How to Properly Update or Amend a Will in Maryland

Introduction: Wills are Not “Static Documents”

On our blog, we’ve dedicated considerable bandwidth to discussing the creation of valid and enforceable wills under Maryland law. This will continue to be a major aspect of our blog, as we strive to inform the Maryland public about our services in this area. As we have seen throughout our numerous pieces on this topic thus far, creating an enforceable will is not always an easy or straightforward proposition; many items have to be properly checked off and accounted for to create a valid last will and testament capable of withstanding potential challenges and close scrutiny. Intuitively, this makes perfect sense, because wills are supposed to carry out the true intentions of testators – the creators of the will – with respect to beneficiaries. What this means, in reality, is that wills often transfer ownership of high value assets, and so naturally there must be safeguards in place to guarantee that assets are transferred correctly. No testator wants to contemplate the possibility that his or her assets will fail to be distributed correctly, and the law pertaining to wills in Maryland reflects this fact.

With these things being said, another key fact regarding wills in Maryland is that these instruments are not “static,” in the sense that they aren’t immutable or unchangeable after their initial development. It’s possible to update or amend a will after it has been developed, as long as certain procedural rules are followed. In this post, we will go over the procedures involved with creating an enforceable amendment to an existing will here in Maryland.

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Creating a Formal Amendment to an Existing Will

A valid and enforceable will is essentially a statement which gives specific instructions regarding how certain assets will be distributed when the testator passes away. Often, testators wish to revise or amend their will prior to passing away; the testator may want to add a new beneficiary, or remove a current beneficiary, appoint a new personal representative, or add another alternate personal representative, and so forth. Whatever the particular change may be, testators are allowed to formally alter or amend their will, but they must follow established procedures.

The amendment should be made on a separate page which is attached to the rest of the will documents. The amendment should clearly and unambiguously identify which portion or portions of the will are being amended, and what precisely the amendments to that portion or portions will be. If an amendment is ambiguous, it is vulnerable to a potential challenge, just as would be the case with the original version of the will (in the event of any ambiguity). In addition, the amendment must be properly witnessed and signed, in accordance with current Maryland requirements. Amendments which aren’t signed by all required parties are not enforceable, which means an unsigned amendment will not be honored by the court.

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Sample Language of an Amendment

Consider an example of a testator who wants to leave personal property – specifically, funds from a particular bank account – to a different beneficiary than the one originally identified. In this situation, the amendment might contain the following language: “AMENDMENT #1: This amendment applies exclusively to the section on “Specific Bequests,” in particular the bequest of “Bank Account A” to “Person A” in the original language. This amendment formally changes the beneficiary from Person A to “Person B.” Person B will now receive the entirety of this personal property.” This is only one possible permutation of the language involved, but the key point is that the amendment needs to clearly and directly replace the original language, otherwise it won’t succeed.

There are other technical requirements as well, and these all need to be fulfilled otherwise amendments won’t take effect. For instance, amendments must be witnessed by at least 2 “disinterested parties,” meaning parties who have no material stake in the will itself. The amendment must be in written form, and the testator must sign in the presence of witnesses. As with the formation of the original wall, the testator must possess legal “capacity” (i.e. age and mental status) to create the change or changes.

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Contact the Murphy Law Firm for More Information

To learn more about amending a will in the State of Maryland, or about creating a valid and enforceable will from scratch, or about establishing a revocable or irrevocable trust within a will, or any other related estate planning topic, contact one of the estate planning lawyers at the Murphy Law Firm today by calling 240-219-1187.

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