You may have been productive in crafting and establishing a Last Will and Testament document well ahead of the curve. However, if you did so years or even decades ago, your life circumstances, and overall who you are as a person, may have changed. While it may be counterproductive to your previous efficiency, you may have to scrap your original will document and create an entirely new one. Well, if this is the standing where you currently see yourself, please follow along to find out how to revoke or cancel your original will altogether and how a proficient Broward County wills lawyer at The Probate Lawyers can help you do so effectively.
How can I modify my original will?
Before you take such a drastic measure as revoking or canceling your original Last Will and Testament document, you may consider simply modifying its terms and conditions instead. That is, two viable alternatives at your disposal are making a codicil or making a new personal property memorandum.
On the one hand, a codicil is a testamentary or supplementary document that may serve to amend your original will. So with this, you may disclose what terms and conditions you wish to remove, add, or modify to your original will. For example, you may state how you want to replace your previously assigned executor with a new individual able and willing to step up to this role. Therefore, at the time of your unfortunate passing, your original will and new codicil may be read and interpreted by the Florida probate court at the same time, together.
On the other hand, a personal property memorandum is similarly a separate legal document that may serve to list specific items of tangible property, and to whom these pieces are supposed to go. If you already supplemented your original will with a personal property memorandum, you may simply replace it without having to touch your will document. Importantly, though, your will must mention its existence in the first place, to be properly acknowledged by the Florida probate court at the time of your unfortunate passing.
How can I revoke or cancel my original will altogether?
You may resign to the fact that your life changes were too significant to make a codicil or new personal property memorandum feasible options. This may reign true if you went through with a real estate transaction and no longer own the property mentioned in your original will; if you went through a financial struggle that led you to sell most of the assets mentioned in your original will; and more.
With this, you may have to revoke or cancel your original will altogether. Simply put, this may require you to create a new will that explicitly states the revocation or cancelation of your original will. Without this disclosure, your original will may be chosen for reading and interpretation by the Florida probate court at the time of your unfortunate passing. This same result may apply if you do not take the proper steps to make your new will valid and enforceable (i.e., you are not mentally sound, you do not sign it in the presence of two competent witnesses, etc).
Your will revocation or cancelation should not be done without the wise legal counsel of a talented Broward County estate lawyer. So please call to schedule your initial consultation with us at The Probate Lawyers today.
