India · Wills and Succession · Bar Council Advocates
Wills under Indian law, drafted by Bar Council-enrolled advocates for people who live in India. Your property, bank accounts, shares and business, set out so they pass the way you decide, signed and witnessed correctly, and written for the 2025 change to probate law.
Share your religion or personal law, your main assets, whether you have minor children, and who you want to leave things to. An advocate from our team will tell you what kind of will you need, what to register and what to leave out, with a fixed fee and a timeline. Confidential, no obligation.
If you die without a valid will in India, your property is divided by the succession rules of your religion, not by your wishes. The Hindu Succession Act, 1956 applies to Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs and Jains, the Indian Succession Act, 1925 to Christians and Parsis, and Muslim personal law to Muslims. None of them knows that one child cared for you, that a flat should go to your spouse for life, or that a young child needs a guardian. A will puts your decisions in place of those fixed shares.
This page is for people who live in India and own assets here. It covers the rules that decide what a will can do for your family, how to sign it so it holds up, what changed for probate in December 2025, and what to do about registration. If you live abroad, our page on will writing for NRIs covers the extra points for you.
On this page: Personal law · Making it valid · Probate · Registration · Your assets · Business and IP · Living will · Process · Cities · Related services · FAQ
India has no single succession law. Your religion decides the intestacy rules and, for Muslims, a hard limit on what a will can do.
If there is no will, the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 divides the estate among Class I heirs first (spouse, children, mother). A will lets you choose freely over your self-acquired property. In joint family property you can generally leave only your own share, so we map what you actually own before drafting.
A Muslim testator can generally leave only up to one third of the net estate by will, to someone who is not already an heir. The other two thirds passes in fixed shares. A larger bequest needs the heirs to agree after your death. We plan within this limit, so the will is not partly undone later.
The Indian Succession Act, 1925 governs both the will and, without a will, the intestate shares, with separate rules for a spouse and children. Testamentary freedom is broad.
Goa follows its own civil code on succession, which protects a share for certain heirs. Goan property needs a will drafted around those rules. Tell us at the start if your property is in Goa.
Where a couple or heirs belong to different religions, or someone has converted, the rules can point in different directions. A will is the cleanest way to settle it, if it is drafted to the right law.
For Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains, Christians and Parsis, the rules on making, signing and reading a will come from Part VI of the Indian Succession Act, 1925, whatever the personal law on inheritance.
Most disputes begin with a defect in signing or description, not with the contents.
Typed or handwritten, on plain paper. No stamp paper is needed. Sign at the end and initial every page so pages cannot be swapped.
Under Section 63 of the Indian Succession Act, two witnesses must each see you sign (or acknowledge your signature) and sign in your presence. Adults, with no interest in the will.
Under Section 67, a gift to a person who attests the will, or to their spouse, is void. The will survives, but that person loses the gift.
You understand what you own and who your family is, and nobody is pressing you. If age or illness makes a challenge likely, we add a doctor’s note and keep a short record of the signing.
Survey or flat number, society name, bank and branch, account and demat numbers, folio numbers. “My house” and “all my money” are the commonest sources of litigation.
Someone who can visit a bank and a registrar and who is willing to act. Name a back-up in case the first cannot.
Says who gets whatever you forgot or acquired after signing. Without it, that part passes under intestacy.
Nominees on bank accounts, mutual funds, insurance, EPF, PPF and NPS usually receive the money but do not always keep it. Align them with the will so the family is not left with competing claims.
Tell your executor where it is. A will in a locker only you can open is hard for the family to reach.
Probate is a court’s certificate that a will is genuine. Section 213 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925 made it a precondition to claiming under a will, but only for wills of Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains and Parsis made in the former presidency towns of Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, or relating to immovable property there. Wills of Muslims and Christians were outside it. Everywhere else in India, probate was never a legal requirement for a will.
The Repealing and Amending Act, 2025, which received Presidential assent on 20 December 2025, omitted Section 213. So a will can now be relied on directly by heirs in those three cities as it already could elsewhere. Probate is still available.
What this means in practice:
When we draft your will we tell you whether probate is worth planning for in your case, and we tell your executor when to seek it.
