To make a will in Utah, you need to be at least 18, have the mental capacity to understand what you’re doing, and then take one of two paths: prepare a written document and sign it in front of two witnesses, or handwrite the important parts yourself and sign it. Utah’s rules are more forgiving than many states, but the details still decide whether the document holds up. A will that misses a requirement can be challenged or thrown out, which sends your family to Utah’s default inheritance rules instead of your wishes.
Who Can Make a Will
Two things have to be true. You must be at least 18, and you must have “testamentary capacity” at the moment you sign.1Utah Legislature. Utah Code 75-2-501 – Who May Make Will — Testamentary Capacity
Testamentary capacity comes down to four things: you can identify your family and the people in your life, you understand your relationships with them, you know what property you own and roughly what it’s worth, and you can form a plan for distributing it. Perfect memory isn’t the standard. The question is whether you can grasp those basics when you sign.
Path One: A Witnessed Will
The standard route. The will must be in writing, signed by you (or by someone else at your direction and in your conscious presence), and signed by at least two witnesses. Each witness has to sign within a reasonable time after either watching you sign or hearing you acknowledge the signature or the will to them.2Utah Legislature. Utah Code 75-2-502 – Execution — Witnessed Wills — Holographic Wills
Utah does not require you to sign in front of the witnesses, and does not require the witnesses to sign in front of you. Only that the witnesses saw you sign, or that you later confirmed the signature or the document to them. Even so, the cleanest approach is to have everyone in the same room signing at the same time. It eliminates any later argument about whether the steps were met.
Who Should Be Your Witnesses
Any person generally competent to be a witness qualifies. Utah is explicit that an “interested” witness (someone who inherits under the will) does not invalidate the will or the gift.3Utah Legislature. Utah Code 75-2-505 – Who May Witness That’s more generous than the rule in many states.
Use disinterested witnesses anyway. If a beneficiary signs as a witness, you hand any future challenger the argument that the beneficiary pressured or influenced you. Two neighbors, coworkers, or friends who have nothing to gain remove that line of attack completely.
Add a Self-Proving Affidavit at the Same Time
A self-proving affidavit is an optional add-on, and there’s almost no reason to skip it. Without one, the probate court eventually has to confirm that your will was properly signed and witnessed, which usually means tracking down your witnesses to testify. Years later, they may have moved, become incapacitated, or died.
The affidavit is a sworn statement you and your witnesses sign in front of an officer authorized to administer oaths, typically a notary, confirming that the will was executed properly.4Utah Legislature. Utah Code 75-2-504 – Self-Proved Will You can attach it when you sign the will or add it later. Notary fees are minimal, and the probate savings are meaningful.
Path Two: A Holographic Will
Utah also recognizes holographic (handwritten) wills, which need no witnesses. A holographic will is valid if you sign it and the material portions are in your own handwriting.2Utah Legislature. Utah Code 75-2-502 – Execution — Witnessed Wills — Holographic Wills “Material portions” means the substance: who receives what, who you name as executor, and similar provisions. Every word doesn’t have to be handwritten. A printed form can qualify if the meaningful choices are filled in by hand.
A holographic will beats no will at all, but it invites disputes. Without witnesses to confirm you wrote it voluntarily and with a clear mind, family members have more room to challenge the document. If you have the time to prepare a witnessed will, that’s the safer choice.
What to Put in the Will
Most people start with specific gifts: a house, a car, bank accounts, personal items, dollar amounts to particular people. Then address the “residuary estate,” which is everything left after the specific gifts are distributed. Naming a residuary beneficiary prevents gaps where property would otherwise fall into intestacy.
Name a personal representative, which is Utah’s term for an executor. This person gathers your assets, pays debts and taxes, and distributes what’s left. Pick someone organized and trustworthy, and name an alternate in case your first choice can’t serve.
If you have minor children, the will is where you name a guardian. Without that designation, a court chooses the guardian based on its view of the child’s best interest, which may not match what you would have chosen. You can name different guardians for different children if the situation calls for it.
