Home › Connecticut Estate Planning › Last Will and Testament
Connecticut is one of the strictest will states left in the country. No handwritten wills. No electronic wills. And no self-proving affidavit of the kind most states use — Connecticut still proves a will through its witnesses, which makes who you choose to witness it a decision with a long tail. The intestacy rules have a trap of their own: your spouse’s first $100,000 disappears entirely the moment one of your children isn’t also theirs. Online services prepare a Connecticut-specific will for $199–$299. Every rule below cites the Connecticut General Statutes.
Most Connecticut 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 a Connecticut-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.
Connecticut Will Requirements (2026)
Connecticut’s execution statute is a single sentence, and it has not changed in any material way in decades:
“A will or codicil shall not be valid to pass any property unless it is in writing, subscribed by the testator and attested by two witnesses, each of them subscribing in the testator’s presence…” — Conn. Gen. Stat. § 45a-251
| Requirement | Connecticut rule | Statute |
|---|---|---|
| In writing | A physical writing — Connecticut has adopted no electronic wills act | § 45a-251 |
| Signed | Subscribed by the testator | § 45a-251 |
| Witnessed | Two witnesses, each subscribing in the testator’s presence — but not required to be in each other’s presence | § 45a-251 |
| Notarized | Not required — and a notary does not substitute for a witness | § 45a-251 |
The witnesses must sign in your presence. They do not have to watch each other. That is a meaningfully lighter rule than Indiana’s or Kentucky’s, which require the witnesses to sign in front of each other as well — but it still means you must be there when each of them signs. Mailing the will to a second witness afterward breaks it.
Who can make a will: any person eighteen years of age or older, and of sound mind (§ 45a-250).
Wills made elsewhere are honored. The same statute provides that any will executed according to the laws of the state or country where it was executed may be admitted to probate in Connecticut and is effective to pass Connecticut property. If you moved here from a state with looser rules and executed a valid will there, Connecticut will accept it.
Handwritten and Electronic Wills Are Both Invalid in Connecticut
Handwritten wills. Connecticut does not recognize holographic wills. Chapter 802a contains no handwriting exception, so a will written entirely in your own hand and signed still needs two witnesses to be valid. A signed page in a drawer is not a Connecticut will — and Connecticut has no harmless-error statute to rescue one — unlike Maine, which rebuilt its probate code in 2019 — the way Oregon added in 2025.
The one exception runs through the foreign-execution clause of § 45a-251. A handwritten unwitnessed will you made while living in a state that permits them — and that was valid where you made it — can be admitted here. What you cannot do is sit down in Hartford today and handwrite one.
Electronic wills. Connecticut has not adopted the Uniform Electronic Wills Act. The words “electronic,” “electronic will,” and “electronic record” do not appear anywhere in the chapter governing the execution of wills. A Connecticut will has to be a physical document, subscribed and attested on paper.
Connecticut Has No Self-Proving Affidavit — It Has Something Weaker
In most states you sign a self-proving affidavit alongside your will in front of a notary, and that affidavit lets the will sail through probate without anyone tracking down the witnesses years later. Connecticut has no such provision.
What Connecticut has instead is § 45a-285: any or all of the attesting witnesses may make and sign an affidavit before an officer authorized to administer oaths, stating such facts as they would be required to testify to in court to prove the will, and that sworn statement is accepted by the Court of Probate as if it had been taken before the court.
The difference matters. The Connecticut mechanism runs through the witnesses rather than through a form stapled to the will at signing. Someone has to find those witnesses when the time comes and get them to swear out an affidavit — or bring them to court. Two practical consequences:
- Pick witnesses who will outlive you and stay findable. Younger people, not contemporaries. Neighbors who move and leave no forwarding address are a problem your family inherits.
- Write down who they were. Full names and contact details, kept with the will. A witness signature that reads as an illegible scrawl and nothing else is a real obstacle twenty years later.
None of this makes a Connecticut will hard to create. It makes the signing ceremony worth a few minutes of thought.
Dying Without a Will in Connecticut
Connecticut’s intestacy statute, § 45a-437, gives the surviving spouse a preferential dollar amount plus a fraction — except in the one case where it gives no dollar amount at all:
| Your situation | What your spouse receives |
|---|---|
| No surviving issue or parent | The entire intestate estate (§ 45a-437(a)(1)) |
| No issue, but a parent survives | First $100,000 + three-quarters of the balance (§ 45a-437(a)(2)) |
| All your children are your spouse’s | First $100,000 + one-half of the balance (§ 45a-437(a)(3)) |
| You have a child who isn’t your spouse’s | One-half of the estate — and no $100,000 (§ 45a-437(a)(4)) |
Two rows here surprise people, and they surprise different people.
The second row catches childless couples. If you and your spouse have no children and one of your parents is still living, your spouse does not inherit everything — your mother or father takes a quarter of the estate above the first $100,000. Married couples routinely assume this cannot happen.
The fourth row catches blended families, and it is the sharper of the two. The moment one of your children is not also your spouse’s child, the $100,000 preferential amount vanishes completely and your spouse drops to a flat half. On a $600,000 estate, a surviving spouse goes from $350,000 to $300,000 — and on a smaller estate the swing is proportionally much larger. The $100,000 figure is not indexed and has not moved in decades.
Note also that unlike Minnesota, Connecticut looks only at your children. Your spouse’s children from an earlier relationship do not reduce their share. And § 45a-436(g) separately addresses the share of a surviving spouse who, without sufficient cause, abandoned the other and continued that abandonment until death.
