Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Arkansas

Re: Two wills?

You ask a very good question. As a general housekeeping matter, when I do a will, I always start that "This will superceeds all other wills and I declare it to be my last will and testament.

As a matter of law, that happens anyway.

Regardless of who gets what, the contents of the will are not at issue. What is at issue is was the new will properly executed? To properly execute the will, you need the testator to sign it in the presence of two witnesses who will also sign declaring that they witnessed the testator sign it.

The next thing that should be done is to have the witnesses sign a "Proof of will".

If each of these things was done, then there is not a situation of two wills in force, only the latest one is in force. The earlier one is then void.

However, if he simply wrote it out and had it notarized then Houston, we have a problem. That dog won't hunt. In that situation, the previous will is still in effect and the new will is no good.

My advice is to go to an Attorney and have a properly written will made and have it properly executed. That way, you will both be protected and questions like the one you have asked will be asked there in the office along with a lot of other questions and your fears will be put to rest.

Even though your question is a good one, it is a segue into other questions. The main problem with asking a simple question on line such as you have done here is that there may be other issues which need to be addressed and other questions which need to be asked and answered. I strongly suggest that you go to an Attorney to accomplish this. If you wait till one of you passes away, it will be too late to correct any problems you may have.