Wills don't sit still. Clients marry, divorce, change their minds, cross out gifts and replace one will with another — and sometimes destroy a will in a moment they later regret. As a solicitor, you'll constantly need to work out which document (if any) actually governs an estate, and what happens to the gifts inside it. Getting this wrong can mean the wrong people inherit, or a client dies intestate without realising it.
This lesson gives you the clear rules for deciding when a will has been revoked, when changes to it take effect, and when a revoked will can be revived.
What this lesson covers:
- Methods and Revocation by Marriage or Divorce — the three ways a will can be revoked, and how marriage, divorce and annulment affect it.
- Revocation by Later Will or Codicil — how a new document wipes out or overrides an earlier one, expressly or by inconsistency.
- Revocation by Destruction — the act and intention both needed to revoke a will by tearing, burning or obliterating it.
- Lost Wills and the Presumption of Revocation — what the law assumes when a will can't be found, and how to rebut it.
- Alteration of a Will — when handwritten changes count, and what happens when they don't.
- Codicils, Revival and Conditional Revocation — bringing a revoked will back to life, and the safety valve when revocation rests on a mistake.