You must take advantage of your right to establish a will to designate what happens to your assets once you have passed on. With this, you must also understand your right to edit your existing will when you deem it necessary. Read on to discover how to make these changes and how a seasoned Putnam County wills attorney at The Law Office of Andres D. Gil, PLLC can ensure its validity and enforceability.
Why would I change the terms and conditions of my will?
As time goes on and you mature, it is very natural to change your mind on certain matters, including what wishes you expressed in your will. And especially if you established your will five or more years ago, you may have undergone major life changes that must be reflected in your will. Examples of life events that may constitute edits to your terms and conditions are as follows:
- You may have gotten a divorce, so you wish to remove your former spouse as a designated beneficiary.
- You may have remarried, so you wish to add your newlywed as a designated beneficiary.
- You may have welcomed a new child to your family, so you wish to reconfigure your assets to be evenly distributed amongst all your children.
- You may have bought a new property, so you wish to assign it to a certain beneficiary.
- You may have become eligible for New York estate taxes, so you wish to account for this expense in your asset distributions.
- You may have been diagnosed with a certain medical condition, so you wish to refigure your finances for medical care and rephrase your wishes for end-of-life care.
How would I make changes to my will?
You may choose from one of three ways to make changes to your will. First, you may consider establishing a codicil. This is a supplementary document that explains, modifies, or revokes a will or part of it. This is best if you are only looking at making minor adjustments to its terms and conditions.
Second, you may edit your personal property memorandum. Similar to a codicil, this is a supplementary document to your will. Except, this allows you to create a list of specific tangible assets that you wish to distribute to specific beneficiaries. This may be easier than editing your will itself, but you must confirm that your will mentions the existence of your personal property memorandum.
Lastly, for drastic changes to your will, you may consider revoking your existing one and establishing a new one entirely. This may be less confusing than having two separate documents interpreted in probate court proceedings.
Regardless of which way you might choose, you may require two witnesses to be present, along with their signatures. This is not to mention that you need a competent Putnam County estate planning attorney by your side. You must contact The Law Offices of Andres D. Gil, PLLC today.