Other common items include charitable gifts, funeral or burial preferences, and instructions about digital accounts. Funeral instructions in a will are often read too late to be useful, so tell your family or personal representative those preferences directly.
Assets Your Will Won’t Control
A will only reaches your probate estate. Several categories of property pass directly to a named beneficiary regardless of what your will says, and your will cannot override those designations.5Utah Legislature. Utah Code Title 75 Chapter 6 – Nonprobate Transfers
- Joint accounts with survivorship rights pass to the surviving owner automatically.
- Payable-on-death and transfer-on-death accounts pass to the named beneficiary.
- Life insurance proceeds go to the policy’s named beneficiary, not through your estate.
- Retirement accounts (IRAs, 401(k)s, pensions) pay out to whoever you named with the plan administrator.
- Utah transfer-on-death deeds pass real property to the deed’s named beneficiary outside of probate.
If your will leaves your house to your daughter but the deed names your son as the transfer-on-death beneficiary, your son gets the house. Pull your beneficiary designations before you sign the will and make sure they line up with what the will says.
Rules That Override Your Choices
Two Utah rules limit what your will can do, and both are worth knowing before you sign.
Your surviving spouse can claim an “elective share” equal to one-third of the augmented estate, even if your will leaves them nothing.6Utah Legislature. Utah Code Title 75 Chapter 2 Part 2 – Elective Share of Surviving Spouse The augmented estate includes not just probate property but certain nonprobate transfers and property the surviving spouse already owns. It’s a floor. You can leave your spouse more, but you cannot effectively leave them less without their consent.
Spouses and children who come along after you signed the will get automatic protection too. A spouse you married after signing generally receives what they would have gotten under intestate succession, unless the will was clearly made in contemplation of the marriage, the will states it should stay effective despite any future marriage, or you provided for the spouse outside the will with the intent that it replace a will provision.7Utah Legislature. Utah Code 75-2-301 – Entitlement of Spouse — Premarital Will A child born or adopted after you sign gets a similar share, with the exact calculation depending on whether you already had children when you signed.8Utah Legislature. Utah Code Title 75 Chapter 2 Part 3 – Spouse and Children Unprovided for in Wills These protections don’t apply if the omission was clearly intentional or if you provided for the person outside the will.
The practical takeaway: update the will after every marriage and every new child. Relying on the statutory fallbacks invites the kind of litigation a fresh signing would prevent.
Storing the Signed Will
A perfectly drafted will is worthless if nobody can find it. Keep the original somewhere secure and accessible to your personal representative: a fireproof safe at home, a safe deposit box, or your attorney’s office. If you use a safe deposit box, make sure someone else has access or knows how to petition the court for it.
Tell your personal representative and at least one other trusted person where the original is. Keep copies elsewhere, clearly marked as copies. Probate requires the original. If it can’t be found, Utah courts may presume you destroyed it with intent to revoke, which puts your family to the burden of proving otherwise.
Changing or Revoking It Later
Life changes, and the will should change with it. Utah gives you three ways to revoke a will in whole or in part: execute a new will that expressly revokes the old one or is inconsistent with it, physically destroy the document by burning, tearing, or canceling it with the intent to revoke, or have someone else destroy it at your direction and in your conscious presence.9Utah Legislature. Utah Code 75-2-507 – Revocation by Writing or by Act
For small changes, a codicil (an amendment to the existing will) works, but a codicil to a witnessed will has to be executed with the same formalities as the will: writing, your signature, two witnesses. For anything substantial, drafting a fresh will with a clear revocation clause is usually cleaner than stacking amendments.
Divorce triggers automatic changes. Once the divorce is final, every provision benefiting your former spouse or your former spouse’s relatives is revoked, and any nomination of your former spouse as personal representative, trustee, or agent is revoked. The will is read as if they had predeceased you.10Utah Legislature. Utah Code 75-2-804 – Revocation of Probate and Nonprobate Transfers by Divorce The law removes your ex from the will, but doesn’t put anyone else in their place. If everything was left to a spouse with no alternate beneficiary, divorce opens a gap that intestacy fills. Rewrite the will promptly after the decree.