When I am working with clients to draft their estate plan for the first time, many of them find it difficult to make some of the required choices. Decisions like, who will be my executor? How will I distribute my estate? Who will take care of my children?

Because this is a legally binding document, they are concerned with making the "wrong" decision and how this could impact their loved ones. The desire to make the "perfect" decision often leads many people to put off deciding at all.

As we all know, nothing in life is perfect. Your estate plan can change, just as your life does! The best thing you can do is to create your estate plan now, while you are healthy and things are going well — knowing you can change it later if needed.

If you remember nothing else from this post, remember that the decisions you make in your estate plan are only truly final once you pass away. You can change those decisions at any time until then!

Why would you want to change your will?

People update their wills for a variety of reasons. The most common changes, or updates, are:

Changing your executor.
Changing your guardian for minor children.
Changing how you distribute your property.

Some of these changes may be necessary — for instance, if the person you initially chose as executor has since passed away or is no longer eligible. Or perhaps the guardian of your minor children can no longer care for them, you may want to consider changing this person in your will.

How to Change Your Will

So the next question becomes, how do you make changes to your will once your will is already in place?

You have two options in the event you want to make changes to your will.

Add a Codicil

A codicil is essentially an amendment to your will. It’s a signed piece of paper at the end of your document that outlines exactly what you're changing.

For example, if you want to change your executor, you'd include a page that says, "This is a codicil, and I'm amending my will. I want to remove my brother Joe as executor and replace him with my sister Kathy." Then you sign it in front of a notary, and your will has been officially changed.

Codicils are relatively common and have been around for a very long time. A lot of times, people are comfortable with adding an amendment and are very transparent with their loved ones about the changes they wish to make. Or, as mentioned above, you have to remove someone's name because they passed away and now you need to name someone else. These are very good reasons for using codicil.

Create a New Will

The second option is to create an entirely new will. On this new will, the very first sentence would say something like “I revoke any previous will.” Revoke is the key word that lawyers use in this instance. The rest of the document will be written just like your old will, except with all modifications.

If you have questions about how to update your will, its best to speak with an attorney for advise!

You may be thinking, this sounds like a lot of work for a simple change, why would I do it this way? Here are a few reasons why an attorney might advise you to create a new will.

Reduce the possibility of confusion

If you have added something onto the end of your will, there is always the possibility of a slight conflict or something in the language that can create confusion. For this reason, a lawyer might recommend that you just start over with a clean slate instead of adding a codicil.

Reduce the possibility of losing your amendment

In a perfect world, your codicil is attached to your will and you’re done, that’s it! But, as mentioned before, life is not always perfect. Let's say you created your will five years ago and it's stored in a binder or portfolio somewhere. In order to add a codicil, you need to attach it to the back of your original document. Unfortunately, these extra pages could easily get lost, whether intentionally or not.

How many copies of your original need to be updated? How many digital copies need to be updated?

Let’s look at an example where your codicil gets lost intentionally (to make things a little more exciting!) We’ll go back to your brother Joe and Kathy, where you had initially named Joe as executor. You no longer trust Joe, so you create a codicil that says you wish to name Kathy as executor instead. You attach this addendum to your one and only copy, just like it's supposed to be. You now have the first portion that says Joe is the executor, and in the back, the amendment that names Kathy instead.

Joe, however, discovers that he is no longer named in your new estate plan and "loses" the amendment that names Kathy on purpose. Kathy could contest this by claiming a codicil named her instead, but this would mean that your siblings are now arguing in court. This is not what you want to happen!

While someone “losing” a codicil on purpose is rather unlikely, this situation could still happen, unintentionally. To avoid this situation altogether, your attorney may advise you to write a new will instead of adding a codicil. It will lessen the chances of your loved ones fighting.

Attorney Liability

The last reason your attorney may recommend creating a new will is for their own liability. Attorneys are risk averse by nature. We're always looking at things and imagining all the ways that situations could go wrong!

One way a situation could go wrong for an attorney is by updating a document that they didn’t initially write. For example, if you had your will drafted several years ago by an attorney now retired, you will need to find a new attorney to make any changes you want. This new attorney will likely be hesitant to do a codicil because they didn’t create the original document. If they were to create a codicil, they would be taking on all of the potential obstacles written in that estate plan -- without having the prior knowledge and information the previous attorney collected.

Final Thought

While adding a codicil is the easiest way to update your will, there are a few notable reasons as to why an attorney might recommend creating a whole new will instead.

I have been asked before whether it's possible to make a handwritten change on a will. For example, could they cross out Joe's name and handwrite Kathy's name in, then have it notarized so that it's included in the original document — no attachment needed.

Unfortunately, it isn't quite that simple. It's important to follow the proper procedures for changing your will. Anything less will almost certainly cause problems for your loved ones in the long run.

If you enjoyed this post or found it helpful, I recommend that you subscribe to my YouTube channel! And, as always, if you have any questions please send me an email or reach out to me on Facebook, or here in the comments! I'd love to be able to connect with you and answer questions you might have!

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