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Kansas is one of the last states where you can still make a will by speaking it out loud. An oral will made in your last sickness is valid for personal property if two disinterested witnesses write it down within thirty days — a deathbed provision most states abolished long ago. Written Kansas wills need two witnesses who saw you sign or heard you acknowledge the will; unwitnessed handwritten wills are worth nothing here. And the Kansas surviving spouse has a claim measured against every piece of real estate you owned at any time during the marriage. Online services prepare a Kansas-specific will for $199–$299. Every rule below cites the Kansas Statutes.
Most Kansas 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 Kansas-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.
Kansas Will Requirements (2026)
K.S.A. § 59-606 sets the execution rules in a single sentence:
“Every will, except an oral will as provided in K.S.A. 59-608… shall be in writing, and signed at the end by the party making the will, or by some other person in the presence and by the express direction of the testator. Such will shall be attested and subscribed in the presence of such party by two or more competent witnesses, who saw the testator subscribe or heard the testator acknowledge the will.”
| Requirement | Kansas rule | Statute |
|---|---|---|
| In writing | Required — except for the narrow oral will described below | §§ 59-606, 59-608 |
| Signed at the end | By you, or by another person in your presence and by your express direction | § 59-606 |
| Witnessed | Two or more competent witnesses who saw you sign or heard you acknowledge the will, subscribing in your presence | § 59-606 |
| Notarized | Not required for validity — the notary appears only in the optional self-proving affidavit | § 59-606 |
Kansas does not require the witnesses to sign in each other’s presence, and it does not require you to declare that the document is your will — unlike Oklahoma, Iowa and Arkansas. What it does require is that each witness personally saw you sign or heard you acknowledge the will. A witness who signed a page they were handed later, having observed neither, has not satisfied § 59-606.
Who can make a will: “Any person of sound mind, and possessing the rights of majority” (§ 59-601). Under K.S.A. § 38-101 the period of minority runs to 18 — except that a person 16 or older who is or has been married is considered of the age of majority in all matters relating to contracts, property rights, liabilities and the capacity to sue and be sued.
Self-proving: a Kansas will may be made self-proved at execution or at any later date during the lifetimes of the testator and the witnesses, by acknowledgments of the will and affidavits of the testator and the attesting witnesses before an officer authorized to take acknowledgments to deeds and administer oaths (§ 59-606). Note that Kansas asks for the testator’s affidavit too, not just the witnesses’.
Kansas Still Allows Oral Wills — Barely
Most states abolished nuncupative wills entirely. Kansas kept a narrow version at K.S.A. § 59-608:
“An oral will made in the last sickness shall be valid in respect to personal property, if reduced to writing and subscribed by two competent, disinterested witnesses within thirty days after the speaking of the testamentary words, when the testator called upon some person present at the time the testamentary words were spoken to bear testimony to said disposition as his or her will.”
Every clause in that sentence is a condition, and all of them must hold:
- Personal property only. An oral will cannot pass real estate. The house, the farm, and the land go by written will or by intestacy regardless.
- Made in the last sickness. Not a general provision — a deathbed one.
- Reduced to writing within thirty days and subscribed by two competent, disinterested witnesses. Disinterested means they cannot be the people who benefit.
- You must have called on someone present to bear testimony to the disposition as your will. Simply saying who should get what is not enough; you have to ask someone present to witness it as your will.
K.S.A. § 59-619 sets a separate, shorter limitation period for probating an oral will. This is a rule for emergencies that never got repealed, not a planning tool — and it exists in fewer and fewer states. Nevada’s statute on the point is one sentence long: “A nuncupative or oral will is not valid.”
Unwitnessed Handwritten Wills Are Invalid in Kansas
Kansas has no holographic-will statute. Nothing in the wills article — K.S.A. §§ 59-601 through 59-624 — creates an exception for documents in the testator’s handwriting.
The distinction worth drawing: handwriting is not the problem; missing witnesses are. A will written out entirely by hand is perfectly valid in Kansas if you signed it at the end and two competent witnesses who saw you sign subscribed it in your presence. What fails is the unwitnessed page in the desk drawer — valid in Oklahoma and rejected in Missouri, and rejected here. Nebraska, directly north, accepts them and is unusually forgiving about a missing date.
Kansas also has no harmless-error statute, so there is no route for a court to admit a defective document on proof that you meant it as your will.
Wills made elsewhere are honored generously. Under § 59-609, a will executed outside Kansas is legally executed if it complies with Kansas law, the law of the place where it was executed, or the law of the testator’s residence at execution or at death — provided the will is in writing and subscribed by the testator. Three chances to be valid is more than most states allow. A handwritten unwitnessed will you validly made while living in a holographic state can therefore be admitted in Kansas.
Electronic Wills Are Not Valid in Kansas
Kansas has not adopted the Uniform Electronic Wills Act. We checked this the careful way rather than by searching for an absence: reading every section of the Kansas wills article in turn on the Revisor of Statutes’ own site, from § 59-601 through § 59-624, the word “electronic” does not appear once.
An online service can prepare your Kansas will — that part is fine, and it is what these services actually do. The signing still has to happen on paper, in front of two witnesses who watch you sign.
Dying Without a Will in Kansas
| Your situation | What your spouse receives |
|---|---|
| No children or descendants of a deceased child | All of your property (§ 59-504) |
| All your children are your spouse’s | One-half — the children take the other half (§ 59-504) |
| You have a child who isn’t your spouse’s | One-half — § 59-504 counts children, not whose they are |
Kansas does not give the whole estate to a spouse whose children are all shared. A couple married forty years with three children together still leaves the surviving spouse holding half, with the three children owning the rest — and if any of them are minors, their shares need a conservatorship. That result surprises most people, and it is the ordinary case, not the edge case.
