A client came to our Madison Avenue office last month with what seemed like a simple request. Years ago, we had prepared his will, a carefully structured document that provided for his wife and two children. Now, one of his children was estranged, and he wanted to remove him as a beneficiary. “Can’t we just add a page?” he asked. “It seems faster and cheaper than doing the whole thing over.”
His question is one I hear often. The impulse is understandable. Life changes—marriages, births, estrangements, financial shifts—and your estate plan must change with it. The legal tool for “just adding a page” is called a codicil. It is a formal amendment to an existing will. While it might seem like a straightforward fix, in my experience, it often creates more problems than it solves.
Drafting a codicil is a false economy. It introduces risks that a freshly executed will avoids and can leave the door open for exactly the kind of family conflict you are trying to prevent.
The Same Ceremony, A Weaker Result
Many people assume a codicil is an informal document—a quick note signed and attached to the original will. This is a dangerous misconception. Under New York law, a codicil is subject to the exact same execution requirements as the will it amends.
New York’s Estates, Powers and Trusts Law (EPTL) § 3-2.1 requires a will to be signed at the end by the testator in the presence of two witnesses. Those witnesses must, within 30 days, also sign their names and affix their addresses. A codicil must follow this same rigid ceremony to be legally valid. You need the testator, two witnesses, and the proper attestation clause—the full procedure.
Once I explain this, clients often pause. If you are going to the trouble of assembling witnesses and observing these legal formalities, why create a supplementary document that could get lost or create confusion? Why not use that same effort to create a single, clean, authoritative new will that revokes all prior versions and stands on its own?
How Codicils Complicate Probate
A will’s primary purpose is to provide a clear roadmap for your executor and the Surrogate’s Court after you are gone. Stewardship is about clarity. A codicil works against this by creating multiple documents that must be read and interpreted together. This can breed confusion and, worse, litigation.
Imagine your executor finds your original will, but not the codicil you kept in a separate file. The court may probate the original will, distributing your assets in a way you no longer intended. Or, what if the codicil is found but its language is slightly ambiguous or contradicts a clause in the original will? Now your family is faced with a construction proceeding—a lawsuit where a judge must determine what you actually meant.
These amendments are also easier to challenge. A disgruntled heir might claim you were under undue influence when you signed the codicil, or that you lacked the mental capacity to understand the change you were making. It is often easier to attack a single, isolated amendment than to challenge an entire, thoughtfully constructed will that reaffirms your whole estate plan.
The Limited Case for a Codicil
I am not saying a codicil is never appropriate. There are rare circumstances where it can be a prudent choice. These situations almost always involve a very minor, uncontroversial change.
For example, if the person you named as your executor has moved away or passed away, a codicil to name a successor can be efficient. If you want to make a small, specific bequest to a new grandchild or a charity without altering the fundamental distribution of your estate, a codicil might suffice. The key is that the change must be simple and unlikely to be contested by any of the beneficiaries.
But for any significant change—disinheriting a child, fundamentally altering the percentages beneficiaries will receive, or changing the structure of a trust created in the will—I almost always advise against it. These are precisely the kinds of changes that invite challenges, and relying on a stapled-on amendment is an unnecessary risk.
Stewardship Means Starting Fresh
Your will is the foundational document of your legacy. It is the final expression of your wishes and the primary tool for protecting your family. Approaching it with a mindset of patching and fixing is poor stewardship. Creating a new will ensures there is one—and only one—document for the court and your family to follow.
A new will explicitly revokes all prior wills and codicils. This creates a clean slate and a single source of truth. It gives you and your attorney the opportunity to review your entire plan, confirm all your choices, and produce a modern document that reflects your current reality. The cost difference is often minimal, but the clarity it provides is invaluable.
If your life has changed since you last signed your will, the impulse to update it is the correct one. But the method matters. The goal is to leave behind clarity, not a puzzle for your loved ones and the courts to solve.
If you have an existing will and are contemplating a change, the correct first step is a thorough review of that document. Schedule a consultation to analyze your current plan and determine whether your goals are best served by a small amendment or a new will that provides your family with absolute certainty.
