Codicil

The attorney's statutory fee on the same percentage schedule as the representative's. Quote both together when explaining the real cost of a California probate.

The SMALL ESTATE AFFIDAVIT route for personal property under the statutory threshold, available 40 days after death without probate. The threshold is adjusted periodically;

The affidavit procedure for real property of small value, distinct from the section 13150 petition. Check the current limits before opening a full probate.

California: section 6110 requires a written will signed by the testator, a signer acting in the testator's name, presence and direction, or a conservator under the specified court order.

Any person generally competent may witness, but a devise to a SUBSCRIBING WITNESS creates a PRESUMPTION OF DURESS, MENACE, FRAUD OR UNDUE INFLUENCE unless there are two other disinterested subscribing witnesses.

A will is validly executed if it complied with California law, the law of the place of execution, or the law of the testator's domicile at execution or death. Useful for a client who signed elsewhere.

Revocation by a subsequent will or by a physical act done by the testator or by another in the testator's presence at their direction. Advise executing a new will rather than annotating the old one.

A will executed in duplicate, or any part of it, is revoked if one duplicate is burned, torn, canceled, obliterated or destroyed with intent to revoke, by the testator or by another person in the testator's presence and…

Revival rule: if a second will that would have revoked the first is itself revoked by act under section 6120 or 6121, the first will stays revoked unless the circumstances or the testator's declarations show an intent…

A spouse who married the testator AFTER the will was executed and is not provided for takes the INTESTATE share, unless the will shows the omission was intentional or the testator provided for the spouse outside the…

Dissolution, divorce or annulment automatically revokes gifts to the former spouse, any power of appointment conferred on them, and any nomination of them as executor, trustee, conservator or guardian, UNLESS the will…

Connecticut: section 45a-251 requires a written will or codicil subscribed by the testator and attested by two witnesses who each subscribe in the testator's presence.

An after-born or after-adopted child not provided for takes a share computed under this section, which also reaches a child born through assisted reproduction and a child born after the testator's death.

Probate courts may construe how sections 45a-257 to 45a-257c apply to wills admitted in their districts. The route when the automatic revocation rules interact awkwardly with a particular will.

Connecticut text that a will executed between October 1, 1967 and January 1, 1997 is governed, for revocation by marriage, divorce, annulment, dissolution or the birth or adoption of a minor child, by section 45a-257 as…

The marriage, after-born child and divorce revocation rules in 45a-257a to 45a-257c apply ONLY to wills executed on or after January 1, 1997.

Revocation is only by burning, cancelling, tearing or obliterating the will (by the testator, or by someone in the testator's presence at the testator's direction), or by a later will or codicil, subject to the…

Defines how 'child', 'children', 'issue', 'descendants' and 'heirs' apply to a child born through assisted reproduction and to a child conceived and born after the decedent's death.

How a will's reference to federal estate tax and marital deduction provisions is construed. Relevant to any formula marital gift; confirm the formula still does what it was drafted to do under current federal law.

Choice-of-law alternatives for execution and self-proof of a written signed will. Section 202 is not the only route; determine the relevant place and time before applying another jurisdiction’s execution law.

How the bond amount and security are set and when the requirement is excused. Background for advising an executor on cost.

Divorce or annulment revokes gifts to the former spouse, any power of appointment conferred on them, and any nomination of them as executor, trustee, guardian or other fiduciary, UNLESS the will expressly provides…

How a non-resident executor or administrator acts in Delaware, including by power of attorney. Warn a client naming an out-of-state fiduciary that there are extra steps.

The inventory and appraisal the personal representative must file, its form and contents. A hard deadline item for the executor.

What to do when assets surface after the inventory is filed. Common, and it has a procedure.

Delaware: the ordinary section 202 route requires a written will signed by the testator or someone signing the testator's name in the testator's presence at the testator's express direction, with at least two credible…

DELAWARE DOES NOT PURGE A GIFT TO A WITNESS. Any person generally competent may witness, and the will and its provisions are NOT invalid because an interested person signed.

Whether a will reaches real estate acquired after execution. Relevant for a client who buys property after signing; a clear residuary clause avoids the question.

District of Columbia: for the ordinary written-will route under section 18-103, use a writing signed by the testator or another in the testator's presence and at the testator's express direction, attested and subscribed…

Allows revocation either by a later will or writing executed with the same formalities, or by physical act (burning, tearing, cancelling, obliterating) done by the testator or by another at the testator's direction and…

Allows an electronic will to be made self-proving at execution through testator acknowledgment and witness affidavits under oath, certified by an authorized oath officer or remote notary whose seal attaches to the…

Choice-of-law alternatives for an electronic will that does not comply with section 18-905(a), based on location, domicile or residence at the specified times.