A will is valid in India without registration if it is signed and attested correctly. No stamp duty is payable on a will. Registering it under the Registration Act, 1908, at the sub-registrar’s office, is optional.
What registration adds: a public record that you signed the will on that date, which makes a later claim of forgery or fabrication harder to sustain. It is most useful for large estates, families that are likely to disagree, and testators who are elderly or unwell.
Deposit as an alternative. The Registration Act also lets you deposit a sealed will with the Registrar for safe custody. It does not register the contents, but it keeps the original safe and findable. We tell you which route fits your situation.
Changing a registered will. You can change or revoke a registered will at any time, and a later unregistered will can replace it. Keep your executor informed so the latest will is used.
We prepare the documents, book the appointment and attend with you where you choose to register. In Lucknow, see our page on will registration in Lucknow.
Most Indian estates hold the same few types of asset. Each has its own way of going wrong.
Need a full description, the title papers and, for flats, the society’s name and share certificate. Heirs mutate the records and the society after your death. If your title papers are incomplete, an Indian legal opinion on property title can be done before you draft.
You can generally deal only with your own share. We find out what is yours before the will says what happens to it.
Banks ask for the will or a legal heir certificate, and a nominee is not always the final owner. We name the heirs and align nominations.
Transmission requires the will or heirship documents and a form for each depository and company. Listed and unlisted shares follow different routes.
Often pass by nomination. We list each one and make sure the will does not contradict it or leave a gap.
Movable assets that cause family arguments. Specific bequests with a short description keep it simple.
Email, cloud storage, crypto and online accounts. We include them and a way for the executor to find them.
A will can name who raises your children and who manages what they inherit. A trust inside the will can hold property until they reach an age you choose.
Business interests need more than a line in a will, because the company’s own documents often decide who can take over.
A will works after death. A living will, or advance medical directive, applies while you are alive but unable to decide for yourself, and records your wishes on life-sustaining treatment. The Supreme Court recognised it in Common Cause v. Union of India (2018) and simplified the procedure in 2023. It must be signed, witnessed and attested in the form the court laid down, and it is a different document from your will. Many people make both, and we draft the will and the directive to match.
A call about your family, assets and wishes.
We tell you which will you need, what to register, and a fixed fee. Usually within 2 hours.
An advocate drafts it under the law that applies to you. You read it and we refine it.
We set out how to sign, who the witnesses can be and what to check on the day. Remote clients can have the signing arranged where they are in India.
We attend with you at the sub-registrar’s office.
A note for your executor on where the original is and what to do first.
Our fee is fixed and quoted before we start. It depends on the number of assets and beneficiaries, whether there is business or joint family property, and whether a trust, a registration or a living will is included. A simple will for one person is quicker and cheaper than one with a business and minor children. Send us the details and we reply with a fee and a timeline, usually in 2 hours.
This page is general information and is not legal advice. An advocate-client relationship starts only when we confirm an engagement in writing.
The law is national. Local registration and practical help still matter.
One of the former presidency towns where probate used to be mandatory.
Will writing services in Delhi and the NCR.
Will writing services in Bangalore.
Will writing services in Hyderabad.
Will writing services in Pune.
Will writing services in Ahmedabad.
Will writing services in Jaipur.
Will writing services in Gurugram.
Will writing services in Lucknow.
In Chennai, Kolkata or another city? We work with clients across India, and arrange signing and registration with you.
A will is one part of an Indian family’s or founder’s legal planning. These pages cover the others.
If you or your heirs live abroad.
Title and ownership checks before you draft.
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Objections, oppositions and brand protection.
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Ongoing advice from ₹10,000 a month.
Drafting, review and negotiation.
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Before you go to court.
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This page is written and reviewed by Prakhar Rai, an advocate enrolled with the Bar Council of India, an alumnus of the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bangalore, with a Master of Business Laws and over ten years of practice. He founded My Legal Pal and advises on wills and succession alongside corporate and commercial work.
Reviewed for legal accuracy by Prakhar Rai, Advocate (Bar Council of India). Last updated: November 2026.
A will under Indian law, drafted by Bar Council-enrolled advocates, signed and witnessed correctly, and written for the 2025 probate change. Fixed fee, quote in 2 hours.
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