The Connecticut Estate Tax Reaches Almost Nobody
Connecticut is the only state with a stand-alone gift tax, which gives it a fearsome reputation — but the threshold is now high enough that the tax is irrelevant to most families. For decedents dying during 2026, the Connecticut exemption is $15,000,000, with a flat 12% rate above it. The same $15,000,000 applies to cumulative Connecticut taxable gifts made on or after January 1, 2026.
For the overwhelming majority of Connecticut families, the state tax is not the planning problem. Probate and the intestacy result are. See our state estate tax guide for how Connecticut compares with states like Oregon, where the threshold is $1,000,000.
What a Will Costs in Connecticut
| Route | Typical cost | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Handwritten, no witnesses | $0 | Invalid in Connecticut — and no harmless-error statute to save it |
| Online service | $199 individual / $299 couple | Connecticut-specific will with witness pages, done in about an hour |
| Connecticut attorney | Flat fees vary — Fairfield County runs well above the rest of the state | Custom drafting and counsel, and a witnessed signing supervised in the office |
Online pricing verified against Trust & Will’s published rates (August 2026). The Connecticut Bar Association publishes no fee survey, so we quote no attorney figures we can’t source. See how Connecticut compares with the rest of the country for national cost ranges and a state-by-state table of will requirements.
What a Connecticut Will Does Not Do
1. A will does not avoid probate — and Connecticut bills for it by the size of the estate. Connecticut probate runs through a statewide system of Probate Courts, and § 45a-107 sets the fee as a percentage of the estate rather than a flat charge. For deaths on or after July 1, 2016 the schedule runs from $150 plus 0.35% above $10,000, to $1,865 plus 0.25% above $500,000, to $5,615 plus 0.5% above $2,000,000 — capped at $40,000 for estates of $8,877,000 or more. A $600,000 estate owes roughly $2,115.
Two details worth knowing: the basis is essentially the gross estate, not what the heirs net — but any portion of that basis attributable to property passing to the surviving spouse is reduced by fifty percent (§ 45a-107(b)(1)). For the comparison, see what a living trust costs in Connecticut, our guide to avoiding probate, and what probate costs by state.
2. A will does not prove itself. Because Connecticut has no self-proving affidavit, your executor will need the witnesses’ sworn statements under § 45a-285 or the witnesses themselves. Choosing witnesses who can be found, and recording who they are, is part of making the will work.
3. A will does not cover incapacity, and does not override beneficiary designations. Pair it with a durable power of attorney and a health care instruction — see the five documents every family needs — and keep your beneficiary forms current.
Will vs. Trust for Connecticut Families
Every Connecticut adult needs a will. No default rule names a guardian for your children; a child from another relationship costs your spouse the $100,000 preferential share; and a surviving parent can take a slice of a childless couple’s estate. With the state estate tax exemption at $15,000,000, the trust question in Connecticut is not about tax — it is about probate, probate fees, and privacy. Start with Trust vs. Will: Which Does Your Family Need? and the numbers in our Connecticut living trust cost guide.
If the will is what you need today, Trust & Will’s Connecticut package includes the witness pages, guardianship nominations, and healthcare documents — build your Connecticut will here.
FAQ
Does a will have to be notarized in Connecticut?
No. Validity takes your signature and two witnesses, each subscribing in your presence (§ 45a-251). A notary is not a substitute for a witness, and Connecticut has no self-proving affidavit — proof runs through the witnesses under § 45a-285.
Are handwritten wills legal in Connecticut?
No. Connecticut does not recognize holographic wills; a handwritten will still needs two witnesses. The one exception is a will you validly executed in another state whose law permitted it — § 45a-251 honors wills executed according to the law of the place of execution.
Can I make an electronic will in Connecticut?
No. Connecticut has not adopted the Uniform Electronic Wills Act, and its chapter on the execution of wills contains no reference to electronic wills or electronic records. A Connecticut will must be a physical writing.
What happens if I die without a will in Connecticut?
Your spouse takes everything only if you leave no issue and no surviving parent. If a parent survives and you have no children, your spouse takes $100,000 plus three-quarters of the balance. If all your children are your spouse’s, $100,000 plus half. If any child is not your spouse’s, one-half and no $100,000 (§ 45a-437).
Does Connecticut have an estate tax?
Yes, but the exemption for 2026 is $15,000,000, with a flat 12% rate above it — so it reaches very few estates. Connecticut is also the only state with its own gift tax, using the same $15,000,000 threshold.
Does a will avoid probate in Connecticut?
No — a will goes through probate, and Connecticut charges probate fees based on the gross estate. Living trusts, survivorship property, and beneficiary designations are the tools that pass property outside the court process.
Connecticut Law Cited on This Page
- Conn. Gen. Stat. § 45a-250 — who may make a will
- Conn. Gen. Stat. § 45a-251 — making and execution of wills; wills executed outside the state
- Conn. Gen. Stat. § 45a-285 — proof of a will by affidavit of the attesting witnesses
- Conn. Gen. Stat. § 45a-437 — intestate succession; distribution to spouse
- Conn. Gen. Stat. § 45a-107 — probate fees for settlement of a decedent’s estate
- Connecticut DRS — estate and gift tax thresholds
Update log — August 2026: page created. Execution, holographic, electronic-will, proof-of-will and intestacy rules verified against the official Connecticut General Statutes published by the Connecticut General Assembly; estate tax figures from the Department of Revenue Services. Reviewed when Connecticut law changes.