Voids a devise or legacy to a person who also serves as an attesting witness, though the witness may still take up to what they would have received on intestacy and remains a competent witness.

Under DC's Uniform Electronic Wills Act, a valid electronic will must be a text-readable record signed by the testator (or by another at the testator's direction and in the testator's physical presence), with at least…

Defines governing instrument to include a will and defines survivorship co-owners and payors. It supplies definitions, not the operative survival period.

A governing-instrument survival provision generally requires clear and convincing evidence of survival by 120 hours. Read section 19-506 before applying that default.

Gives a surviving spouse or domestic partner the right to renounce testamentary gifts and take an intestate share instead, by filing a written renunciation in Probate Court within six months of the will's admission to…

Under DC's Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, a fiduciary (including an executor or an agent under a power of attorney) owes the duties of care, loyalty, and confidentiality when accessing digital assets,…

Florida text stating that revoking a will that revoked a former will does not revive the former will even if it still exists, and that revoking a codicil does not revoke the will and, absent contrary evidence, is…

Florida text stating that the revocation of a will revokes all codicils to that will. Read it with section 732.508 on the effect of revoking a codicil.

Florida text stating that executing a codicil referring to a previous will republishes the will as modified by the codicil.

Florida text defining the terms used in the Florida Probate Code and the chapters it names, beginning with authenticated and beneficiary and continuing through the further definitions.

The order of succession after the spouse: descendants, then parents, then brothers and sisters and their descendants, then the section's remaining classes including the grandparent split. Check where the line stops.

FLORIDA'S ELECTIVE SHARE IS 30 PER CENT of the elective estate, not one third and not a life estate.

Florida: under section 732.502, the testator signs at the end or directs another to sign the testator's name in the testator's presence.

Revoking a Florida will by a later writing. Advise executing a new will rather than annotating the old one.

Revoking by a physical act on the will, and who may perform it. If someone other than the testator acts, the requirements are specific.

Florida text stating that a will that has been revoked or is invalid for another reason may be republished and made valid by reexecution or by executing a codicil republishing it with the formalities required for wills.

Unless the user prohibited disclosure or a court directs otherwise, a custodian must disclose to the personal representative a catalogue of electronic communications and the user's other digital assets, on the same…

A will is not revoked by the later birth, adoption or legitimation of a child except in the marriage-plus-child circumstance of § 4-105(3), but that child, or the issue of such a child who does not survive the testator,…

The after-born or after-adopted child receives the lesser of the intestate share or the value of the legacies made to the testator's children under the will, which means a will that gave nothing to any child gives the…

Defines electronic, electronic presence (two or more individuals communicating in real time by electronic audio-visual means to the same extent as if physically present), electronic will, certified paper copy,…

A will signed while the testator is physically outside Maryland is properly executed if it is in writing, signed by the testator or by another on the testator's behalf in the testator's physical presence and at the…

A Maryland will may be revoked only by a later validly executed will that revokes it expressly or by necessary implication, by the testator burning, cancelling, tearing or obliterating it (or another doing so in the…

Unless a contrary intent is expressly indicated in the will, a legacy does not lapse when the legatee dies after execution and before the testator, and the property is distributed directly from the testator's estate to…

A provision purporting to penalize an interested person for contesting the will or instituting other proceedings relating to the estate is void if probable cause existed for instituting the proceedings.

Maryland: the ordinary section 4-102 route requires a legally competent testator at least eighteen, a writing signed by the testator or an expressly directed signer in the testator's physical presence, and at least two…

Maryland text: where a later will was intended to revoke a prior will, destroying or otherwise revoking the later will does not revive the prior will unless it still exists and is republished with the same formalities…

A change of circumstances does NOT revoke a will, EXCEPT as provided in sections 2-301 (premarital will), 2-803 (the slayer rule) and 2-804 (divorce or annulment).

Definitions for the Massachusetts Uniform Probate Code: subdivision (57) provides that will includes a codicil and any testamentary instrument that merely appoints an executor, revokes or revises another will, nominates…

The order of succession after the spouse: descendants, then parents, then descendants of parents, then grandparents and their descendants. Check where the section stops before assuming a distant relative takes.

Massachusetts: chapter 190B, section 2-502 requires a written will signed by the testator or a directed signer in the testator's conscious presence, and at least two witnesses who observed signing or acknowledgment of…

A will is validly executed if it complied with Massachusetts law, or with the law of the place of execution or of the testator's domicile or residence at execution or death.

