It’s perfectly normal for people to create more than one will during their lifetimes. After all, the provisions placed in a will when someone is in their 20s or 30s may look drastically different than the provisions that person wants in their wills once they’re in their 70s or 80s.
What happens, however, if more than one will surfaces after someone’s death?
Confusion can reign, and disputes are common
Multiple wills can create considerable problems once they’re submitted to the probate court, especially if they are drastically different from each other or the provisions in one will are in conflict with the provisions in another. That can lead to serious disputes over the estate, especially when different wills favor different beneficiaries.
This often happens when people handwrite (or create “holographic”) wills without properly revoking the wills they’ve made previously. It can also happen when an executor unknowingly presents an older will to the court because the testator never informed them that they’ve made changes – and then a beneficiary steps forward with the newest version.
In general, the court will usually hold a special hearing to determine which will should prevail. The most recent will, so long as it meets all the statutory requirements to be valid, will usually be the one that controls the outcome of probate – unless it can be proven that the testator was incompetent at the time of its creation, subject to undue influence or there was some other kind of fraud involved.
If you’re the executor of someone’s estate or someone who expects to inherit from a recently deceased loved one and you’ve found multiple wills that seem to reflect different periods in the testator’s life, don’t destroy them. Seeking legal guidance is the most expedient step you can take.