If you die without a valid will in place, your assets will be distributed according to Iowa’s default laws. These are known as “intestate succession,” or “intestacy” laws. They favor spouses and children as the primary heirs to an estate. But Iowa’s default laws may not perfectly align with your wishes for your estate.

If you have a blended family, special needs children, family conflict, or other special circumstances, a better plan is to create a valid will. A will allows you to decide how to distribute your assets as you see fit rather than relying on the state’s default laws. With FindLaw, you can create your will in under an hour and for only $59.

Iowa, like most states, has certain legal requirements to make a will valid:

• It must be in writing
• You must sign your will or direct someone to sign it for you
• You must be of “full age.” In Iowa, this means you must be at least 18 years old or married. In Iowa, a married person is considered to be of “full age” even if they are under 18. This is true even if the marriage ends in divorce.
• You must have two competent persons witness and sign your will. The witnesses should be at least 16 years old and of sound mind. They should also not be beneficiaries of your will. In other words, they should be “disinterested” witnesses.

No. A fully handwritten, unwitnessed will is called a holographic will. In some states, holographic wills are recognized as legally valid. Iowa law, however, does not recognize handwritten, unwitnessed wills.

A possible exception to this may be if you wrote the will in a state that does recognize holographic wills and later brought it to Iowa. To save your family from conflict and legal problems regarding your estate, you should avoid handwriting your Iowa will. With FindLaw, you can create a legally valid will from the comfort of home in under one hour.

No, you do not have to notarize your will to make it legally valid in the state of Iowa. You only need a notary to make your will self-proving. With a self-proving will, the probate court accepts the will as your authentic last will and testament without needing to call the witnesses to testify.

Iowa statutes provide a self-proving affidavit form. To make your will self-proving, you and your witnesses should swear to this affidavit in front of a notary. By taking this extra step, you can save your witnesses from the stress of having to testify to the validity of your will in front of a probate court. It may also speed up the administration of your estate.

You can distribute most of your property through your Iowa will, with some exceptions. If you own property jointly, this property will pass automatically to your joint owners. You cannot change this through your will.

Certain retirement accounts allow you to name beneficiaries. If you have a retirement account with named beneficiaries or a life insurance policy, you cannot change your beneficiaries through your will. You would need to contact the financial institutions to change your beneficiary designations.

You cannot disinherit your spouse in the state of Iowa. Even if you leave them nothing in your will, they still have the right to claim an elective share of your estate. This share is equal to about one-third of the estate.

If you go through a divorce after you sign your will, it will affect any gifts you leave to your spouse. Any provisions leaving an inheritance to your spouse will be voided by the divorce. But if you were to happen to remarry your spouse, the provisions would be reinstated under Iowa law.

To change your will, you need to either write an amendment to your will (called a “codicil“) or write a new will that revokes all prior wills. If you would like to make minor adjustments to your will, a codicil should be sufficient. However, if you would like to make major changes, you should create a new will. When significant life events occur, you probably need to make a new will. Significant life events include:

• Marriage
• Divorce
• Death of a loved one
• Birth or adoption of a child or grandchild
• Sale of a business

If any of the above situations have occurred since you wrote your will, you should review it to see if you need to change your designations. You may even need to add or remove beneficiaries. Keep in mind that if you create a will through FindLaw, you can make changes to your will for a full year after purchase.