Common questions
Straight answers to the things people ask before they trust a tool with their family's details.
Is this legal?
Freewills is a document tool, not a law firm, and it does not give legal advice or offer a legal opinion on your situation. A document only becomes a will once you print it and sign it in front of two witnesses who are both with you. Until then it is a draft. The version of the will template used for your document is recorded on it, along with the version of the questionnaire your answers came from. If your situation is not straightforward, see a New Zealand wills and estates lawyer - the tool will tell you rather than guess.
Who sees my data?
Your answers are encrypted before they are stored, and access is restricted to the people who need it to run the service. We do not sell or rent personal information, and we do not use your will or your answers to build advertising profiles or to train artificial intelligence or machine-learning models. There is no third-party analytics or advertising code on this site. The only cookies we set are the ones that keep you signed in. Before you type somebody else's address: if you give an executor's email, they are told they were named when you generate the document. Being named as a beneficiary does not normally cause us to contact anyone.
What does it cost?
Nothing. Freewills does not charge for creating a draft will. You only pay to print and witness it yourself if you choose to.
What do I do with it once it is done?
Print the will pages and read them, then staple together only the pages marked OPERATIVE WILL. Sign in front of two witnesses who are both with you, and have each of them sign in front of you. Do not use a beneficiary, or a beneficiary's partner, as a witness - a gift to them will generally fail. Keep the signed original safe and tell your executor where it is. Freewills never holds your signed will. If anything changes, come back, update your answers and generate a new will - a correctly signed new will revokes the old one.
Still not sure?
Ask us before you start - we would rather answer a question than have you guess. Contact Freewills.
If your situation is complicated, no tool replaces advice from a New Zealand wills and estates lawyer.