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Making a Will used to mean two weeks of back-and-forth with an advocate and ₹15,000-₹50,000 in fees. Law Tarazoo's Online Will compresses that into a 30-minute guided questionnaire that produces a legally valid, advocate-reviewed Will delivered to your inbox as both DOCX and PDF. Here is exactly what happens, section by section.
For over a decade, making a Will in India has been treated as a specialist exercise reserved for the well-off — long consultations, complex drafting sessions, and fees that put the entire process out of reach for middle-class households. The result: over 90% of Indian adults die intestate. The families they leave behind spend years, sometimes decades, untangling estates that a single 30-minute conversation could have organised.
The Online Will was designed to close that gap. Priced at ₹5,000, it delivers the same legal outcome as a traditional advocate-drafted Will for households with straightforward estates — a residence or two, a set of bank and mutual-fund holdings, a clear residuary intention, and a spouse and children as the primary beneficiaries. It is not intended for promoter families with listed shareholdings, for households with foreign assets, or for anyone with contested inheritance in play — those situations need the Personalised (₹25,000), NRI (₹50,000), or Succession Planning (₹1,00,000) tiers.
But for the salaried professional in Bengaluru, the retired banker in Chennai, the small-business owner in Nashik, and the young couple with two children and a home loan — the Online Will is the right first Will. Let us walk through exactly what the process looks like.
The Online Will questionnaire is designed to be completed in one 30-minute sitting, but it will go significantly faster if you have the following information available:
None of this needs to be exhaustive. You can leave a field blank and return to it. The questionnaire auto-saves every field as you type, so if you close the browser midway, you can resume from exactly where you left off.
The first section captures your legal identity as the testator. This is important because the Will opens with a preamble that formally names you: 'I, [name], son/daughter/wife of [parent/spouse name], resident of [address], being of sound mind and memory…'
You will be asked for your full name (as on PAN), date of birth, religion, marital status, and address. Religion is important because it determines the personal law that governs succession — Hindu Succession Act 1956 for Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains; Muslim personal law for Muslims (with 1/3 testamentary limit); Indian Succession Act 1925 for Christians and Parsis; and for Special Marriage Act couples, ISA governs regardless of birth religion.
You will also be asked for a father's name (or spouse's name for married women, as per convention). This is used in the identification clause of the Will and helps identify you unambiguously in probate. The section takes about three minutes to complete.
This section captures your immediate family — spouse, children, and any dependants. For each child, you record the full name, date of birth, whether they are married, and whether they have their own children (your grandchildren).
This information matters because certain classes of relatives cannot be disinherited in the ordinary sense. Under Muslim law, at least two-thirds of the estate must go to Quranic heirs — you can only Will away one-third. Under Christian personal law (Indian Succession Act sections 32-49), specific intestate defaults kick in if you die without a Will. Even under Hindu law where testamentary freedom is broadest, if you exclude a Class I heir without explanation, a court may look sceptically on the omission if the Will is later challenged.
The questionnaire lets you add dependants who are not immediate family — an elderly parent living with you, a niece you support through college, a long-serving domestic helper. These can all be recognised in the Will.
Assets are captured in four categories: financial (bank accounts, mutual funds, demat, insurance), immovable (real estate), other movables (jewellery, vehicles, art), and business interests. You add rows for each asset — a savings account here, a flat there, a life policy elsewhere.
You do not need to list every rupee. What matters is that the residuary clause you draft later — 'the rest, residue, and remainder of my estate' — sweeps up anything you did not specifically bequeath. The purpose of the asset list is to give the questionnaire a picture of the estate's shape so it can prompt appropriate specific bequests.
For real estate, you will be asked for the property address, approximate value, and whether it is self-acquired or ancestral. This distinction matters because under Mitakshara Hindu coparcenary rules, your ability to freely Will ancestral property is limited to your share — and the 2005 amendment to the Hindu Succession Act made daughters coparceners by birth, so their share is a legal claim you cannot override.
A specific bequest is a legacy of a particular thing to a particular person. 'I bequeath my grandfather's pocket watch to my grandson Arjun.' 'I bequeath my flat at Andheri West to my daughter Sneha.' These are direct, tangible gifts that operate outside the residuary sweep.
The questionnaire lets you add as many specific bequests as you want. You will be prompted to identify the asset (linked to your Section 3 list where possible), name the beneficiary, and specify any conditions. A common condition is a substitution clause: 'If my daughter Sneha does not survive me, this bequest shall go to her lineal descendants per stirpes.'
A subtle but important rule: any specific bequest that cannot be given effect (because the asset was sold or gifted before death) is said to 'adeem' — the bequest fails and the beneficiary gets nothing. If you want a beneficiary to receive an equivalent value even if the specific asset is unavailable, you should say so in the questionnaire.
The residuary clause is the sweep — it directs what happens to everything you have not already bequeathed. Most Wills leave the residuary to the spouse, with a substitution to children if the spouse does not survive. The questionnaire lets you customise this.
Common patterns: '100% to my spouse; if spouse pre-deceases me, then equally to my children.' Or: '60% to spouse, 40% divided equally among my children.' Or a percentage split among multiple beneficiaries. The questionnaire also lets you name a contingent beneficiary if none of the primary beneficiaries survive you — often a favourite charity or a family trust.
A well-drafted residuary clause is what prevents intestate default. If you leave any portion of the estate un-designated, that portion is distributed as if you had died without a Will for that portion — and the intestate defaults may not match your wishes.
