Create your legally binding will and powers of attorney with this online will-maker. No hourly fees. No legal jargon.
Okay—can we all admit that our wishes are really just to live forever? (Problem solved—right?) But since that’s not on the table, you can still make your life way easier when you use Mama Bear’s online will-maker. You get:
Mama Bear uses plain English and adds the legal jargon later.
Make updates without the scheduling headaches or hefty lawyer fees.
Seriously—most customers can answer all the questions in 20 minutes.
Lawyers created Mama Bear’s forms, so you get legally binding documents without the hourly fees.
A step-by-step, guided experience
Less than 20 minutes to complete
Easy access for edits or updates
Free updates for 6 months*
State-specific documents, built by lawyers
*$29 to make updates after 6 months.
Guardians for your kids
Beneficiaries for assets and pets
People to make your medical and financial decisions if you can’t
That way you can save your progress
and make changes as you go.
You don’t have to make all your decisions at once. Mama Bear breaks it down into bite-sized pieces.
Mama Bear finalizes your documents in seconds. You’ll print them off and sign them with two witnesses and a notary.
Keep your notarized documents in a safe place. You’ll always have access to your digital copies to make updates.
Attorney-built documents just for you. All the essentials for a lasting legacy. Let’s. Do. This.
2 - Last Will & Testaments
2 - Health Care Powers of Attorney
2 - Financial Powers of Attorney
Mama Bear's Promise: If our product doesn’t meet your expectations—we’ll refund your money. (No hard feelings.)
Last Will & Testament
Health Care Power of Attorney
Financial Power of Attorney
Mama Bear's Promise: If our product doesn’t meet your expectations—we’ll refund your money. (No hard feelings.)
Seriously—most people just need a will and powers of attorney. But if you think you need a trust, you can check out our frequently asked questions below.
We used Mama Bear Wills to create a will after our two boys were born. The process was extremely quick & easy . . . We filled out our information on the website, answered typical questions for a basic will and then just had to print the forms and get them notarized.
Jamee and Kyle M.
We used Mama Bear Legal Forms about six months ago after our son was born to make new wills. The website walked us through the entire process step by step. We could customize certain aspects of the will to our specific needs. I like how they save our wills so we can go back and update them whenever we need to.
Matt and Sarah M.
Mama Bear Legal was straightforward and easy to use. We felt it took the stress out of making a will and we enjoyed having 30 days to really think on the details.
Scott and Rachel F.
That’s right—RamseyTrusted. And it’s a big deal. It means that Mama Bear is the only company Dave and the entire Ramsey team recommend for wills. Why? Because Mama Bear has faithfully served our fans for years and will do whatever it takes to help you win. They offer the coverage you need and nothing you don’t. Seriously, we’d send our moms to them (and most of us have).
Still have questions? No problem! Besides the answers below, we’ve got a free guide to help you get clear about what you need.
The main difference between a will and a trust is that every adult needs a will, but not everyone needs a trust. Trusts go into effect while you’re still alive and wills take hold after you die.
One of the most important differences between wills and trusts is the ability to name a guardian for your minor children. You can name a legal guardian in your will, but you can’t in a trust. So, even if you have a trust, you still need a will to make sure your kids are taken care of after you die.
Another important distinction between the two is that, unlike a will, a trust lets you skip probate court. That’s a big perk because probate court cases can occasionally get expensive and drag on for a while. But if you have a will, probate should be a smooth process. The worst situation would be to die without a trust or a will—your family could end up in court for months or years trying to sort out your estate. Not fun.
But if your will is clear, your estate isn’t huge, and you don’t have a ton of debt, probate won’t be a huge hassle. And you probably don’t need a trust. If you want to dig into this stuff a little more, check out this article.
Nope—not if you’re like most people. Going to an attorney’s office to have a lawyer prepare your documents could cost you hundreds in legal fees (not to mention hundreds more whenever you need to make updates).
But here’s the thing: You don’t actually need to meet with a lawyer unless there’s something complicated about your situation (like you’re a millionaire with several properties). Chances are, you only need a simple will, which you can create and update online with attorney-built documents.
Notarization is when a public official, called a notary public, reviews and signs a legal document to confirm that it’s valid. Getting your will notarized helps your personal representative, the probate judge and your estate attorney (if you have one) know your will is the real deal.
Wills always have to be signed by two witnesses to be valid, and in most states, that’s good enough. No notary required. But getting your will notarized can speed up the probate process and make it easier for your personal representative to carry out the will after you pass away. So we recommend getting your will notarized to make life easier on your loved ones!
