Will Generator (India)

About the Will Generator (India)

Fill in your details, your family (to identify people clearly), an executor and a substitute, the specific gifts you want to make (a house to your spouse, jewellery to a daughter), and who gets everything else — the residuary estate — in equal or stated shares. Add a guardian for minor children and instructions for digital assets if you need them. The generator writes a will with revocation of earlier wills, a declaration, payment of debts, the gifts, a clause for a beneficiary who dies before you, your executor’s powers, the signing paragraph and the attestation by two witnesses — or a codicil that changes an existing will.

The checks follow the Indian Succession Act: you must be an adult of sound mind (s.59); two witnesses must attest (s.63); a gift to a witness or the witness’s spouse is void (s.67), so the tool stops if a beneficiary is listed as a witness; registration is optional (Registration Act s.18(e)); probate is no longer compulsory for any will, because s.213 was omitted from 20 December 2025; and a will cannot be signed electronically. Wills of Muslims, which Muslim personal law limits to one-third of the estate, are not supported.

Common uses

• Parents leaving the family home to the surviving spouse and the rest to their children.
• Naming a guardian for young children and an executor to manage the estate.
• Recording who gets jewellery, bank deposits, shares and digital accounts.
• Changing one gift in an existing will with a codicil instead of rewriting it.

Who can make a will

A will is “the legal declaration of the intention of a testator with respect to his property which he desires to be carried into effect after his death” (Indian Succession Act 1925, s.2(h)). Every person of sound mind who is not a minor may make one (s.59); a will, or any part of it, made because of fraud, coercion or importunity that takes away free agency is void (s.61). No technical words are needed — only wording from which your intentions can be known (s.74).

A Hindu (including a Sikh, Jain or Buddhist) may dispose by will of any property he or she can dispose of, including an interest in Mitakshara coparcenary property (Hindu Succession Act 1956, s.30). The will provisions do not apply to Muslims (s.58): Muslim personal law governs their wills and limits a bequest to one-third of the net estate (noted by the Supreme Court in Abdul Rahim v Sk. Abdul Zabar), so this tool does not draft them.

Signing and witnesses

• You sign (or put your mark) where it shows you mean the writing to take effect as your will — at the end (s.63(a), (b)).
• Two or more witnesses must each see you sign, or receive your personal acknowledgment of the signature, and each must sign in your presence; they need not be present at the same time, but it is safest if they are (s.63(c)).
• Do not let a beneficiary witness. The will stays valid, but the gift to an attesting witness, or to the witness’s husband or wife, is void (s.67). An executor may witness (s.68), but not if they also inherit.
• No e-signatures: the Information Technology Act 2000 does not apply to wills (First Schedule, item 4). Print the will and sign in ink; initial each page.

Probate

Probate is the copy of a will certified under the seal of a court, with a grant of administration of the estate to the executor (s.2(f)). Since 20 December 2025 no will needs probate. Until then, s.213 said that no right as executor or legatee could be established in court without probate for some wills: wills of Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists made in — or dealing with immovable property in — the territories under the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal on 1 September 1870 or the original civil jurisdiction of the High Courts at Chennai and Mumbai (s.57(a), (b)), and similar Parsi wills. The Repealing and Amending Act, 2025 (Act 37 of 2025, Second Schedule) omitted s.213.

An executor may still apply for probate: it is granted only to an executor named in the will (s.222), and never to a minor or a person of unsound mind (s.223). Banks, housing societies and registrars may still ask for probate, or for another court order, before acting on a will.

Registration, stamp paper and safe keeping

Registering a will is optional (Registration Act 1908, s.18(e)); it does not make the will more valid, but it makes the document harder to lose or dispute. You may also deposit the will with a Registrar in a sealed cover (s.42). Wills are not chargeable with stamp duty under the Indian Stamp Act 1899, so plain paper is fine. Keep the original safe and tell your executor where it is.

Changing or revoking a will

You can change or revoke your will at any time while you are able to make one (s.62). Revoke it by a later will or codicil, by a signed writing executed like a will, or by burning, tearing or otherwise destroying it with that intention (s.70). Changes written on the will after signing have no effect unless they are signed and attested in the same way (s.71) — make a codicil instead, which is read as part of the will (s.2(b)). Marriage revokes a will (s.69), except the wills of Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists (s.57 proviso).

If a beneficiary dies before you

Under the Act a legacy lapses and falls into the residue if the legatee does not survive the testator, unless the will shows that it should go to someone else (s.105). The will therefore lets you name an alternate for each gift and adds a clause saying where a lapsed gift goes — to the beneficiary’s children, or to the other residuary beneficiaries.

Guardians for minor children

For Hindu children, a father entitled to act as natural guardian may appoint a guardian by will, but the appointment has no effect if the mother survives him, and revives if she dies without appointing one by will; a widowed mother, or a mother acting as natural guardian, may appoint one by her will (Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act 1956, s.9). Courts always treat the child’s welfare as paramount (s.13). For other children, a court considers the welfare of the minor and the wishes of a deceased parent (Guardians and Wards Act 1890, s.17).

Sources

• Indian Succession Act 1925 — ss.2(b), 2(c), 2(f), 2(h), 57–59, 61–63, 67–71, 74, 105, 222, 223
• Repealing and Amending Act, 2025 (37 of 2025) — Second Schedule: s.213 of the Indian Succession Act omitted from 20 December 2025
• Hindu Succession Act 1956 — s.30
• Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act 1956 — ss.9, 13; Guardians and Wards Act 1890 — ss.7, 17
• Registration Act 1908 — ss.18(e), 41, 42
• Information Technology Act 2000 — First Schedule, item 4
• Indian Stamp Act 1899 — Schedule I (no article for wills; Art. 33 excludes wills)
• Abdul Rahim v Sk. Abdul Zabar (Supreme Court)

Limitations

• A generic template, not legal advice. Large or complex estates, businesses, trusts, property abroad, disputes in the family, or a testator who is unwell or elderly should involve a lawyer — and, for an ill or elderly testator, a doctor’s certificate of sound mind (the tool adds an optional page).
• Wills of Muslims are not supported.
• The will can only pass property you are entitled to give; nominations, jointly held property and insurance policies may follow their own rules.
• Names and addresses in Indian scripts appear in the preview, DOCX and Print, but not in the PDF download.
• The first DOCX or PDF download needs a connection to load the document engine; Copy and Print work offline.

Privacy

Everything happens in your browser. Your family details, property and wishes are not uploaded or stored by MySmartCoPilot. Keep a draft in this browser is off by default — leave it off on a shared computer, and clear the form when you are done.