Utah Estate Planning Basics

Utah estate planning comes down to four documents. A will says who inherits and who raises your children. A financial power of attorney covers your money while you are alive but unable to act. An advance health care directive covers your medical decisions in the same situation. A living trust is optional and sits on top of the other three.

One warning before anything else. Utah moved most of this law between 2024 and 2026, so an older article will send you to chapters that no longer exist. Wills stay in the Utah Uniform Probate Code at Title 75. Financial powers of attorney sit in Title 75A, Chapter 2, the Uniform Power of Attorney Act, in force since 1 September 2024. Health care decisions sit in Title 75A, Chapter 9, the Uniform Health Care Decisions Act, in force since 1 January 2026. Trusts sit in Title 75B, Chapter 2, the Uniform Trust Code. Utah has no separate probate court either: under Utah Code 78A-5-102(1) the district court has original jurisdiction in all civil matters unless the constitution or a statute says otherwise, and probate is filed there in each of the 29 counties.

This guide is the map. Each section states the Utah signing rule, then points at the deeper guide.

The Four Documents At A Glance

Document	What it controls	When it works	Utah signing rule
Will	Who inherits probate property, who serves as personal representative, who is nominated as guardian for minor children	After death	Writing, your signature, and the signatures of at least two witnesses, or a handwritten will (75-2-502)
Financial power of attorney	Money, accounts, real estate, bills	While you are alive	Signed before a notary public or other individual authorized to take acknowledgments (75A-2-105(1)(a)(i))
Advance health care directive	Medical decisions and treatment preferences	While you are alive	The power of attorney for health care needs a record, your signature, and one qualifying adult witness (75A-9-107(4))
Revocable living trust	Only the assets you retitle into it	While alive and after death	Revocable unless the terms expressly say it is irrevocable (75B-2-602(1)(a))

1. A Utah Will

The will is where most people start, and Utah rewrote its capacity rule recently enough that almost nothing published before May 2025 describes it correctly.

Who can sign one. Utah Code 75-2-501, as amended by Chapter 338 of the 2025 General Session, requires you to be 18 or older and to have testamentary capacity when the will is executed. Utah then spells out what capacity means in four parts: you can identify your family members or other individuals in your life, you understand your relationship to them, you understand the nature and extent of your property, and you can form a plan in your mind for how that property should go. Two more subsections matter. You do not need any knowledge of intestacy law to have capacity, and there is a rebuttable presumption that capacity existed even if you were subject to a guardianship or conservatorship.

How you sign it. Utah Code 75-2-502(1) asks for three things. The will is in writing. You sign it, or someone else signs your name in your conscious presence at your direction. Then at least two individuals sign, each within a reasonable time after witnessing either your signing or your acknowledgment of that signature or of the will.

Read that witness rule closely, because two habits from other states break here. Utah's list carries no notary only route, so acknowledging the will in front of a notary instead of using two witnesses does not satisfy the section. And your witnesses do not have to sign while you watch. They sign within a reasonable time after the event they witnessed.

Handwritten wills count. Under 75-2-502(2), a document that fails the witness rule is still valid as a holographic will, whether or not anyone witnessed it, if the signature and the material portions of the document are in your own handwriting.

Make it self-proved while you are at it. Utah Code 75-2-504 lets a will be made self-proved at signing or at any time afterward, using an affidavit of the testator and the witnesses taken before an officer authorized to administer oaths. Subsection (3) adds a quiet safety net: a signature on the self-proving affidavit counts as a signature on the will itself if that is needed to prove due execution.

The full picture, including electronic wills and the harmless error rule, is in Utah will requirements.

2. A Financial Power Of Attorney

This document names an agent to handle money and property while you are alive. Utah's version has one rule that trips up out of state forms.

It is durable by default. Utah Code 75A-2-104 is a single sentence: a power of attorney created under the chapter is durable unless it expressly provides that it is terminated by the incapacity of the principal. You do not add magic words to keep it alive. You add words to switch durability off.

