Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Florida

Re: Exercising a will

If she just marked up her will, then it's probably not effective. Your best bet would be to try to negotiate a family settlement agreement with the other relative and see if they will agree to split everything.

Re: Exercising a will

A change to a will must be done with the same formalities as a will itself. That means it must have two witnesses. If the changes made were drastic enough, the court could determine that it the will was revoked and no longer effective at all. But that is unusual. At any rate, the changes would be ineffective. In my years of practice, I have only run across one will which was thrown out by the court. That individual had tried to completely change all the beneficiaries and who would be the personal representative, the two main things in a will.

Re: Exercising a will

Nope, writing on a will does not change it, unless the new writing would meet all the qualifications of a will (witnesses, etcetera). Just writing on the will is ineffective.