As a constantly evolving human being, you may not be who you were when you established your last will and testament. The same may apply to the people you incorporated into this estate plan, such as your appointed executor and designated beneficiaries. This alone may constitute the amendment of your will. Read on to discover what steps you can take to effectively amend your will and how a seasoned New York City wills attorney at Zimmet Law Group, P.C. can help you do this the right way.
What steps should I take to amend my will effectively?
Firstly, to effectively amend your last will and testament, you may choose from creating a codicil or making an entirely new will.
When creating a codicil, you must formally write down what you wish to add, edit, and remove from your existing will. Once doing so, you and your two witnesses must provide your signatures at the bottom of this document. This option may be in your best interest if you only wish to make minor tweaks to your existing will, or if you wish to clarify a term that is already stated in your existing will.
On the contrary, when making a new will entirely, you may expect to go through the same steps you took the first time. Similarly, you and your two witnesses provide your signatures. Then, you must take the necessary steps to revoke your existing will. This option may be in your best interest if you now have drastically different wishes than what you expressed in your existing will, or if there are invalidities within your existing will.
What happens if I do not use the proper procedure to change my will?
Unfortunately, many things may go awry when you go back to amend your will.
For example, issues may arise if you do not remember to attach your codicil to your will. What’s worse is if you fail to inform your loved ones of the exact physical location of these documents, or even their existence in general. This is because your loved ones may become greatly confused when it is time to retrieve and reference these pairing documents. The result may be your estate undergoing New York’s intestacy succession.
Secondly, you must remember to revoke your original will officially. What’s worse is if you do not provide the date your new will was signed and executed. With this, the New York surrogate’s court may be unable to determine which will supersedes the other. Similarly, the result may be that your estate undergoes New York’s intestacy succession.
When handling an urgent matter like this one, you must drop everything and call a competent New York City estate planning attorney. Our Zimmet Law Group, P.C. team can help you pick up the pieces.
