Will requirements in Wisconsin

Wisconsin requires you to be at least 18 and of sound mind. Capacity is measured at the moment of signing and asks whether you understood the nature of the act, the general extent of your property, and who would ordinarily expect to inherit from you.

A Wisconsin will is valid without a notary. Notarization produces the self-proving affidavit, which lets the will be admitted to probate without your witnesses being tracked down and asked to testify about the signing.

Because Wisconsin's interested-witness cap only applies when two disinterested witnesses did not sign, the moment of taking the affidavit is a good opportunity to confirm that both of your witnesses inherit nothing under the will.

Wisconsin does not recognise holographic wills executed here. A handwritten, unwitnessed document written in Wisconsin has no effect as a will, however clearly it expresses your wishes.

Wisconsin will accept a holographic will that was valid where it was executed. Someone who made a valid handwritten will in a state that recognises them, then moved to Wisconsin, may find it honoured.

That exception puts a burden on your executor, who must prove where the will was made and that it satisfied that state's law. Executing a fresh Wisconsin will with two witnesses avoids the issue entirely.

Wisconsin has simplified routes — summary settlement and summary assignment — for estates below a statutory limit, avoiding full administration.

Confirm the current figure and which procedure applies with the register in probate for the relevant county. Which route fits depends on the shape of the estate as well as its size.

Wisconsin is a community property state, though its statutes use the term marital property, reflecting its adoption of the Uniform Marital Property Act rather than the Spanish civil-law tradition behind the other eight.

The consequence is the familiar one. Property acquired during the marriage is generally marital property owned equally, and your will controls your half plus your individual property. You cannot leave your spouse's half to someone else, and a will drafted on the assumption that you own the marital home outright will not do what you intended.

The terminology difference is worth knowing if you are reading general guidance written for other community property states, or if you moved here from one — the classification of assets acquired elsewhere is its own question, and one worth resolving before drafting.

Wisconsin provides a Declaration to Physicians, its living will, for recording treatment preferences, and a separate health-care power of attorney naming someone to make medical decisions when you cannot. Wisconsin keeps these as two distinct documents rather than combining them.

For financial matters Wisconsin has adopted the Uniform Power of Attorney Act, which generally makes its statutory form easier to have honoured by institutions in other states.