How is a Will revoked?

Revocation means to cancel a will. This can happen in a variety of ways. A will can be cancelled by an act, but it can also be possible to cancel a will by implication.

How can a will be revoked?

Destroying a will

If a person wants to destroy his will and make another then he must show an intention to entirely revoke the will. If you have a desire to cancel your will then it is advisable to completely destroy it. For example burning it or tearing it up could be reliable methods. If a part of the will were to be found later then this could imply that the destruction of the will was unintentional and as a result the contents of it could still remain to be valid.

Making a new Will

Implied Revocation

An implied revocation can occur when a person already has a will but then later writes a new one which is not the same as the earlier one. In this situation the more recent will can replace the older one by implication. This normally occurs when the writer of the more recent will does not give any guidance about what he desires to be done with the previous one. 

Revocation clause

It is advisable when writing a will to expressly say that the will replaces all former ones and that the new will is the most recent and effective one. This could lead to the avoidance of any confusion if another will was later discovered which was earlier considered to be destroyed. 

Circumstances which can revoke a will

Marriage effecting a valid will

It is important to be aware of the fact that if you have previously written a will and then later get married then the entire will written before the marriage will be considered to be invalid. The only exception to this is if you specifically state within the Will your intention to marriage, when this will be and who to.

Divorce effecting a valid will

Divorce does not revoke a will. However if a gift is made by the maker of will to their spouse and then the couple subsequently divorce this will mean that the gift to the former spouse will be treated as invalid. The gift cannot be passed to the former spouse when the maker of the will dies. It is important to note that this does not affect the whole will but just the gift to the former spouse.

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