Making a will in New Zealand: what it costs, the options and what to put in it

Written by Henry Smith · Reviewed by Smiths Insurance & KiwiSaver, licensed Financial Advice Provider (FSP712931) · Updated 2026-09-09 · Reviewed annually, or sooner if the rules it describes change.

A valid will in New Zealand must be in writing, signed by you, and witnessed by at least 2 people present at the same time (Wills Act 2007, s11, retrieved 9 September 2026). It can cost from $69 for a basic online will through Public Trust to $2,500 or more at a law firm for a complex estate. QuoteHub's free will service is a further no-cost option worth checking first.

What a will legally needs to include

Under the Wills Act 2007, a will is a document made by a natural person that disposes of property they are entitled to at death, or appoints a testamentary guardian for their children (Wills Act 2007, s8, retrieved 9 September 2026). To be valid, you must be 18 or over (with narrow exceptions for someone married, in a civil union or de facto, or with Family Court approval), and the document must be signed and witnessed correctly.

What are the requirements for making a will in New Zealand?

Your will must be in writing, you must sign it yourself (or direct someone else to sign it in your presence), and at least 2 witnesses must be together with you when you sign or acknowledge your signature, then each sign the document themselves in your presence too (Wills Act 2007, s11, retrieved 9 September 2026). No particular wording is legally required for the witnesses' attestation, but most wills include a standard witnessing clause anyway.

Can I write my own will in NZ?

Yes, and a DIY will can be legally valid if it is signed and witnessed correctly and you are of sound mind, according to Public Trust's own senior solicitor (Public Trust, DIY will kits, retrieved 9 September 2026). The real risk is not legality but clarity: DIY kits are built for simple estates, and anyone with property, a large family, trusts or overseas assets risks writing an ambiguous or legally incorrect will, which can be as good as having no will at all if it is unclear enough to be treated as invalid. See our will template guide for exactly where DIY options tend to fail.

Who is usually the beneficiary of a will?

There is no default beneficiary set by law; you choose who inherits, commonly a spouse or partner, children, other family, friends or charities, and you can leave different assets or shares to different people as you see fit (Wills Act 2007, retrieved 9 September 2026). If you die without a will, the beneficiaries are instead fixed by law; see our guide to dying without a will in NZ for that separate scenario.

Should bank accounts be mentioned in a will?

You do not need to list every individual bank account by name for your will to be valid, since a will typically deals with your whole estate rather than itemising every asset, but naming significant assets, including which accounts exist, can make administration faster for your executor and reduce the risk of an asset being overlooked (Public Trust and law firm guidance, retrieved 9 September 2026). Your executor still has to identify all your assets and debts regardless of what the will itself lists.

What a will costs in New Zealand

There is no single "cost of a will" in New Zealand: it depends heavily on whether you use an online service, a trustee company, or a law firm, and on how complex your estate is.

Public Trust's own online will pricing, one of the clearest published price lists available, shows how cost scales with complexity:

Public Trust package	Individual	Couple / mirror wills	Covers
Basic Online Will	$69	–	Single person, simple needs, one executor, straightforward division of assets
Standard Online Will	$99	$165	The most common package; adds pet care, guardian for children
Comprehensive Online Will	$159	$271	Blended families, business owners, family trusts, overseas assets, life interests, uneven shares
In-Centre Will (in person)	$750	$1,400	Anyone who wants to sit down with an expert; covers guardianship, Māori land, cross-border assets

Source: Public Trust, Will pricing, retrieved 9 September 2026.

A private law firm charges differently again, and PK Law's own published pricing shows the same complexity pattern from a lawyer's side:

PK Law (Auckland)	Single	Couple	Covers
Complexity Level 1	$750	–	Simple estate: family home, KiwiSaver, bank accounts, shares in a non-active company
Complexity Level 2	$1,500	$2,750	Active companies, businesses or trusts, digital assets, blended families
Complexity Level 3	$2,500	from $4,450	Adds donor-capacity issues and/or a testamentary trust
Complexity Level 4, cross-border	$2,500–$5,500	$4,500–$8,500	Assets held in other countries

Source: PK Law, Pricing, retrieved 9 September 2026. Industry-wide estimates from lawyerfinder.co.nz put a simple will more broadly at $300 to $600 and a will with a testamentary trust at $1,500 to $3,000, which sits close to the two named providers above (lawyerfinder.co.nz, Wills & Estate Lawyer Cost NZ 2026, retrieved 9 September 2026). A DIY will kit costs roughly $30 to $80, and QuoteHub's own free will service is a no-cost option worth checking before paying for any of the above.

What is the average cost of a will in NZ?

Published prices range from $69 for a basic online will through Public Trust to $750 for a simple lawyer-drafted will, rising to $1,500 to $2,500 or more once a business, trust or blended family is involved (Public Trust and PK Law pricing, retrieved 9 September 2026). A DIY kit costs roughly $30 to $80, and our own free will service costs nothing.

How much does it cost to set up a will in New Zealand?

It depends on the provider and complexity: Public Trust's cheapest online option is $69, a simple lawyer-drafted will typically runs $300 to $750, and a complex will involving a trust, business or cross-border assets can run $1,500 to $5,500 or more (Public Trust and PK Law pricing, retrieved 9 September 2026).

Can I make a will for free in NZ?

Yes. QuoteHub's own free will service is one no-cost option, and it sits alongside DIY kits (roughly $30 to $80, so not entirely free) as a lower-cost route than a lawyer or Public Trust's paid tiers. Whichever free or low-cost option you use, the same signing and witnessing rules under the Wills Act 2007 still apply for it to be valid.