There are a whole lot of reasons why wills are a must-have for every adult. Let’s name some things a will lets you do:
If you die without a valid will, that’s called dying intestate. At that point your state’s laws control who inherits your property. State intestacy laws generally give property to the people most closely related to you—even if that’s not who you would have picked. And those same laws will decide who gets custody of your kids if you have them. Those decisions are too important to leave up to strangers.
If you want to learn more, this article dives deeper into what happens if you don’t have a will in place.
You bet it is! If you met with a lawyer to create your will, you would sit down with them to make all the necessary documents. This is a great way to go if you need it, but it tends to be much more expensive. And it doesn’t make sense to pay more if your estate isn’t complicated.
The difference with Mama Bear Legal Forms is that their attorneys create state-specific legal documents for you on the front end. You just fill out your will online, print it, sign it, and get it notarized with two witnesses—and you’re good to go!
If you have any assets (car, condo, etc.), those items will be used to pay off any debt you have, like student loans. To learn more about what happens to your debt when you die (like what happens if you have more debt than assets), we’ve got an article that’ll walk you through the details.
And listen, if you’re at least 18 years old, you need a will—whether you have debt or not. Having a legal last will and testament can save your loved ones from a huge headache later.
Yes! Your spouse absolutely does need a will! There’s nothing worse than having to deal with legal issues on top of something as hard as your spouse dying. But when it comes to wills for couples, you’ve got a few options.
The smartest solution is for your spouse to have a mirror will. It’s almost like a duplicate of your own will, but with their name on it instead of yours. Having mirror wills lets you and your spouse spell out what happens if one of you die or if you both die at the same time. Plus, you’ll save money because you usually get a discount on the second document.
A mirror will is not an exact copy of your own will. To learn more about how they work together, read this article.
We’ve got a handful of helpful terms to point you in the right direction:
Short answer: Yes! It’s true that picking guardians for children is part of making a will. But it’s just one part. Do you have pets? Special items you want to go to your loved ones? And if you have a spouse—what happens if you both die at the same time? You need to spell this stuff out in your will to save your family from a headache later. Plus, everyone needs to have powers of attorney in place, and picking them is usually part of the will-making process.
Planning for kids down the road? Great! If you make your will now—it’s that much easier to update later.
The point of having a will is to make a plan for what happens to your kids and your pets and your stuff if you pass away. It’s a smart move for every adult because someone is going to end up having to deal with your estate. And you should be the one who decides what happens to the things that matter most to you—not the court.
If you’re single without kids and you die without making a will, your parents will likely inherit your entire estate. If you have any assets (car, condo, etc.), those items will be used to pay off any debt you have, like student loans.
If one of your parents has already passed away, your stuff will be divided among the surviving parent and any siblings—even if you don’t have a great relationship with any of them. And if you have a pet, your immediate family will decide what happens to it.
Absolutely! This thing isn’t set in stone. Nothing is permanent until you’ve passed away. You can add or remove things at any time while you’re still alive.
If you got a will through Mama Bear Legal Forms—it’s easy! You can log back in through the link they sent to the email you signed up with. If you don’t see the email in your inbox, spam or promotional folders—don’t panic! Just reach out to Mama Bear's team through the contact info below and they’ll be happy to help.
Phone: 888.441.9455
Email: customercare@mamabearlegalforms.com
And don’t forget to make updates anytime your wishes change or after some kind of life event. This can include when:
First, here’s a quick breakdown of some different types of wills:
Is there a one-size-fits-all option? Well, it depends on factors like how much money you have, whether you own a business, and if you have property that’s stayed in your family for multiple generations. But most people just need a simple will (including a mirror will if married).
You can check out this article if you want to dig into more details of each type of will.
After you create your will, there are a few different steps you can take:
Probate is the legal process that takes place after someone dies. It makes sure property and possessions get to the right people, and any taxes or debts owed are paid in full. It can be a long and complicated process, so save your family a headache by getting your legal will in place.
6 MIN READ | DEC 7, 2023
An online will is one of the most popular ways to create a will. As the name says, we’re talking about a will that can be written entirely using a digital format. That means no in-person visits to an attorney. How great is that? More people every day are choosing to make their wills on the web because it means one less task on their ever-growing lists of places to be and things to do.
For some situations—such as large or complex estates—the smartest approach will be to work with a lawyer to ensure you’ve got all your bases covered. But for most people an online will is perfectly suited for all their estate needs. To really understand the advantages of an online will, let’s look at how it works and how it compares to a will you’d get by working with a lawyer.