It has to be notarized to be executed. Utah Code 75A-2-105(1)(a) permits you to sign, or to direct someone in your conscious presence to sign for you, only if the document is signed before a notary public or another individual authorized by law to take acknowledgments, and only if you have enough mental capacity to understand that you are appointing an agent to handle your financial affairs. The uniform presumption that a signature is genuine still lives at 75A-2-105(1)(b). Utah stacks an execution requirement on top of it, which most states do not.

Utah also blocks a conflicted appointment. If you live in or are about to move into a hospital, assisted living, skilled nursing, or similar facility when you sign, 75A-2-105(2)(a) bars you from naming the facility's owner, operator, health care provider, or employee as agent unless that person is your spouse, legal guardian, or next of kin, or unless the authority is limited to helping you establish Medicaid eligibility.

Two boundaries are worth memorizing. This document covers money, not medicine. And it ends when you die, at which point a personal representative appointed by the district court takes over. See a Utah financial power of attorney for the statutory form and the powers that need an express grant, and the national power of attorney overview for how the pieces fit together.

3. An Advance Health Care Directive

Utah's health care act was enacted by Chapter 439 of the 2025 General Session and took effect on 1 January 2026, so this is the newest law in your plan.

The term of art. Utah Code 75A-9-101(1)(a) defines an advance health care directive as a power of attorney for health care, a health care instruction, or both. The phrase living will does not appear anywhere in the chapter, so a form promising you one is using vocabulary Utah's statute does not.

The agent half. Utah Code 75A-9-107(4) asks for a record, your signature, and the signature of one adult witness. That witness has to reasonably believe your act is voluntary and knowing, and cannot be your agent, the agent's spouse or cohabitant, or, if you live in or are receiving care in a nursing home or assisted living facility, an owner, operator, employee, or contractor of that facility. One witness, not two. Under 75A-9-107(5) the witness counts as present in the same room, over real time audio and video, or on an audio only connection when the witness knows you personally or can authenticate your identity from your answers.

The instruction half. Utah Code 75A-9-106 lets you record preferences about future care, including which providers you want, how decisions get made and communicated, who should and should not be consulted, who should serve as your guardian if one is appointed, and who should serve as a default surrogate. The section imposes no writing, witness, or notary requirement, and a health care professional who receives an instruction has to document it and its date in your medical record. Subsection (4) lets the instruction sit in the same record as the power of attorney for health care, which is why most Utah forms combine them.

If you sign nothing. Utah Code 75A-9-111(2) sets a default surrogate ladder: an adult you identified outside a power of attorney, then your spouse unless one of four separation events applies, then an adult child or parent, then a cohabitant, then an adult sibling, then an adult grandchild or grandparent, and further down to a physician designated under strict conditions. The ladder fills the seat. It does not carry your wishes into the room. The deeper guide is a Utah advance health care directive.

4. A Trust, When It Earns Its Place

A trust is an add on, not a replacement. Utah's trust law was renumbered into Title 75B, Chapter 2, whose catchline reads Uniform Trust Code and whose current text took effect on 7 May 2025. Three sections tell you most of what you need before deciding.

Capacity is the will standard. Utah Code 75B-2-402(1) creates a trust only if the settlor has capacity to create one, and it says that standard is the same as for a person to create a will. The same subsection asks for an intention to create the trust, a definite beneficiary or one of three named exceptions, duties for the trustee to perform, and different people in the roles of sole trustee and sole beneficiary.

Revocable is the default. Utah Code 75B-2-602(1)(a) lets the settlor revoke or amend the trust unless the terms expressly provide that the trust is irrevocable. Subsection (1)(b) carves out instruments executed before 1 May 2004, which is a real trap for an old family trust.

A trust does not hide assets from creditors. Utah Code 75B-2-505(3) makes the property of a trust that was revocable at the settlor's death answerable for the settlor's creditors, the costs of administering the settlor's estate, funeral and disposal expenses, and the statutory allowances of a surviving spouse and children, to the extent the probate estate cannot cover them.

