From cocktail napkins to brown paper bags to the back of a get-well card, wills can show up in unusual places. At one point, a will in Allegheny County was even submitted on a door, said Judy Moser, register of wills in Butler County.

No matter what the medium, though, a will can assure the wishes of the deceased are carried out.

A simple will includes leaving items to others or appointing guardians for young children, said Butler attorney William Robinson Jr.

"The purpose for doing a will is to get your items to a specific person or persons and to name a person to be in charge of seeing the will through," he said.

Sometimes the stumbling block in making a will can be in selecting an executor, or the person to see the will through.

"The people you choose for that purpose should be qualified. They should have the necessary skills to administer the estate - financial skills," said Butler attorney Norm Jaffe. "They have to be available: someone who cares enough to serve in that capacity. We can advise about the kind of person who would be good in that role."

Robinson noted, "A will is important for a married couple who has minor children because if both parents die … the will indicates a preference for who will be in charge of the children's day-to-day living and their inheritance. It's something, frankly, everyone who has minor children should consider."

If parents don't have a will, "hopefully a relative would come to the forefront through the legal system, uncontentiously, and say they will take care of any minor children. If the court does get involved and no one is fighting, it's really just a rubber stamp," Robinson said.

Usually someone does come to the forefront, he added.

When a legal will can do so many things: appoint guardians for young children, effectively distribute assets or leave someone in charge, why do some people not have one?

"My guess is that it's human nature. We don't like to think about or talk about death. No one likes to think about their own demise," Robinson said.

Someone who's never consulted an attorney before might also be leery of the cost. Robinson suggested calling ahead to ask about prices. For lawyers in Western Pennsylvania, excluding Pittsburgh, a simple will with an office conference should cost less than $200, he said.

Elderly parents pose a different sort of challenge when it comes to their estate plans.

"Some (parents) are very open. ... Some parents play it close to the vest and don't say a word about their estate," Robinson said. "I believe that someone out there should know what's going on with an estate, just for the good of the estate."

The difference between a simple or complex will lies in the amount of assets.

"If there are significant assets ... a lawyer specializing in estates, in conjunction with a financial adviser and accountant, should work with each other hand in hand for a sound estate plan to lessen the tax consequences," Robinson said.

Tax consequences for those of modest wealth or modest income are rather uniform, he said.

A will is not a necessity, however.

"Some people think they must have a will or everything goes to the commonwealth," Robinson said, adding that's not true.

"When someone dies without a will ... there is an organized distribution scheme by law," he said.

This means the possessions of someone who dies without a will would go to the state only after no family members are located through the children of first cousins, Robinson said.

"Some people frankly may not need to do a will if their spouse is dead and they only have one adult child, then the adult child would immediately be qualified to be in charge of the estate," he said.

Some acceptable wills have turned up in unlikely forms.

"We've had wills on cocktail napkins, a brown paper bag, hunks of paper, little pieces of paper," said Moser, who's been registering wills since 1983.

The most unusual will she's seen, perhaps, was written on a greeting card.

"The man was in the hospital and had the will on the back of a get-well card," Moser said.

The county's files contain wills from the year 1800 forward, she said.

"A will, I was taught in law school, can be anything signed and dated and provide some sort of direction," Robinson said.

A will does not have to be notarized, he noted. Having it notarized simply means that the two people who witnessed the person signing the document don't have to go into court, he said.

Forms for wills from books or from the Internet may "have some legal terms in there the person might not understand, that might be counter to what the person wanted," Robinson warned.

Moser has encountered form wills coming into her office and said this type of will causes problems because people sign them in the wrong place,

"Another thing is someone will make a change, they'll scratch something out and make a change and a lot of times I have to make a determination if those changes are OK … 99 percent are not done correctly. It's a bad thing to write on a will. Never, ever write on your will. It's worth an office visit to an attorney."

Between 900 and 1,000 wills are submitted to Moser's office each year on average, she said.

"By the time it gets to my office, it's too late to change it," she added.