How To Revoke Your Will In Florida
Your will is meant to last forever, but life has a way of throwing surprises at you when you think you are too old to change your mind. You have probably heard about probate disputes where different heirs wanted the probate court to execute different versions of the will. Such disputes, no matter how the probate court eventually resolved them, could only be possible if the testator had written more than one will. The idea that your will has a doppelgänger that could show up in probate court and make it harder for your heirs to get their inheritance is unsettling indeed. There must be a way to ensure that an outdated version of your will does not become undead. In fact, Florida law provides for several ways that a testator can revoke his or her will, but there is still room for ambiguity. If you have changed your mind about what you originally wrote in your will, and now you want to revoke it, with or without writing a new one, contact a Tampa estate planning lawyer.
A New Will Revokes an Old Will, Even If It Doesn’t Say So Explicitly
According to Florida law, a will is valid if it bears the signature of the testator and the signatures of two witnesses who signed the will in the testator’s presence. If there are two or more versions of the will that meet this criterion, then the one signed most recently is the legally valid one. In other words, Florida law assumes that you revoke your old will simply by signing a new one. Despite this, it is a good idea to state in your new will that it revokes any other will that you have previously signed.
Can You Go Back to Intestate Succession After You Write a Will?
Intestate succession is the set of rules that the probate court follows when the decedent did not have a will; it involves passing the decedent’s estate to his or her closest surviving relatives. It is possible to revoke your will without writing a new one. It makes sense to do this if you would prefer to have the probate court follow the laws of intestate succession than to have it follow the instructions in your old will.
You can do this by writing a revocation document and signing it in the presence of two witnesses, who also sign it. In other words, the procedure for making a revocation document legally valid is the same as the procedure for making a will legally valid. The other way to revoke your will is to physically destroy it, such as by tearing it up or crossing out the writing. The trouble with doing it that way, though, is that the probate court cannot easily tell the difference between a will that the testator intentionally defaced from one that suffered accidental damage but which the testator still wanted the probate court to execute.
Contact David Toback About Revoking Your Will
A Central Florida estate planning lawyer can help you revoke your will and formalize a new one. Contact David Toback in Tampa, Florida to set up a consultation.
Source:
leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0700-0799/0732/Sections/0732.506.html
