Who Gets a Copy of the Will After a Person Dies?

The short answer: while the person is alive, no one is entitled to a copy of their will, not even the people named in it. After death, the executor gets it first, the named beneficiaries are entitled to a copy, and the closest relatives who would have inherited without a will receive formal notice that the will exists. Once the will is filed with the court and admitted to probate, it becomes a public record, and anyone can request a copy for a small fee.

The dramatic reading of the will in a lawyer’s office is a movie invention. What actually happens is a sequence of legal duties, deadlines, and court filings, and the rules differ enough from state to state that families regularly get them wrong. This article explains who is entitled to what, when, and how to get a copy when the person holding the will will not hand it over.

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Is Anyone Entitled to See a Will Before the Person Dies?

No. A will is a private document until death. The person who signed it can show it to anyone they choose, or to no one, and can change it or revoke it at any time. Being named as a beneficiary or as executor in a draft you happened to see creates no right to anything. Adult children sometimes assume they are entitled to review a parent’s will, especially when a sibling has become involved in the parent’s affairs. They are not, and neither is the sibling.

If a parent wants to prevent conflict later, the better tool is a conversation while they are alive, not a copy of the document. What can be shared is where the original is kept and who the attorney is, so the people who need to act after death know where to start.

Who Gets the Will Right After Death?

The first person who needs the will is the executor named in it, because the executor’s job is to file the will with the court and begin administering the estate. In practice the original is usually in the decedent’s home, in a safe deposit box, or in the drafting attorney’s vault. Whoever finds it should deliver it to the named executor or to the estate’s attorney.

Each state handles a person who sits on a will differently:

Connecticut imposes hard deadlines. Anyone holding a will must deliver it to the named executor or to the probate court promptly after learning of the death, and failing to do so within 30 days carries a fine of up to $1,000 or up to a year in jail. A person who knows they are named as executor must apply for probate within 30 days of the death or face a separate fine.

New York gives the Surrogate’s Court power to compel production. Under the Surrogate’s Court Procedure Act, a person who would receive under the will, a named fiduciary, a guardian of a beneficiary, or a creditor can petition the court to examine anyone believed to have the will and to order it filed.

New Jersey has no filing deadline for the executor, but a will cannot be admitted to probate until the eleventh day after death. If someone is withholding a will, the Superior Court, Chancery Division, Probate Part has statutory authority to compel discovery of any paper purporting to be a will and to order it lodged with the county Surrogate.

Do Beneficiaries Get a Copy of the Will?

Yes, though the mechanics vary.

In New Jersey, the rule is specific. Within 60 days after the will is probated, the executor must mail written notice to every beneficiary named in the will and to the decedent’s spouse, heirs, next of kin, and anyone else who would have been entitled to letters. The notice must state that the will was probated, where and when, who the executor is, and that a copy of the will will be furnished on request. Proof that the notices were mailed must be filed with the Surrogate within 10 days. If the will leaves anything to charity, the state Attorney General gets notice and a copy as well.

In New York, before the court issues letters testamentary, the petitioner must send a notice of probate to every legatee, devisee, trustee, guardian, and successor fiduciary named in the will who has not already been served or appeared. The notice need only state that the will has been offered for probate or probated. A copy of the will is not required to accompany it, but the will is in the court file and the recipient can obtain it there.

In Connecticut, the probate court must hold a hearing before admitting or rejecting a will and must give notice, public or personal or both, to all parties known to be interested in the estate, unless those parties waive notice in writing. The will is part of the court file from the moment it is delivered to the court.

In all three states, a beneficiary who asks the executor or the estate’s attorney for a copy should get one. Refusing is pointless, since the document is or will shortly be a public record, and it invites exactly the suspicion the executor should want to avoid.

Do Family Members Who Were Left Out Have a Right to See It?

In effect, yes. The people who would have inherited if there were no will, the spouse, children, or other next of kin, are entitled to notice that a will has been offered for probate even when the will leaves them nothing. New Jersey’s 60-day notice goes to heirs and next of kin, not just beneficiaries. In New York, those same people, called distributees, must be served with process in the probate proceeding and can examine the will in the court file.

This is not a courtesy. The notice starts the clock on a will contest. In New Jersey, a person who wants to challenge a probated will generally has four months from the date of probate if they lived in the state when the will was probated and six months if they lived elsewhere. The court can extend either period by up to 30 days on a showing of good cause and no prejudice. An executor who skips the notice loses the protection of that deadline. Our article on what to do when a family member contests a will in New Jersey covers the grounds and the process.

Is There a Formal Reading of the Will?

No. Nothing in the law requires a will to be read aloud, and no one has to gather anywhere. The “reading” survives in fiction because it is a convenient way to put a family in one room. In real life the beneficiaries learn what the will says by receiving the notice described above, by asking the executor for a copy, or by reading it in the court file.

How Do You Get a Copy of a Will After Someone Dies?

Start with the executor or the attorney handling the estate. If you are a beneficiary or a close relative, you are entitled to ask and should expect a copy.

If that does not work, or if you are not a relative, wait until the will is probated and go to the court:

• New Jersey: the Surrogate’s Court of the county where the decedent lived. Records are open to the public. Bring the decedent’s name and approximate date of death. Search and copy fees are modest and vary by county.
• New York: the Surrogate’s Court of the county where the decedent lived. Once the will is admitted, the file is public. Many counties offer online record searches.
• Connecticut: the Probate Court for the district where the decedent lived. Probated wills are public, files can be viewed at the court, and many districts provide electronic access.

If no will has been filed and you believe one exists, the remedies are the ones described above: a petition to compel production in New York, an action in the Chancery Division, Probate Part in New Jersey, or a report to the probate court in Connecticut, where the custodian faces penalties for sitting on it. If no will exists at all, the estate passes under the intestacy statute. Our article on what happens if you die without a will in New Jersey explains who inherits in that case.

What If You Want Your Own Will to Stay Private?

You cannot keep a probated will out of the public record. What you can do is keep most of your assets out of the will. Property held in a revocable living trust passes under the trust’s terms, and the trust document is not filed with any court. Beneficiary designations and jointly held accounts pass outside probate as well. Families who care about privacy, or who have reasons not to advertise who received what, plan around the will rather than relying on it. Our article on what becomes public in an estate plan and what does not walks through the options.

Plan Well. Live Better.

Most disputes over access to a will come from silence: an executor who does not send the notice, a sibling who will not share the document, a family that never discussed where the original was kept. The notice rules are designed to end that silence within weeks of probate. At Milvidskiy Law Group, we guide executors through the notice requirements and help beneficiaries and heirs get the information they are entitled to. Learn more about our probate and estate administration services.

This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Reading this article does not create an attorney-client relationship. Probate procedures, notice requirements, and deadlines differ by state and county and change over time. The rules described were verified as of September 2026 and should be confirmed before relying on them in a specific matter.