How to Make a DIY Will in Michigan Without a Lawyer

You can make a DIY will in Michigan without a lawyer as long as you are at least 18, of sound mind, and the finished document is written, signed by you, and signed by two witnesses.¹ Nothing in state law requires an attorney, a notary, or a court filing during your lifetime. What the law does require is that you follow the execution steps exactly. A will that skips a witness or gets signed the wrong way is not a partly valid will. It is no will at all.

What Makes a Will Legal in Michigan

Three conditions have to be met. The will must be in writing. You must sign it yourself, or direct someone else to sign your name in your presence. And at least two witnesses must sign, each within a reasonable time after seeing you sign or hearing you acknowledge that the signature is yours.¹

Sound mind is a lower bar than people expect. You need to understand what you own, who your close family members are, what a will does, and how those pieces come together as a plan. Courts look at your understanding at the moment you sign, not your general health on other days.

Nothing else is mandatory. The will does not have to be typed. It does not have to be notarized. It does not have to be filed anywhere while you are alive. Notarization and court deposit each solve specific problems, but the will is legally valid without either one.

The Handwritten Alternative

Michigan also recognizes holographic wills. If you write the material portions of your will entirely in your own handwriting, date it, and sign it, the document is valid with no witnesses at all.¹ Material portions means the parts that actually dispose of your property and name your beneficiaries. A pre-printed form with handwritten blanks does not qualify, because the form language is not in your handwriting.

Holographic wills sound easier, but they create problems in probate. Someone has to prove the handwriting is yours, and casual wording that a template would have caught can trigger disputes. If you can produce a typed document with two witnesses, do that instead.

What to Decide Before You Draft

Most DIY will problems come from filling in a template before the decisions are actually made. Work these out first.

Beneficiaries: every person or organization you want to receive something, and what each one gets. You can leave specific items, dollar amounts, or a percentage of whatever remains after debts and expenses.
Asset inventory: real estate, bank and investment accounts, vehicles, and valuable personal property. Enough detail that your personal representative can identify each asset.
Personal representative: the person who will manage your estate. Michigan uses this term rather than executor. Name at least one alternate.
Guardian for minor children: if you have children under 18, the will is where you name the person you want to raise them. Without this, a court decides.
Residuary clause: a catch-all for anything not specifically mentioned. Without one, unlisted assets pass as though you had no will.

Templates are available from online legal form providers and office supply stores. Read every line before you fill it in. Skipping a section you do not understand, or leaving a blank you meant to come back to, is where DIY wills most often fail.

Assets Your Will Cannot Control

This is the trap that catches DIY estate planners more than any drafting error. Several common asset types pass directly to a named beneficiary or co-owner regardless of what your will says.

Life insurance proceeds go to whoever is named as beneficiary on the policy.
Retirement accounts, including 401(k)s and IRAs, have their own beneficiary designations that override the will.
Bank accounts and real estate held jointly with a right of survivorship pass automatically to the surviving co-owner.
Pay-on-death bank accounts and transfer-on-death investment accounts transfer directly on your death to the named beneficiary.

Pull every beneficiary designation you have on file and check who is listed. An outdated form naming an ex-spouse controls that asset even if your will leaves everything to your current partner. Coordinating the designations is as important as drafting the will itself.

Signing the Will

Once the document is drafted, execution is what turns it into a legal will. Sign it yourself, or if you are physically unable, direct someone to sign your name in your presence.¹ Then have both witnesses sign. Each witness must have seen you sign or heard you acknowledge that the signature is yours.

Michigan law does not require the witnesses to sign in each other’s presence, but doing the whole thing at one sitting avoids procedural questions later. Pick witnesses who are not beneficiaries. An interested witness does not by itself invalidate the will under Michigan law, but it invites challenges.² A neighbor or coworker with no stake in your estate is a far safer choice than a family member who stands to inherit.

Making the Will Self-Proving

A self-proving affidavit is optional, and worth the small effort every time. It is a sworn statement, signed by you and both witnesses in front of a notary, confirming that the will was executed properly.³ You can sign it when you execute the will or add it later.

Without the affidavit, the probate court may need to locate your witnesses after your death and have them testify that they saw you sign. If a witness has moved out of state, become incapacitated, or died, proving the will becomes harder and more expensive. The affidavit removes that step because the sworn statements are already on file. Notary fees for a single acknowledgment usually run a few dollars.

Limits on What a Michigan Will Can Do

A will gives you broad control, but Michigan places a few hard limits that drafting alone cannot override.

You Cannot Fully Disinherit a Spouse

Even if your will leaves your spouse nothing, the surviving spouse can file an election with the probate court to claim half of what they would have received under the intestate succession formula, reduced by anything they already received from you outside the will.⁴ The election must be filed within 63 days after the deadline for presenting claims against the estate, or within 63 days after the surviving spouse receives the estate inventory, whichever is later. Reducing a spouse below the elective share generally requires a signed waiver or prenuptial agreement, not just a will clause.

Children Born After You Sign

If you have a child born or adopted after you sign your will and you never update the document, that child is entitled to a share of your estate as if you had died without a will.⁵ The rule protects children the testator probably meant to include and never got around to adding. If you intend to exclude a future child, the will has to say so clearly. Updating the will after any birth or adoption is the cleaner fix.

Storing and Updating the Will

Keep the original signed will somewhere secure that your personal representative can actually reach. A fireproof safe at home or a safe deposit box works, as long as your representative knows the location and is authorized to access it. Michigan also lets you deposit your will with the local probate court for safekeeping during your lifetime, which removes any risk of the document being lost or destroyed.

Digital copies are fine as a backup reference, but the probate court needs the original signed document. A photocopy or scan will not substitute. If the original cannot be found after your death, there is a legal presumption that you destroyed it with the intent to revoke it, and the estate can be distributed as though no will existed.

Life changes should send you back to the will. Marriage, divorce, the birth of a child, the death of a beneficiary, and major changes to your finances are all triggers. Even without a triggering event, read the document again every three to five years. Small changes can be made by a codicil, which is a written amendment executed with the same signing and witness requirements as the will itself.⁶ For anything substantial, write a new will that expressly revokes the old one. Stacking codicils invites contradictions a court has to sort out.

1
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 700.2502 – Execution; Witnessed Wills; Holographic Wills
2
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 700.2505 – Witnesses
3
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 700.2504 – Self-Proved Will
4
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 700.2202 – Election of Surviving Spouse
5
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 700.2302 – Omitted Children
6
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 700.2507 – Revocation by Writing or by Act