Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California

Re: change beneficiary/add property to existing will

As stated previously, you have at your disposal a variety of estate planning vehicles to effect your estate planning objectives. However, not every one is cost effective or proper for your particular situation. You should review your specific objectives with an estate planning attorney, who can suggest the best course of action.

This is general information that I hope has been helpful to you. However, you should always obtain legal counsel familiar with your specific circumstances. We may be able to assist you with your legal issues. If we can assist you in the future, please contact us at www.unalaw.com and somebody will assist you as soon as possible.

Re: change beneficiary/add property to existing will

Looks like you have received a number of answers. You can amend a will by preparing a codicil (amendment) to the will.

Depending on your assets, it might be better to abandon your will and prepare a living trust. It could save the estate a lot of money down the road.

Re: change beneficiary/add property to existing will

You want to amend your will. An amendment to a will in called a codicil. A Codicil is an addition or change to your Will, like a postscript (P.S.) to a letter. It can be very brief or quite detailed. The alternative to this simple addition is to rewrite the entire Will and invalidate the old one which can be quite expensive.

Your codicil is a legal document and must conform with all the formalities of a regular will. In California, for example, it may be handwritten, but you must follow the rules: On a blank sheet of paper (no letterhead), totally in your hand writing, signed and dated. No witnesses required.

Or, if you want to type it and sign it, you must have two witnesses just as if you were signing the will itself.

You have purchased a new house. Let's say you would like to leave that house to your son. our codicil can read, "In addition to the other specific gifts and bequests in my Will, I give my house located at such and such an address to my son, Henry James, of Los Angeles, California."

Your codicil could say, "I leave $10,000 to any grandchildren living at my death." Or, specifically, "I leave $10,000 to my grandson, Jeremy Bollings."

If you want to make certain that everything is precise and will conform to Calfiornia law, you can have an attorney prepare the codicil for you. The legal fees for this should be considerably less than for a Will. You can have any attorney do the work. It does not have to be the one who prepared the original Will.

A codicil is not appropriate where there are major change to the will. In that case you would want to make a new will.

Don't neglect to consider drafting a living trust which will cost you between $500 - $1500 and will save your heirs from having to go through probate.

Re: change beneficiary/add property to existing will

there are a variety of ways to accomplish what you ask in your post, however, some ways are better than others. if you are looking to simply amend your will, a codicil is a fairly easy option in effectuating such changes to your will. however, i would suggest re-drafting a new will altogether to replace the old, so there is no "accidental" oversights or conflicts between the codicil and the original will. re-drafting the entire will is more expensive than adding a codicil to the original will, but the expense definitely would be justifiable if it avoids confusion or conflict in the longrun. also, a living trust is a valid option here as well, in which probate can be avoiding altogether. if you would like further assistance or representation in this matter, feel free to email me directly from here.