Elder Law Answers
How to Make Changes to Your Will
As life circumstances change (births, marriages, divorces, and deaths), it may become necessary to make changes to your wi...
Read moreIf We Want to Make Changes to Our Will, Do We Have to Use the Same Attorney Who Drafted It?
- March 29th, 2018
Q
My wife and I drafted our wills with an attorney when our two children were young. We would now like to make some minor tweaks to the will. The attorney who drafted it kept a copy, and we have the original. However, we didn't like the attorney and thought he acted unprofessionally. Do my wife and I need to contact that previous attorney to request he return or destroy the original document or can we simply have a new lawyer update our will and invalidate the old one?
A
There is no reason to go back to the old attorney. Your new documents simply supersede the old ones. In your case, you have the original documents. In some instances, the attorney holds them. If that were the case, it would be helpful to the original attorney to let him know after you execute your new estate plan so that he doesn’t have to keep the old estate planning documents secure. Most law offices have several fireproof safes stuffed with estate planning instruments, some of them for people the office hasn’t interacted with in decades. The law office could use the additional space.
For the five components of a good estate plan, click here.
Local Elder Law Attorneys in Ashburn, VA
Meet Ron Landsman
(240) *** ****
Learn more
Ron Landsman
Ron M. Landsman, P.A.
Ron M. Landsman has been practicing elder law since 1983, before it was known as elder law, originally with Landsman and Laster, Washington, D.C., then Landsman, Eakes and Laster, also in Arlington, VA, and since 1990 in his own practice in Montgomery County, Maryland. He has been among the most active members of the...
(240) *** ****
Tell us about your legal issue and we will put you in touch with Ron Landsman.
Meet Samantha Fredieu
(703) *** ****
Learn more
Samantha Fredieu
Hale Ball Carlson Baumgartner Murphy PLC
Attorney Samantha Simmons Fredieu is an associate at Hale Ball. Ms. Fredieu graduated magna cum laude from Vermont Law School where she was the symposium editor on the Vermont Law Review, a production editor on the Vermont Journal of Environmental Law, and a member of the Moot Court Advisory Board. She has clerked for...
(703) *** ****
Tell us about your legal issue and we will put you in touch with Samantha Fredieu.
Meet Judith Mitnick
(703) *** ****
Learn more
Judith Mitnick
Needham Mitnick & Pollack, PLC
Judith Mtinick is well known for acting as a guardian, conservator, trustee or agent on behalf of clients or by court appointment. This experience gives her a wide perspective and extensive practical knowledge that she uses when advising clients in drafting their planning documents. Her experience, as a court appointed...
(703) *** ****
Tell us about your legal issue and we will put you in touch with Judith Mitnick.
