If your life has changed since your signed your will likely needs to change too. Marriage, divorce, the birth or adoption of a child, a move to another state, and big inheritance, or simply a desire to change the beneficiaries of your estate can all be reasons to update or revoke a Will. If you need to revoke Will in Texas, it’s important to know the right legal steps to take.
When you need to make changes, you generally have two options:
- You can either revoke your current will and write a new one;
- Or you can amend your existing will by creating a codicil.
Under Texas law, there are two ways to revoke a will. You can revoke a will by creating a new one, or by a physical act, such as ripping it up, coupled with an intent to revoke it..
1. Revocing a Will in Texas by Later Written Document
You can revoke a will by creating a new will, a codicil (an amendment to a will), or a separat written declaration expressing an intent to revoke the will.
To be effecting, each of these documents must be in writing and signed under the same formalities required for a will. The testator can expressly revoke a will by stating something to the effect that he or she “revokes all prior wills or codicils.”
A testator can also impliedly revoke a will by making a new bequest that is inconsistent with the prior will.
2. Revoking a Will by a Physical Act
A testator can also revoke a will by destroying or canceling it. This can be done by acts such as tearing up the will, cutting it, burning it, crossing out the signature line, or cutting the signature line from it.
For the revocation to be valid, the physical act needs to be coupled with an intention to revoke the will.
Partial revocations
If a will is holographic — one wholly in the testator’s handwriting — a testator can partially revoke certain provisions of the will by drawing lines through them or adding new handwritten provisions..
Typewritten wills are treated differently. Texas does not generally allow partial revocations by physical act for typewritten wills, so simply crossing out certain provisions of that type of will is usually not effective to revoke those provisions. To learn more about how Texas treats changes to typewritten wills, read: Can I Make Handwritten Changes to my Typewritten Will?
If you want to revoke your will, it is important that you do it the right way. Otherwise, you may believe your will has been changed or revoked when in fact it has not. In most cases, creating a new will is the best and safest approach.
