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Iowa’s will rules are strict and its intestacy rules are strange. No handwritten wills, no electronic wills, and a signing ceremony that requires you to declare the document is your will while both witnesses watch each other sign. Then the intestacy statute does something almost no other state does: it measures your spouse’s share of the real estate by everything you owned at any point during the marriage, not what you owned when you died. One more thing changed recently in Iowa’s favor — the state inheritance tax is gone for anyone who died on or after January 1, 2025. Online services prepare an Iowa-specific will for $199–$299. Every rule below cites the Iowa Code.
Most Iowa adults can finish a legally valid will in under an hour.
Two witnesses, a signature, and clear wishes — that’s the whole requirement. An online service like Trust & Will prepares an Iowa-specific will with the witness pages ready to sign.
Disclosure: we earn a commission if you buy through the Trust & Will links here, at no extra cost to you. Complex situations belong with an attorney and we say so below.
Iowa Will Requirements (2026)
Iowa Code § 633.279(1) sets the execution rules, and it packs four separate requirements into one sentence:
| Requirement | Iowa rule | Statute |
|---|---|---|
| In writing | A written document — Iowa has adopted no electronic wills act | § 633.279(1) |
| Signed | By you, or by another person in your presence and at your express direction writing your name | § 633.279(1) |
| Declared | You must declare the document to be your will | § 633.279(1) |
| Witnessed | Two competent persons, at your request, who sign in your presence and in the presence of each other | § 633.279(1) |
| Notarized | Not required for validity — the notary appears only in the optional self-proving affidavit | § 633.279(2) |
Iowa asks for more choreography than most states. You have to say the document is your will, you have to ask the two people to witness it, and both of them have to sign while you and the other witness are watching. Three of those four steps are easy to skip without realizing anything went wrong — and a will signed quietly, or signed by witnesses at separate times, is vulnerable. Neighboring Minnesota requires none of this: there, two witnesses signing within a reasonable time is enough.
Who can make a will: any person of full age and sound mind (§ 633.264). Full age in Iowa is eighteen, and all minors attain majority by marriage (§ 599.1(1)). Wills executed before January 1, 1964 are governed by the law in effect immediately before that date.
Iowa Recognizes Neither Handwritten Nor Electronic Wills
Handwritten wills. The word “holographic” does not appear anywhere in the Iowa Probate Code. There is no handwriting exception in § 633.279 and no separate provision elsewhere. A will written entirely in your own hand and signed is invalid in Iowa unless two witnesses signed it in front of you and each other.
Iowa also has no harmless-error statute — no provision letting a court admit a defective document on proof that you meant it as your will. Oregon added one in 2025; Iowa has not. A defectively executed Iowa will simply fails, and the estate passes by intestacy.
Electronic wills. Iowa has not adopted the Uniform Electronic Wills Act. Chapter 633 does use the word “electronic” roughly twenty times — but every one of those references is clerical: the electronic probate docket (§ 633.27), electronic transmission of medical-assistance notices (§ 633.304A), the electronic record in which wills are recorded (§ 633.306). None of them authorizes an electronic will. If you have seen Iowa listed as an e-will state, that is where the confusion comes from.
Iowa does provide a useful self-proving mechanism, and unlike some states you are not locked out of it later: under § 633.279(2), an attested will may be made self-proved at the time of execution or at any subsequent date, by your acknowledgment and your witnesses’ affidavits before a person authorized to administer oaths, evidenced by that person’s certificate under seal. The statute prints the form.
Dying Without a Will in Iowa: a Statute That Looks Backward
Most intestacy statutes ask what you owned when you died. Iowa’s asks something else. Both § 633.211 and § 633.212 measure the surviving spouse’s real-property share as:
“…all the legal or equitable estates in real property possessed by the decedent at any time during the marriage, which have not been sold on execution or by other judicial sale, and to which the surviving spouse has made no relinquishment of right.”
Real estate you owned at any point during the marriage counts, unless it was sold at a judicial sale or the spouse signed away their rights — which, in practice, is what happens at an ordinary closing when both spouses sign the deed. It is a descendant of Iowa’s old dower rules, and it is why Iowa real estate transactions ask for a non-owning spouse’s signature.
| Your situation | What your spouse receives |
|---|---|
| No children, or all your children are your spouse’s | Everything — the real property described above, all exempt personal property, and all remaining personal property not needed for debts (§ 633.211) |
| You have a child who isn’t your spouse’s | One-half of that real property, all exempt personal property, and one-half of the remaining personal property — topped up to at least $50,000 (§ 633.212) |
The $50,000 floor is the number to look at. Section 633.212(4) says that if the spouse’s share does not reach $50,000, they take enough of the remaining homestead interest and remaining property — even to the extent of the whole net estate — to get there. That is a real protection at the bottom of the scale.
But it was enacted in 1985 and has never been raised. Forty years of Iowa farmland and home appreciation have gone by; the floor has not moved a dollar. On any estate of consequence today it is irrelevant, and the operative rule for a blended family is simply the flat one-half. If you have a child from an earlier relationship, dying without a will in Iowa hands half of everything to your children and leaves your spouse the rest.
