Codicils – The Pitfalls
As I am sure everyone knows it’s important to keep your Will provision up to date. This can mean either re-writing your Will, or making a Codicil.
If you only want to make a small change to your Will, this can be done by putting a Codicil in place. Please note that then the Codicil will be read with your Will, and it’s effect is that it becomes part of the Will.
Codicils are put in place for many reasons for example a Codicil can:
- Add in an additional clause
- Take out a clause
- Change your Executors or add to them
- Monetary amounts can be changed up or down
- Additional people can be added
When making a change via Codicil it is essential that you do the following:
- Only use a Codicil if the change is minor
- Don’t keep making Codicils, as having too many Codicils (which have to be read with your original Will) can be difficult to read and complicated to administer
- Ensure that you keep the Codicil and Will together
Some changes that appear “minor” are not. Typically it might seem easy to in effect “take someone out” of a Will. If that person however is mentioned throughout the Will, the Will must be re-written.
Each case is different, and it also depends on how the Will is written as to how easy it is to write a Codicil to it!