The reach-back to property held during the marriage
Separately from the descent rules, K.S.A. § 59-505 gives the surviving spouse one-half of all real estate of which the decedent at any time during the marriage was seized or possessed, and to the disposition of which the survivor did not consent in writing, by will, or by election — excluding real estate sold on execution or judicial sale.
At any time during the marriage, not at death. Property you owned during the marriage and later sold or gave away can still be reached unless your spouse consented in writing. This is why Kansas real estate closings ask a non-owning spouse to sign, and it is a rule shared with Iowa and almost nowhere else. The § 59-505 entitlement is then counted as part of the surviving spouse’s property under the augmented-estate rules at § 59-6a207.
A surviving spouse who is left a will can also refuse it: Kansas has an augmented-estate elective share at K.S.A. § 59-6a201 and following.
Kansas Has No Estate or Inheritance Tax
Kansas has never had an inheritance tax. It enacted a stand-alone estate tax applying to deaths on or after January 1, 2007, then repealed it for deaths after December 31, 2009. Only the federal estate tax can reach a Kansas estate today, and it applies to very few. Compare the states in our state-by-state comparison.
What a Will Costs in Kansas
| Route | Typical cost | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Handwritten, no witnesses | $0 | Invalid in Kansas — and no harmless-error statute to save it |
| Online service | $199 individual / $299 couple | Kansas-specific will with witness pages, done in about an hour |
| Kansas attorney | Flat fees vary — Johnson County and Wichita run above rural counties | Custom drafting and counsel, particularly where farm ground is involved |
Online pricing verified against Trust & Will’s published rates (August 2026). The Kansas Bar Association publishes no fee survey, so we quote no attorney figures we can’t source. See how Kansas compares with the rest of the country for national cost ranges and a state-by-state table of will requirements.
One Kansas-specific caution. If your estate includes farm ground, an online will is unlikely to be the end of it. Dividing an indivisible asset among children who do not all farm, keeping an operation intact, and dealing with the § 59-505 spousal claim against land held during the marriage are attorney questions.
What a Kansas Will Does Not Do
1. A will does not avoid probate. Kansas probate is a district court process on the public record. Kansas does offer transfer-on-death deeds for real estate, which pass land outside probate entirely. For the comparison, see what a living trust costs in Kansas and our guide to avoiding probate.
2. A will does not let you disinherit your spouse. Between the § 59-505 interest in real estate held during the marriage and the augmented-estate elective share at § 59-6a201 and following, a Kansas surviving spouse has claims a will cannot simply override.
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 directive — see the five documents every family needs — and keep your beneficiary forms current.
Will vs. Trust for Kansas Families
Every Kansas adult needs a will. The intestacy result alone makes the case: without one, your spouse takes half and your children take half even when every child is your child together. No state death tax pushes Kansans toward a trust, so the trust question here is about probate avoidance, privacy, keeping minor children’s shares out of a conservatorship, and passing farm ground intact. Start with Trust vs. Will: Which Does Your Family Need? and the numbers in our Kansas living trust cost guide.
If the will is what you need today, Trust & Will’s Kansas package includes the witness pages, guardianship nominations, and healthcare documents — build your Kansas will here.
FAQ
Does a will have to be notarized in Kansas?
No. Validity takes your signature at the end and two or more competent witnesses who saw you sign or heard you acknowledge the will, subscribing in your presence (§ 59-606). The notary appears only in the optional self-proving affidavit, which Kansas lets you add at execution or at any later date.
Are handwritten wills legal in Kansas?
Only if witnessed. Kansas has no holographic-will provision anywhere in K.S.A. §§ 59-601 to 59-624, so a handwritten will must still be signed at the end and attested by two competent witnesses. The handwriting itself is not the problem — the missing witnesses are.
Is an oral will valid in Kansas?
Yes, within narrow limits. Under § 59-608 an oral will made in the last sickness is valid for personal property only, if you called on someone present to bear testimony to it as your will, and it is reduced to writing and subscribed by two competent disinterested witnesses within thirty days. It cannot pass real estate.
Can I make an electronic will in Kansas?
No. Kansas has not adopted the Uniform Electronic Wills Act — the word “electronic” does not appear anywhere in the Kansas wills article, §§ 59-601 to 59-624.
What happens if I die without a will in Kansas?
Your spouse takes everything only if you leave no children or descendants of a deceased child. If you leave children, your spouse takes one-half and the children take the other half — even when every child is also your spouse’s (§ 59-504). Separately, § 59-505 gives your spouse one-half of all real estate you held at any time during the marriage without their written consent to its disposition.
Does Kansas have an estate or inheritance tax?
No. Kansas has never had an inheritance tax, and its stand-alone estate tax — which applied to deaths from January 1, 2007 — was repealed for deaths after December 31, 2009.
Kansas Law Cited on This Page
- K.S.A. § 59-601 — persons who may make a will
- K.S.A. § 59-606 — execution and attestation; self-proved wills
- K.S.A. § 59-608 — nuncupative (oral) will
- K.S.A. § 59-609 — will executed without the state
- K.S.A. § 59-504 — surviving spouse’s intestate share
- K.S.A. § 59-505 — surviving spouse entitled to one-half of real estate
- K.S.A. § 38-101 — period of minority
Update log — August 2026: page created. Execution, oral-will, holographic, electronic-will and intestacy rules verified against the official Kansas Statutes published by the Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes, section by section across the whole wills article. Reviewed when Kansas law changes.