A trust also only controls what you retitle into it. An unfunded trust changes nothing. Read whether you need a Utah trust for the funding checklist, the other ways to avoid Utah probate for the cheaper mechanisms, and will vs trust for the comparison.

Naming Guardians For Minor Children

A will is the usual place to say who raises your children. Utah Code 75-5-202(1) lets a parent appoint a guardian for an unemancipated minor by will, or by another written instrument under Section 75-5-202.5.

Three details decide how that appointment behaves. It becomes effective when the guardian files an acceptance in the court where the will is probated or the document is filed, and only if by then both parents have died or the surviving parent has been adjudged incapacitated (75-5-202(2)). If both parents have died, the appointment made by the parent who died later has priority (75-5-202(3)). And Utah honors a testamentary appointment made under a will probated in another state that was the testator's domicile (75-5-202(4)).

Nominations for your own future guardian work differently and are covered in naming guardians.

The House Often Moves Outside The Will

Utah lets you pass real property with a recorded deed instead of a court case. Utah Code 75-6-409 says a transfer on death deed has to carry the essential elements and formalities of a properly recordable inter vivos deed, state that the transfer to the designated beneficiary occurs at the transferor's death, and be recorded before the transferor's death in the county recorder's office where the property sits.

That last clause does the damage when it is missed. A deed signed and left in a drawer transfers nothing. Read a transfer on death deed for the house before you decide between a deed and a trust.

What Utah Decides If You Sign Nothing

Nobody escapes having a plan. Skipping the documents just means Utah's defaults apply.

Your property. The intestacy rules in Title 75, Chapter 2 pick your heirs by category and in fixed shares. See Utah intestate succession.
Your medicine. The default surrogate ladder at 75A-9-111(2) picks a decision maker by relationship.
Your money during incapacity. With no financial power of attorney, someone has to ask the district court to appoint a conservator, which means a petition, a hearing, and ongoing reporting.
Your children. With no nomination in a will or written instrument, the court chooses.
Your estate's manager. The court appoints a personal representative under the priority rules rather than the person you would have named. Utah executor duties covers that job, and the Utah probate guide walks the case itself.

Utah Charges No Estate Tax And No Inheritance Tax

Good news for planning. The Utah State Tax Commission calls the former Utah tax a pick up tax, meaning Utah picked up all or part of the federal credit for state death taxes allowed on the federal estate tax return. Federal changes eliminated Utah's inheritance tax after December 31, 2004. The Commission's page states plainly that Utah inheritance tax returns do not need to be filed and that Utah does not require an inheritance tax waiver.

The federal estate tax still exists and reaches only very large estates. Utah federal estate tax has the current threshold and the apportionment rule.

A Small Estate Is Still Worth Planning

Utah's affidavit route is generous, and people use it as an argument for signing nothing. Look at what it actually does. Utah Code 75-3-1201(1) lets a successor collect by affidavit when the value of the entire estate subject to administration, wherever located, less liens and encumbrances, does not exceed $100,000, when 30 days have passed since the death, and when no application or petition for appointment of a personal representative is pending or granted in any jurisdiction. Subsection (3) adds up to four boats, motor vehicles, trailers, or semitrailers on top of that measure.

The affidavit moves debts owed to the decedent and tangible personal property. It does not convey real property, and the house still counts in the measure. So the route reduces paperwork after a death and answers none of the questions a will, a power of attorney, and a directive answer while you are alive. See the Utah small estate affidavit for the full test.

Where To Start

List what you own and how it is titled. Titling decides more than your will does. Joint accounts, retirement plans, and life insurance pass by their own rules.
Decide the four people. Who inherits, who serves as personal representative, who handles your money during incapacity, and who makes your medical calls.
Check your beneficiary designations. Retirement accounts and insurance policies follow the form on file, not your will. Stale designations undo good plans.
Sign the three documents to Utah's rules. Two witnesses for the will, a notary for the financial power of attorney, one qualifying adult witness for the health care power of attorney.
Decide about the house. A recorded transfer on death deed, joint ownership, or a funded trust each handle it differently.
Store the originals somewhere findable and say where. A perfect will nobody can locate does nothing.
Review after any change. Marriage, divorce, a birth, a death, a move into or out of Utah, or a big change in what you own.