An executor is the person legally responsible for carrying out your Will after you die — collecting the assets, paying debts, obtaining probate (if required), and distributing the estate to the beneficiaries. The role is defined under section 211 of the Indian Succession Act and comes with statutory duties.
You should choose someone who is (a) trustworthy, (b) reasonably competent with paperwork and legal processes, (c) likely to outlive you (so, generally, not your parents), and (d) willing to accept the role. Most people appoint their spouse as primary executor, with a child or sibling as alternate.
You can appoint two executors jointly — this is common when the estate is meaningful and you want a check-and-balance. In that case, one of them should ideally be a professional (a chartered accountant or advocate). The executor is entitled to reasonable commission for their work, unless the Will says otherwise.
If you have any child under 18, you should nominate a testamentary guardian in your Will. Under the Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act 1956 (for Hindus) and the Guardians and Wards Act 1890 (generally), this appointment carries significant weight in court — while not absolutely binding, it is treated as a strong expression of the parent's wishes.
There is a subtle but important distinction between a 'guardian of the person' (who cares for the child's upbringing) and a 'guardian of the property' (who manages the child's inheritance). You can appoint the same person for both, or different people. Many parents appoint a sibling or close friend as guardian of the person and a chartered accountant or an advocate as guardian of the property.
The questionnaire also offers a one-click 'appoint spouse as guardian' option, which is what most couples want. If both parents die simultaneously, the appointment of a guardian is what prevents the state from making the decision for you — a common outcome in high-profile cases where parents died without appointing testamentary guardians.
Optional but meaningful. You can direct a portion of your estate to a registered charitable trust. If the trust has 80G registration, the charitable bequest may reduce the estate's tax exposure at the time of transfer (though India currently has no inheritance tax; capital gains implications on subsequent sale by the trust may apply).
The questionnaire lets you name the charitable organisation, its registration details, and the bequest amount or percentage. A common pattern is to bequeath a fixed sum (say ₹1,00,000 to a specific NGO) or a percentage (say 2% of the residuary to a religious institution). Some testators establish an endowment for a specific purpose — funding a scholarship in memory of a parent, for example.
The catch-all section for anything the standard clauses do not capture. Common uses: funeral instructions, organ donation preferences, digital-asset access instructions (passwords are never testable — you can only give guidance about where the family should look), care instructions for pets, and personal messages to family members.
A Will is a legal document but it is also, for many people, a final letter. You are welcome to include a paragraph expressing why you have made the bequests you have made, or offering a personal message. This can significantly reduce family conflict later — beneficiaries who understand the reasoning are less likely to contest.
The final section summarises every answer you have given, section by section, in plain English. You can click 'Edit' beside any section to jump back and adjust. This is your last chance to catch errors or oversights.
You will then be presented with three testator confirmations: (a) that the summary accurately reflects your intentions, (b) that you understand section 63 of the Indian Succession Act requiring two witnesses at the actual signing, and (c) that you accept the Terms of Use. Once you tick all three and click 'Generate my Will Document', the engine builds your Will in the correct template (Hindu, Muslim Sunni Wasiyat, Muslim Shia Wasiyat, Christian, or Joint Will) and delivers it to your registered email as both DOCX and PDF within 60 seconds.
The email also includes a signing-instructions cover letter — how to arrange the two-witness signing ceremony required by section 63 ISA, where to keep the original, and how to communicate the location to your executor.
The Will is not legally operative until it is signed in the presence of two competent adult witnesses who also sign in your presence. This is the section-63 requirement, and it is non-negotiable. Print the PDF, arrange for two adults (not beneficiaries) to be present, sign at the foot of the last page and initial every page, and have both witnesses sign in the presence of you and each other.
Registration is optional under Indian law (Wills are in section 18 of the Registration Act 1908, not the mandatory section 17). Registration does not affect validity, but it adds evidentiary value — a registered Will is harder to challenge on grounds of authenticity. For most families with straightforward estates, non-registered Wills work perfectly well.
Keep the signed original in a safe place — a locker, a fireproof file cabinet, or with your advocate or chartered accountant. Tell your executor where it is. Do not staple additional pages after signing (this can create doubts about post-signing alterations). And review the Will every 3-5 years or on any major life event — marriage, birth of a child, purchase of significant property, death of a beneficiary or executor.
The Online Will is designed for straightforward estates. Situations that call for the higher tiers include: promoter or founder family with private-company shares; testators with substantial ancestral property in dispute; households with foreign assets or non-resident testators; testators wanting to establish a trust or use tax-efficient family settlement structures; and cases where an existing family dispute makes a Will likely to be contested.
For any of these, the Personalised Will (₹25,000) with 60 minutes of advocate consultation is the minimum. NRI Will (₹50,000) is for cross-border situations. Succession Planning (₹1,00,000) is the full 12-month engagement covering Wills, trusts, business succession, and tax overlay.
But do not let complexity paralysis stop you from having any Will. Even the Online Will is dramatically better than no Will at all — because intestate succession under Indian law does not always match anyone's actual wishes.
The Online Will exists because the alternative — dying without a Will — costs Indian families years of litigation, tax friction, and family conflict. At ₹5,000, drafted through a guided questionnaire, reviewed by an enrolled advocate, delivered as DOCX and PDF within 60 seconds, it is the single most efficient act of care a working professional can perform for their family.
Start yours at lawtarazoo.com. Thirty minutes today saves your family years of grief tomorrow.
This is general legal information, not legal advice. For your specific situation, consult a Law Tarazoo advocate.
Start with the ₹5,000 Online Will — advocate-reviewed, delivered in your inbox in 30 minutes. Or book a 60-minute Personalised consult at ₹25,000.
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