Find out if an online will works for you in less than 5 minutes.
An online will is really easy to do—like book-an-Airbnb easy. That’s because of how simple most people’s needs are. Reminder that the purpose of a will is to put into writing what you’d like to see happen to your stuff and your money after you depart this world. That’s it! And for most people, figuring that out can happen through a fairly short and simple conversation about beneficiaries and guardians. So it’s probably something you can knock out online without setting foot in an attorney’s office.
Even though making an online will is quicker and more convenient than working with a lawyer, the two approaches have a few things in common as well: All the same requirements for creating a will with an attorney still apply for an online will. We’re talking about things like:
As hard as it might be for you to think about end-of-life stuff, it’s also much easier to handle this issue now than it would be to leave it behind for your loved ones to decide on in the middle of their grief. Too many families and relationships have been strained by a lack of clarity around wills. So why not prevent all of that with just a few minutes of effort today?
A few minutes? Yes, that’s about what it typically takes to get an online will in place. The form filling itself might run you 20 minutes. OK, so before filling it out, it’s also possible you’ll need an hour or more to land on a few decisions with your spouse. What kinds of decisions? Stuff like who you’d like to designate as the executor of your estate—that’s the person making all the after-death decisions about your stuff. But there are really only a few things you’ll need to know going into an online will, including:
Download our will worksheet to get started.
Once you have those answers, you’re pretty much ready to fill out an online will. And in case you’re wondering, an online will is no less binding than one that’s created in person with an attorney. Anything that needs the attention or expertise of a lawyer has already been built into the online will process, so there’s no concern on that front. In fact, most online wills include other legal documents, like:
To put it simply, it’s just a lot more affordable to do a will online than it is to find a lawyer, not to mention the extra time and hassle to go and meet with them. Although there is a lingering myth that attorneys are the only people with the power to create binding wills, it’s simply untrue. And did we mention it’s typically far more expensive? Attorneys charge on average $300 for a simple will, but that price can run closer to a grand depending on the complexity of your needs.
Online wills are way cheaper. So, your budget will thank you. And did we mention the time-saving factor? If the thought of cramming one more thing into your busy day makes you cringe, rest assured you can make your will online in couch-potato mode. Awesome!
If all the ease and savings sound appealing, they are. But just keep in mind what we already mentioned—some people with a really large estate will still want to work with an attorney for their will. How large are we talking? Say if your total net worth is $1 million or more. (And if you’ve never bothered to do that math, you can quickly find your net worth using our net worth calculator.) But if you’re not yet a member of the millionaires club, you can get a perfectly legally binding will online at a much more accessible price.
Here's a sneak peek:
Did you know some legal forms are better than others? That’s why we only recommend our trusted partners to help you create a will online. Their will package includes four legal documents—your will, financial and health care power of attorney forms, and a letter of instruction. And you'll even have the option to add a mirror will for your spouse!
Here’s something else about our partner we really like: All of the documents included in their package were built by attorneys to be legally binding in your state. (Yeah, wills are the kind of document that can have various rules depending on where you live.) So you can be sure your will is legal and that it’s going to hold up when your loved ones need it most.
You can create your own will online with RamseyTrusted provider Mama Bear Legal Forms in less than 20 minutes! All you need to do is plug in a few answers, and the rest of the work is done for you. And once you’ve purchased, there’s no rush—you have 180 days to complete the form from there. Get it done today!
But now that you've read through the basics about creating a will, maybe you still have questions. We totally get that! Check out this list of ideas to stay proactive toward getting it taken care of.
Attorney-built documents just for you. All the essentials for a lasting legacy. Let’s. Do. This.
2 - Last Will & Testaments
2 - Health Care Powers of Attorney
2 - Financial Powers of Attorney
Mama Bear's Promise: If our product doesn’t meet your expectations—we’ll refund your money. (No hard feelings.)
Last Will & Testament
Health Care Power of Attorney
Financial Power of Attorney
Mama Bear's Promise: If our product doesn’t meet your expectations—we’ll refund your money. (No hard feelings.)
So you know you need a will, but what are these powers of attorney (aka POAs)? Well, they’re the other key pieces of your estate plan.
A will tells people what you want to happen after you die—and a medical POA and financial POA cover what happens before you die (in case you lose the ability to make decisions for yourself).
You need all three documents to make sure your wishes are covered for every situation. And that’s why Mama Bear includes both POAs with your wills package.