When To Bring In A Utah Attorney

Handle a straightforward plan yourself if you like. Bring in a licensed Utah attorney when you have a blended family, a child with special needs, a business, real property in more than one state, an estate near the federal exemption, or any reason to expect someone to fight about it. An attorney is also the right call if a family member is already losing capacity, because the capacity standards in 75-2-501 and 75B-2-402 have to be met at the moment of signing.

Frequently Asked Questions

What documents does a Utah estate plan need?

Four, and the fourth is optional. A will decides who inherits your probate property, who serves as personal representative, and who is nominated to raise your minor children. A financial power of attorney under Utah Code Title 75A, Chapter 2 covers your money if you cannot act for yourself. An advance health care directive under Title 75A, Chapter 9 covers your medical decisions. A revocable living trust under Title 75B, Chapter 2 sits on top of those three when your situation calls for it. Most Utah adults are covered by the first three.

How many witnesses does a Utah will need?

At least two. Utah Code 75-2-502(1) requires a will to be in writing, signed by the testator or by another individual in the testator's conscious presence and at the testator's direction, and signed by at least two individuals who each sign within a reasonable time after witnessing the signing or the testator's acknowledgment. Utah gives no notary only alternative to those two witnesses. The separate route is a holographic will under 75-2-502(2), which is valid whether or not it is witnessed if the signature and the material portions are in the testator's handwriting.

Does a Utah financial power of attorney have to be notarized?

Yes. Utah Code 75A-2-105(1)(a)(i) lets a principal sign a power of attorney only if the document is signed before a notary public or another individual authorized by law to take acknowledgments, and 75A-2-105(1)(a)(ii) adds a mental capacity condition. Many states treat the notary block as nothing more than a presumption that the signature is genuine. Utah keeps that presumption at 75A-2-105(1)(b) and puts the execution requirement on top of it, so an unnotarized Utah document has a real problem.

Does Utah have a living will?

Utah law does not use that phrase. Utah Code 75A-9-101(1)(a) defines an advance health care directive as a power of attorney for health care, a health care instruction, or both. The power of attorney for health care names your agent and must be in a record, signed by you, and signed by one adult witness who meets the conditions in 75A-9-107(4). A health care instruction under 75A-9-106 states your treatment preferences and carries no signing formality of its own, so the two pieces are usually written into one document.

Do I need a living trust in Utah?

Not usually, and a trust does not replace the other three documents. A Utah trust is revocable unless its terms expressly provide that it is irrevocable, under Utah Code 75B-2-602(1)(a), and it only controls the assets you actually retitle into it. It also does not put property beyond creditors: 75B-2-505(3) makes the property of a trust that was revocable at the settlor's death answerable for the settlor's creditors, administration costs, funeral expenses, and the statutory allowances of a surviving spouse and children when the probate estate falls short.

Does Utah charge an estate tax or an inheritance tax?

No. The Utah State Tax Commission describes the old Utah tax as a pick up tax tied to the federal credit for state death taxes, says federal changes eliminated Utah's inheritance tax after December 31, 2004, and states that Utah inheritance tax returns do not need to be filed and that Utah does not require an inheritance tax waiver. The federal estate tax still exists and reaches only very large estates.

Who makes my medical decisions in Utah if I sign nothing?

A default surrogate. Utah Code 75A-9-111(2) sets a priority ladder for an individual who lacks capacity and has no agent or guardian available: an adult you identified outside a power of attorney, then your spouse subject to four separation exceptions, then an adult child or parent, then a cohabitant, then an adult sibling, then an adult grandchild or grandparent, and on down the list. The ladder picks a person by category. It does not know what you would have wanted.

