s no will at all, which hands the state the job of deciding who gets what. For anyone who’s been putting off estate planning because hiring a lawyer feels expensive or intimidating, the California Statutory Will is a legitimate starting point that courts know how to interpret and enforce.

1
Sacramento County Public Law Library. California Probate Code 6240 – California Statutory Will
2
California Legislative Information. California Probate Code 6241
3
California Legislative Information. California Probate Code 6110
4
California Legislative Information. California Probate Code 6100.5
5
California Legislative Information. California Probate Code 6112
6
Internal Revenue Service. What’s New — Estate and Gift Tax
7
California Courts. Small Estate Affidavit to Transfer Personal Property
8
California Legislative Information. California Probate Code 6120