Codicils: An Effective & Inexpensive Way to Change Your Will
If you found this page, you probably already have a Will and estate plan in place. But what happens when you need to make some changes? Did something happen in your life such as a marriage, divorce, birth of a child, etc. and do you need to adjust your will? Or maybe you want to change your executor or shift some gifts around. Well, you are smart to think about updating your estate planning documents to make sure your documents always reflect your wishes.
There are two options when it comes to making adjustments to your Will: 1) a new Will; and 2) a Codicil.
If you’re making significant changes to multiple sections of your Will, it’s more appropriate to have a new Will done. Your old Will should be destroyed upon executing your new Will. This avoids any confusion and will ensure that all of your wishes are clearly understood.
A new Will from scratch may not always be the best option. There is a simpler, cheaper way to change your Will called a Codicil. A Codicil is used as a supplement to your Will and will allow you to modify or amend a section of your Will, revoke a section of your Will completely, or add additional language to your Will. By adding a Codicil to your Will, your existing Will remains in effect with the exception of what was changed by the Codicil.
Since this is a supplementing document to your existing Will, a Codicil is often a quicker and cheaper way to make a change to your Will. Once executed, the Codicil will be attached to the Will for the Will and Codicil to be interpreted and read together as one document.
A Codicil sounds great, why wouldn’t someone go for this cheaper option? Well, there are some risks of making changes on a Codicil rather than preparing an entirely new Will. Like we mentioned, a Codicil is an attachment made to a Will. If the Codicil becomes unattached to the Will and cannot be found or if someone didn’t know about it, there’s a risk that your changes may not be carried out. For this reason, Codicils are best for minor changes. A couple of examples of changes that may be appropriate for a Codicil include appointing a new executor or alternate executor or making changes to your funeral arrangements.
The information contained in this post is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be construed as offering legal advice, or creating an attorney client relationship.