A surviving spouse who is left a will can also refuse it: Iowa Code §§ 633.236 to 633.238 give a right of elective share against the will.
Iowa’s Inheritance Tax Is Gone
Iowa spent years phasing out its inheritance tax, and the phase-out is complete. Under Iowa Code § 450.98, the inheritance tax chapter does not apply to the estates of decedents dying on or after January 1, 2025. The Iowa Department of Revenue states the same thing plainly. Iowa has never had a separate estate tax, so as of 2025 there is no Iowa death tax of any kind.
This is worth stating clearly because a great deal of what is still published about Iowa — including material written during the phase-out — quotes rate tables and class exemptions that no longer apply to anyone. If you are reading Iowa inheritance-tax percentages somewhere, check the date. Compare the states in our state-by-state comparison.
What a Will Costs in Iowa
| Route | Typical cost | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Handwritten, no witnesses | $0 | Invalid in Iowa — and no harmless-error statute to save it |
| Online service | $199 individual / $299 couple | Iowa-specific will with witness pages, done in about an hour |
| Iowa attorney | Flat fees vary — Des Moines and the Cedar Rapids corridor run above rural counties | Custom drafting and counsel, particularly where farmland is involved |
Online pricing verified against Trust & Will’s published rates (August 2026). The Iowa State Bar Association publishes no fee survey, so we quote no attorney figures we can’t source. See how Iowa compares with the rest of the country for national cost ranges and a state-by-state table of will requirements.
One Iowa-specific caution. If your estate includes farm ground, an online will is probably not where this ends. Farmland raises questions a form cannot handle — how to divide an indivisible asset among children who do not all farm, how to keep an operation intact, and how to treat the child who has been working the land. That is an Iowa attorney conversation.
What an Iowa Will Does Not Do
1. A will does not avoid probate. Iowa probate is a district court process on the public record. For the comparison, see what a living trust costs in Iowa and our guide to avoiding probate.
2. A will does not let you disinherit your spouse. A surviving spouse may take an elective share against the will under §§ 633.236 to 633.238, and § 633.264 makes the power to dispose of property by will expressly subject to that right.
3. A will does not cover incapacity, and does not override beneficiary designations. It speaks only after death. Pair it with a durable power of attorney and a health care directive — see the five documents every family needs — and keep your beneficiary forms current.
Will vs. Trust for Iowa Families
Every Iowa adult needs a will. No default rule names a guardian for your children, and Iowa’s execution requirements mean an improvised document is likelier to fail here than in most states — with no harmless-error provision to catch it. With the inheritance tax repealed and no estate tax, the Iowa trust question is about probate, privacy, and the practical problem of passing on land rather than about tax. Start with Trust vs. Will: Which Does Your Family Need? and the numbers in our Iowa living trust cost guide.
If the will is what you need today, Trust & Will’s Iowa package includes the witness pages, guardianship nominations, and healthcare documents — build your Iowa will here.
FAQ
Does a will have to be notarized in Iowa?
No. Validity takes your signature, your declaration that the document is your will, and two competent witnesses signing at your request in your presence and in each other’s presence (§ 633.279(1)). The notary appears only in the optional self-proving affidavit (§ 633.279(2)), which can be added at signing or at any time afterward.
Are handwritten wills legal in Iowa?
No. The word “holographic” appears nowhere in the Iowa Probate Code, and § 633.279 contains no handwriting exception. An unwitnessed handwritten will is invalid, and Iowa has no harmless-error statute that could rescue it.
Can I make an electronic will in Iowa?
No. Iowa has not adopted the Uniform Electronic Wills Act. Chapter 633 mentions “electronic” only in clerical contexts — the probate docket, notices, and the electronic record in which wills are recorded — none of which authorizes an electronic will.
What happens if I die without a will in Iowa?
Your spouse takes everything if you have no children or all your children are also theirs (§ 633.211). If you have a child from another relationship, your spouse takes half the real property you held at any time during the marriage and half the remaining personal property, with a $50,000 minimum (§ 633.212).
Does Iowa have an inheritance tax?
Not any more. Under Iowa Code § 450.98 the inheritance tax does not apply to the estates of decedents dying on or after January 1, 2025, and Iowa has never had a separate estate tax. Older articles quoting Iowa inheritance-tax rates are describing law that no longer applies.
Does a will avoid probate in Iowa?
No — a will goes through probate. Living trusts, joint ownership, and beneficiary designations are the tools that pass property outside the court process.
Iowa Law Cited on This Page
- Iowa Code § 633.279 — signed and witnessed; self-proved will
- Iowa Code § 633.264 — disposal of property by will
- Iowa Code § 633.211 — spouse’s share where there is no issue or all issue are shared
- Iowa Code § 633.212 — spouse’s share where some issue are not the spouse’s; the $50,000 floor
- Iowa Code § 599.1 — period of minority
- Iowa Code § 450.98 — inheritance tax repealed for deaths on or after January 1, 2025
Update log — August 2026: page created. Execution, holographic, electronic-will and intestacy rules verified against the official Iowa Code (2026 edition) published by the Iowa Legislature; inheritance-tax repeal confirmed against Iowa Code § 450.98 and the Iowa Department of Revenue. Reviewed when Iowa law changes.