Are you thinking about changing your will? I cannot tell you how many times I have seen wills where people cross out things on their will assuming that by doing this, they are okay. Another common mistake I see is when people make additions by writing in the change they wish to make and initialing it. In every case I have ever handled in court, the judge has invalidated these changes.
Two things to remember about your will:
1 – If you want to change your will, never write on it.
2 – If you want to change your will, have a will amendment (i.e. codicil) prepared or have an entirely new will drafted.
Recently, I was in court attempting to probate a will where the person who had died wrote on his will a number of times. Whenever he wanted to change who he wanted to receive what, he would cross out the original provision and write his new wishes in the margin. He would then initial it. Nobody saw him make these changes however because he prepared his own will initially a number of years earlier and kept it to himself.
After he passed away, his daughter found his will and attempted to have it probated. However, the court produced several costly delays because of the issues relating to all of the writing on the will. The judge went through each writing in court and invalidated all of these handwritten changes. He could have invalidated the entire will but chose to revert it back to the original language.
I’m sure the deceased wouldn’t have appreciated this; but it would have greatly benefitted him to take it to an attorney whenever he wanted to make a change. A will amendment is very inexpensive most of the time and can be validly prepared to ensure the deceased’s changes are enforceable..
Have you ever handled a situation where someone wrote on their will and then you had to probate it later?
