On revoking a will and what it means for you and your estate

A couple of weeks ago, we wrote a post about wills and their incredible importance to your estate plan. More specifically, we talked about how updating your will frequently is critical because if you don’t update this document, you risk having clauses and provisions in there that don’t reflect your current mindset about your estate and your beneficiaries.

But there’s another important element to wills that needs to be addressed: revoking them. In a very real way, revoking a will relates to updating your will. Let us explain.

One of the most common ways that someone updates their will is by creating a new one. When you create a new will, in order to eliminate confusion and conflict about which will is the “proper” one, you need to revoke the old one. This is done by destroying the document and then creating the new one. You can use the same clauses from your old one in the new one — but you need to make sure the old one is destroyed.

Another way you can update your will is by keeping your current will and updating it with a “codicil.” This is simply an amendment to your document alerting your executor and beneficiaries to new rules and guidelines for how your will functions.

When dealing with your will or estate, and when you are considering a change to the critical documents involved, you should consult with an attorney to ensure that you are going about the process in the right way.