A large part of the care and feeding of your estate plan is making sure that your will still reflects your desires for when you pass. If something changes that causes you to need to amend your will, you have two options. Your first option is you can make a completely new will. This would allow you to address multiple changes and have an opportunity to check in with a legal professional about options for your estate plan. A will can be revoked by either a subsequent will or by destruction. If you make a later will that will completely replaces the previous will, even if you destroy the later will the first will does not come back into effect. Your second option is executing a codicil. A codicil is a legal document that acts as an attachment to the original will that modifies the will section referenced in the written and executed document. A Codicil must adhere to the same signing requirements as your will. Revocation of a will in its entirety revokes all codicils unless the revocation of a codicil would be contrary to the testator’s intent. Whereas if you revoke a codicil, the prior part of the will that was edited by the codicil will come back into effect. When revoking a document, you must specify that you are not reviving a previous version of that document. Make sure to maintain only the legal documents that are up to date, but if you execute a codicil make sure you keep it along with the original will it is amending as you will need both originals.

If you have questions or would like to make a will or add a codicil, call Limitless Law PLLC at (360) 685-0145 or use the “Ask an Attorney” link on our website to contact us today!

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