This guide is general information about Utah estate planning documents. Confirm anything that affects your own situation with a licensed Utah attorney before you sign, because these documents decide who controls your money, your medical care, and your property.

Sources:

Title: Utah Code Section 75-2-501, Who may make will, Testamentary capacity. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Effective 5/7/2025, Amended by Chapter 338, 2025 General Session, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75/Chapter2/C75-2-S501_2025050720250507.html
Title: Utah Code Section 75-2-502, Execution, Witnessed wills, Holographic wills. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Repealed and Re-enacted by Chapter 39, 1998 General Session, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75/Chapter2/C75-2-S502_1800010118000101.html
Title: Utah Code Section 75-2-504, Self-proved will. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Repealed and Re-enacted by Chapter 39, 1998 General Session, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75/Chapter2/C75-2-S504_1800010118000101.html
Title: Utah Code Section 75-3-1201, Collection of personal property by affidavit, Vehicles, Water shares excluded. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Effective 5/7/2025, Amended by Chapter 123, 2025 General Session, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75/Chapter3/C75-3-S1201_2025050720250507.html
Title: Utah Code Section 75-5-202, Appointment of guardian of minor. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Amended by Chapter 41, 1985 General Session, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75/Chapter5/C75-5-S202_1800010118000101.html
Title: Utah Code Section 75-6-409, Requirements (transfer on death deed). Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Effective 5/8/2018, Enacted by Chapter 26, 2018 General Session, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75/Chapter6/C75-6-S409_2018050820180508.html
Title: Utah Code Section 75A-2-104, Power of attorney is durable. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Effective 9/1/2024, Renumbered and Amended by Chapter 364, 2024 General Session, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75A/Chapter2/C75A-2-S104_2024090120240501.html
Title: Utah Code Section 75A-2-105, Execution of power of attorney. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Effective 5/7/2025, Amended by Chapter 338, 2025 General Session, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75A/Chapter2/C75A-2-S105_2025050720250507.html
Title: Utah Code Section 75A-9-101, Definitions. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Effective 1/1/2026, Enacted by Chapter 439, 2025 General Session, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75A/Chapter9/C75A-9-S101_2026010120250507.html
Title: Utah Code Section 75A-9-106, Health care instructions. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Effective 1/1/2026, Enacted by Chapter 439, 2025 General Session, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75A/Chapter9/C75A-9-S106_2026010120250507.html
Title: Utah Code Section 75A-9-107, Power of attorney for health care. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Effective 1/1/2026, Enacted by Chapter 439, 2025 General Session, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75A/Chapter9/C75A-9-S107_2026010120250507.html
Title: Utah Code Section 75A-9-111, Default surrogate. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Effective 1/1/2026, Enacted by Chapter 439, 2025 General Session, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75A/Chapter9/C75A-9-S111_2026010120250507.html
Title: Utah Code Section 75B-2-402, Requirements for creation. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Effective 5/7/2025, Renumbered and Amended by Chapter 310, 2025 General Session, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75B/Chapter2/C75B-2-S402_2025050720250507.html
Title: Utah Code Section 75B-2-505, Creditor's claim against settlor. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Effective 5/7/2025, Renumbered and Amended by Chapter 310, 2025 General Session, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75B/Chapter2/C75B-2-S505_2025050720250507.html
Title: Utah Code Section 75B-2-602, Revocation or amendment of revocable trust. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Effective 5/7/2025, Renumbered and Amended by Chapter 310, 2025 General Session, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75B/Chapter2/C75B-2-S602_2025050720250507.html
Title: Utah Code Section 78A-5-102, Jurisdiction of the district court, Appeals. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Effective 5/6/2026, Amended by Chapter 362, 2026 General Session, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title78A/Chapter5/C78A-5-S102_2026050620260506.html
Title: Inheritance Tax. Publisher: Utah State Tax Commission. Publication Date: Not listed, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://tax.utah.gov/business/other-taxes/inheritance-tax/

It is not legal advice.