Short answer: You update a will by signing a brand new document that formally revokes the old one, not by crossing out a line or taping a note to the original. Under California Probate Code § 6124, if a will was last known to be in your own possession and can’t be found after your death, the law presumes you destroyed it on purpose, meaning you revoked it. That presumption can be argued around, but it starts against your family. The clean, safe update is a properly signed and witnessed new will, with the old one clearly and deliberately dealt with.
What life events mean your will needs an update?
Marriage, divorce, the birth of a child or grandchild, or the death of someone named in your will are the obvious triggers. So is any real change in what you own: buying real property, starting a business, receiving an inheritance, or a swing in your net worth big enough to change how you’d want things split. Less obvious but just as important: a falling out with the person you named as executor or as guardian for your minor children, or moving to California from another state whose will formalities may not line up with California’s.
If you can’t remember the last time you looked at your will, that alone is a reason to pull it out and read it against your current life, not your life when you signed it. The people you named as beneficiaries, executor, and guardian years ago may no longer be the people you’d choose today, and a will that still names them controls exactly as written unless you change it.
Should you cross something out, add a codicil, or write a new will?
Crossing out a line or writing a change in the margin of a signed will does not update it. At best it does nothing. At worst it creates ambiguity about your intent that invites a will contest after you’re gone, since nobody can ask you what you meant. A codicil, a short separate document that amends specific provisions of an existing will, is legally available if it’s signed and witnessed the same way a will is. In practice, most estate planning attorneys favor a complete new will over stacking codicils on an old one, because every additional document is one more place for inconsistency to hide.
If your changes touch more than a beneficiary’s address or a small bequest, a new will is almost always the more reliable path. A new document also gives you the chance to fix anything else in the original that’s aged poorly, not just the one clause that prompted the update. See our wills page for how that process works at Ridley Law.
How do you properly get rid of the will you’re replacing?
A new will should say, in plain language, that it revokes all prior wills and codicils. That statement is what stops the old document from resurfacing and confusing your executor. Then deal with the physical original: destroy it, and make sure your executor and anyone else who might have a copy knows the old one is no longer valid.
Do not just set the old will aside somewhere and forget about it. Remember the Probate Code § 6124 presumption above runs the other way too: if your family can’t find any will at all after your death because the only original went missing, a court may presume you meant to die without one. Keep track of where your current, valid original lives, and make sure it’s the only one anyone will find.
Does updating your will avoid probate for your family?
No. A will, updated or not, requires probate to take effect. It only directs what happens once a court validates it through that process. If avoiding the time and cost of probate is actually your goal, a will by itself will never get you there. Only a properly funded revocable living trust passes assets to your beneficiaries outside of probate. If you’re updating your will because your family situation or assets have changed enough to matter, that’s also the right moment to ask whether a living trust makes more sense than a will alone.
What else should you review while you’re already at it?
The same events that made your will outdated, a marriage, a move, a new grandchild, usually made your other planning documents outdated too. Most people who sit down to update a will end up also reviewing their power of attorney and advance health care directive, since those name the people who’d act for you if you couldn’t act for yourself. There’s no reason to update one document and leave the rest pointing at an ex-spouse or a person you no longer trust.
Figures verified July 2026.
What to do next
Pull your current will and read it against your life today, not the life you had when you signed it. If anything doesn’t match, from who’s named as executor to who inherits what, that’s a conversation worth having with an estate planning attorney before you decide whether a new will, a trust, or both is the right fix.
Want a straight read on where you stand?
Talk to Eric. A free 30-minute call, no pitch. He’ll tell you where you’re exposed, what it would cost to fix, and what you can skip.
Talk to Eric