Choosing an executor

Who is not allowed to be an executor of a will?

The Wills Act 2007 itself does not list disqualified categories in the way this question implies, but practically, a person under 18 cannot act as an executor since they cannot hold the legal responsibilities involved, and someone convicted of a serious offence related to dishonesty, or with a conflict of interest such as being a witness to the will, is generally best avoided even where not strictly barred (general legal practice guidance; check with a lawyer for your specific situation). Choose someone you trust to act honestly and who is realistically able to take on the administrative work.

Which child should be executor?

There is no legal rule requiring any particular child to be chosen; you can appoint one child, more than one acting jointly, another family member, a friend, a lawyer, or a trustee company such as Public Trust, and the right choice depends on who is most capable, available and trusted to carry out the role fairly among the beneficiaries (Public Trust, retrieved 9 September 2026). Naming more than one executor to act jointly can help avoid the appearance of favouritism in a blended family.

Who has more power, executor or beneficiary?

The executor has the legal authority to administer the estate: identifying assets and debts, applying for probate if needed, paying debts, and distributing what remains according to the will. A beneficiary has the right to receive what the will provides for them and to hold the executor to account for administering the estate properly, but does not control the administration process itself (general Wills Act 2007 and administration practice). Our guide to the executor of a will in NZ covers the role's duties in full.

Does everyone mentioned in a will get a copy?

There is no automatic legal requirement to give every beneficiary a full copy of the will while you are alive, and after death, practice varies: an executor typically shares the relevant parts with beneficiaries, and once probate is applied for, the will becomes accessible through the High Court (Ministry of Justice probate process; see our probate in NZ guide). While you are alive, your will is a private document and you decide who sees it.

When to update your will

Marriage or entering a civil union automatically revokes an earlier will under the Wills Act 2007, unless the will was expressly made in contemplation of that specific marriage or civil union (Wills Act 2007, s18, retrieved 9 September 2026). Starting a de facto relationship does not revoke a will in the same way, but your circumstances will usually still have changed enough to justify a review. Divorce or the end of a civil union does not revoke the whole will, but any gift or executor appointment to the former spouse or partner is generally treated as if they had died first, unless the will says otherwise (Wills Act 2007, s19, retrieved 9 September 2026).

What is the best way to leave your assets to your children?

There is no single legally required structure; common approaches include leaving assets outright once a child reaches a set age, splitting shares equally or unequally between children with reasons recorded, or using a testamentary trust to hold assets until children are older or to protect a vulnerable beneficiary (Public Trust, Comprehensive Will tier notes, retrieved 9 September 2026). See our testamentary trust in NZ guide if you are considering that option specifically, and get legal advice for a blended family or where a child has additional needs.

This table summarises what does, and does not, automatically change or cancel a will under the Wills Act 2007:

Life event	Effect on an existing will
Marriage or entering a civil union	Revokes the whole will, unless it was expressly made in contemplation of that marriage or civil union
Starting a de facto relationship	Does not automatically revoke the will
Divorce or ending a civil union	Does not revoke the whole will, but gifts or executor appointments to the former spouse or partner generally lapse
Birth of a child, or acquiring new assets	No automatic legal effect; the will should be reviewed anyway

Source: New Zealand Legislation, Wills Act 2007, ss18 to 19, retrieved 9 September 2026.

Making a will alongside the rest of your estate plan

QuoteHub's read is that a will is the one document almost everyone actually needs, and the cost of getting it wrong (an ambiguous DIY will, or none at all) is consistently higher than the cost of a properly drafted one, which is why our free will service exists as a genuinely no-cost starting point. A will works alongside, not instead of, an enduring power of attorney for while you are alive, and life insurance, which generally pays out under its own ownership and beneficiary rules rather than automatically following your will.

This page is part of our estate planning cluster. See will templates in NZ for the free and paid template options and where they fail, dying without a will in NZ for what happens if you never make one, testamentary trusts in NZ if you are considering one, the Property (Relationships) Act in NZ for how relationship property interacts with a will, and who gets your life insurance payout in NZ for why a policy often does not simply follow your will. Our enduring power of attorney and insurance guide covers planning for while you are alive rather than after death, and our estate planning and insurance guide covers how life cover fits into a wider plan. For what happens once someone has died, see our when someone dies cluster, including probate in NZ, the executor of a will in NZ and how a life insurance payout works after death. Our life insurance beneficiaries guide, our life insurance and inheritance guide, and our pages on insurance for blended families and insurance and divorce go further into how family structure interacts with a policy. See our life insurance product hub for cover options. Try our own free will service as a starting point, and see how it works and our methodology for how QuoteHub builds its guides.

Financial advice is provided by Craig Smith Business Services Limited, trading as Smiths Insurance & KiwiSaver, a licensed Financial Advice Provider (FSP712931). QuoteHub is a trading name.

Adviser's view

The mistake QuoteHub sees most often is not skipping a will altogether, it is assuming an existing one still stands after a life change: marriage or a civil union automatically revokes an earlier will unless it was made specifically in contemplation of that event, while a new de facto relationship or a divorce leaves the will in force but with outdated gifts or executor appointments still on paper.

Henry Smith, Financial Adviser (FSP1010699). General information, not personalised financial advice.

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Cite this page QuoteHub NZ (2026). Making a Will in NZ: Cost, Options and What to Include. www.quotehub.co.nz/guides/estate/making-a-will-nz. Updated 2026-09-09.