Will Preparation Worksheet — Not a Will

Will Preparation Worksheet

Everything you would want a drafter to know, in your own words — with “Not a Will” on every page of it, because that is exactly what it is.

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This is a worksheet, not a will. It has no signature block, no witness lines and no operative wording, and it cannot give anyone anything. What it does is collect what you want to happen, in your own words, so the person who does draft your documents starts from your wishes rather than from a blank page. Every heading here says “proposed” or “to discuss” for that reason.

Context

All optional. An alias is fine — this worksheet never needs your legal name.

Used as a heading. Nothing checks it against anything.
Recorded so you can raise it with someone qualified there. It changes nothing on this page.
How amounts are shown back to you.

People and organisations to discuss

Write them however you would say them out loud. Nothing here works out how anyone is related to you, whether they are entitled to anything, or who comes first — the order is simply the order you typed.

Intended gifts

Describe each one in plain language. A gift can be a specific thing, or a share of a pool you name yourself — “the residue”, “the savings account”, “the Cebu property”. Percentages are checked within their own pool and nothing is ever redistributed for you.

Proposed responsibilities

Who you would like to ask, and whether you have asked them yet. Writing a name here appoints nobody, and it does not establish that a person is eligible or willing.

Care wishes to discuss

Children, other dependents, and pets. These are wishes for a conversation. Who may legally take on care of a person is decided by the law where you live, and often by a court — not by a worksheet.

Existing records and open questions

These go at the end of the worksheet, which is the most useful page to bring to an appointment.

Worksheet

Written to be usable anywhere. Estate law differs by country and often within one — the Philippines, the United States and everywhere else each have their own rules about what a document must look like, who must inherit, and how an estate is settled. So nothing in these tools changes based on where you are. The country you record is context to raise with a professional there, and the words below are the ones you may meet, not a statement of what applies to you.
What this worksheet will not do

It will not word a gift for you. “I leave my watch to…” is operative language, and putting it into a document that is not a will, has not been signed and has not been witnessed helps nobody. Your own description of what you want is more useful to a drafter than a borrowed clause.

It will not decide what happens to anything you did not mention. Some countries have a default rule for property a will leaves out, and it is not the same rule everywhere — so this worksheet leaves the gap visible instead of filling it in.

It will not work out whether your percentages are allowed. It adds them up within each pool you named and tells you the total. If you write 60 and 70, it says 130 — it does not quietly make them 46 and 54. Whether a share can be given at all is a question for someone qualified where you live.

It will not read anything into a name. Not a relationship, not an entitlement, not an order of priority. If you want the worksheet to say how someone is related to you, type it in the description.