Revocation by a subsequent will or by a revocatory act on the will itself, with the section's rules on partial revocation and on whether a later will replaces or supplements the earlier one.

A testator may deposit a will with the court during life. An option worth mentioning where a client worries the original will go missing.

A no-contest clause is unenforceable where there is probable cause for the proceeding. Do not promise a client an in terrorem clause will deter a contest with a real basis.

Divorce or annulment revokes dispositions and fiduciary nominations in favour of the former spouse, and reaches certain NONPROBATE transfers as well.

Names the act that governs how an executor, agent, guardian or trustee reaches a person's online accounts. Cite it whenever a will or power of attorney carries a digital assets clause.

Unless the governing instrument, a court order or a marital property contract provides otherwise, a divorce or annulment revokes revocable dispositions, appointments, powers of appointment and fiduciary or…

Definitions for Title 3B, letters I to Z. "Will" means the last will and testament of a testator or testatrix and includes any codicil and any testamentary instrument that merely appoints an executor, revokes or revises…

A will or any part of it is revoked by execution of a later will that revokes it expressly or by inconsistency, or by a revocatory act performed on the will with intent to revoke, whether by the testator or by another…

A revoked will or codicil is not revived except by reexecution or by a duly executed codicil expressing an intention to revive it, subject to the exceptions in this section and in 3B:3-14.

New Jersey: under section 3B:3-2(a), the written will is signed by the testator or in the testator's name by another in the testator's conscious presence and at the testator's direction.

A resident's will is probated in the surrogate's court of the county of residence at death or in the Superior Court;

A will executed on or after September 1, 1978 may be simultaneously executed, attested and made self-proved by the testator's acknowledgment and the witnesses' affidavits, each taken before an officer authorized under…

A provision penalizing an interested person for contesting the will or bringing other estate proceedings is unenforceable if probable cause exists for the proceeding.

A will already executed in compliance with 3B:3-2 may at any later time be made self-proved by the testator's acknowledgment and the witnesses' affidavits, taken before an officer authorized under R.S.46:14-6.1 and…

Unless the will directs otherwise in words that refer to this section, estate taxes are apportioned among the recipients of the taxed property, including non-probate recipients, in proportion to the value each receives,…

EPTL 2-1.6 generally requires clear and convincing evidence of survival by 120 hours for the dispositions it covers.

New York: under EPTL 3-2.1, the testator signs at the end, or a directed signer signs in the testator's presence, adds their own signature and residence address, and cannot count as an attesting witness.

EPTL 5-3.2 applies when the after-born child is unprovided for by settlement and neither provided for nor mentioned in the will.

Text on revival: revoking a later will that revoked or altered a prior will does not, of itself, revive the prior will;

The duties of care, loyalty and confidentiality that apply to tangible property apply to digital assets, a fiduciary's authority is subject to the terms of service except as the article provides, and authority over the…

An attesting witness who is also a beneficiary is competent, but the disposition to that witness is void unless there are at least two other attesting witnesses who receive nothing under the will;

Unless the will provides otherwise, section 3-3.3 saves the covered disposition to the testator's issue or a brother or sister who dies during the testator's lifetime leaving issue who survive the testator;

EPTL 3-4.1(a)(1) permits revocation or alteration of a will or part by another will or a sufficiently expressed writing executed with will formalities.

A divorce, annulment, declaration of nullity or dissolution revokes by operation of law every disposition, appointment of property, fiduciary nomination and power of appointment in favor of the former spouse, and the…

Ohio's intestacy scheme. The spouse's share depends on whether the surviving children are also the spouse's: the whole estate where they are, and a first-dollar amount plus a fraction where one or more are not, on the…

The defined terms for Ohio's simultaneous death provisions, which decide who is treated as surviving whom. A survivorship clause in the will controls instead and is the cleaner answer; include one.

Lists operative common-disaster language, express survival terms, perpetuities and multiple-instrument exceptions to the 120-hour requirement, retaining the stated proof requirements.

A surviving spouse elects to take under the will or under section 2105.06. A spouse electing under 2105.06 takes the intestate share but SHALL TAKE NOT TO EXCEED ONE-HALF OF THE NET ESTATE, OR ONE-THIRD IF TWO OR MORE…

How an Ohio will is revoked, and the effect of DIVORCE, dissolution or annulment on provisions for the former spouse. Advise a divorcing client to execute a new will rather than relying on the statute.

A testator may devise or appoint property to the trustee of a trust already in existence, which is Ohio's pour-over provision. Name the trust by its exact name and date so the gift is identifiable.

Every Ohio fiduciary must accept the trust in writing before acting, and the section states the general duty. Qualifying is an act the nominated executor performs; the will alone does not do it.

The defined terms for Ohio's Trust Code, which governs any trust a will pours into. Read before drafting a pour-over gift or a testamentary trust.

A provision of a governing instrument relating to survival of an event generally requires clear and convincing evidence of survival by 120 hours. Apply section 2105.36's exceptions separately.

Definitions for Title 20: "will" means a written will, codicil or other testamentary writing, and the section also defines clerk, court, fiduciary, first complete advertisement of the grant of letters, foreign fiduciary…

Pennsylvania: an ordinary will is written and signed by the testator AT THE END; section 2502 does not require attesting witnesses for that route.

A will also counts as validly executed if it complied with the law of the place where the testator was domiciled at execution or at death. Useful for a client who signed elsewhere and later moved;

Revocation is only by a later will or codicil, by another writing executed and proved as a will, or by burning, tearing, cancelling, obliterating or destroying the document with intent to revoke.

Revoking a later will does NOT revive an earlier one unless the revocation is in writing and says the testator intends to revive it, or the earlier will is re-executed. Oral republication is ineffective.

Neither the Rule in Shelley's case nor the doctrine of worthier title applies in Pennsylvania. A life estate with remainder to the life tenant's heirs or issue does not collapse into a fee. Draft remainders plainly;

A no-contest clause in a will or trust is UNENFORCEABLE against a person who had probable cause to bring the proceeding.

The register may revoke or amend letters granted to a person not entitled to them or not in conformity with a will later admitted. Relevant when a will surfaces after administration began.

The spouse's intestate share depends on who else survives: the whole estate with no issue or parent;

The order of succession after the spouse: issue, then parents, then brothers and sisters or their issue, then grandparents, then uncles and aunts and their children and grandchildren.

The one-step route: execute, attest and self-prove at the same time using the combined statutory form. Fewer signatures and fewer chances to get it wrong; prefer it.

The statutory form and requirements for a Texas self-proving affidavit. Use the statutory wording; a near-miss affidavit does not self-prove the will.

Addresses property conditioned on a beneficiary surviving another person and separately divides among alternative beneficiaries who all die within less than 120 hours.

A will executed under the law of the place of execution, or of the testator's domicile or residence at execution or death, is valid here. Useful for a client who signed elsewhere.

How a Texas will is revoked, by a subsequent will, codicil or declaration in writing executed with like formalities, or by physical act. Advise executing a new will rather than annotating the old one.

TEXAS PURGES A BEQUEST TO A SUBSCRIBING WITNESS unless the will is otherwise established by a disinterested and credible witness, or unless the witness would have taken a share in intestacy, in which case they take up…

TEXAS'S ANTI-LAPSE RULE, saving a gift for the descendants of a predeceasing devisee who was a descendant of the testator or of the testator's parent, unless the will provides otherwise.

Definitions for the securities provisions governing how a bequest of stock is construed after splits and mergers. Relevant whenever a will gives a specific number of shares.

How an attested Texas will is proved where it is not self-proved: by a subscribing witness, or by the other routes the section allows. This is the cost a will avoids by carrying a self-proving affidavit.

How a holographic will is proved, by two witnesses to the testator's handwriting. Relevant whenever a handwritten document surfaces.

A will or codicil, or any part of one, revoked under § 64.2-410 is not revived unless the instrument is reexecuted in the manner the law requires, and revival operates only to the extent the testator's intent to revive…

Divorce or annulment after execution automatically revokes gifts and fiduciary nominations to the former spouse unless the will expressly provides otherwise, and the rule extends to revocable trusts.

Defines governing instrument to include a will and defines survivorship co-owners and payors. Apply the operative survival sections and their exceptions separately.

For a donative provision of a governing instrument, survival of an event by 120 hours must be established by clear and convincing evidence, subject to section 64.2-2205.

The elective share is 50 percent of the marital-property portion of the augmented estate, not half the estate.

An attesting witness is not disqualified by an interest in the will or estate, and the gift is not purged.

A will or codicil, its signature, or a provision of it is void where the testator, or another at his direction and in his presence, cuts, tears, burns, obliterates, cancels, or destroys it with intent to revoke.

VIRGINIA'S ANTI-LAPSE RULE, registered 2026-09-12 because § 64.2-416 carves it out by number and says nothing about what it contains, so a check resting on § 64.2-416 alone was describing a section Lawsmith had never…

Where the testator already had a child at execution, an omitted after-born or after-adopted child receives the lesser of an intestate share or the largest gift given to a named child.