Revocation
Methods and effect
Intentional physical destruction of a will by the testator will revoke it， through deliberately burning or tearing the physical document itself， or by striking out the signature. In most jurisdictions， partial revocation is allowed if only part of the text or a particular provision is crossed out. Other jurisdictions will either ignore the attempt or hold that the entire will was actually revoked. A testator may also be able to revoke by the physical act of another （ as would be necessary if he is physically incapacitated） ， if this is done in his presence and in the presence of witnesses. Some jurisdictions may presume that a will has been destroyed if it had been last seen in the possession of the testator but is found mutilated or cannot be found after his or her death.
A will may also be revoked by the execution of a new will. Most wills contain stock language that expressly revokes any wills that came before them， however， because normally a court will still attempt to read the wills together to the extent they are consistent.
In some jurisdictions， the complete revocation of a will automatically revives the next most recent will， while others hold that revocation leaves the testator with no will so that his or her heirs will instead inherit by intestate succession.
In England and Wales， marriage will automatically revoke a will as it is presumed that upon marriage， a testator will want to review the will. A statement in a will that it is made in contemplation of forthcoming marriage to a named person will override this. Divorce， conversely， will not revoke a will， but will have the effect that the former spouse is treated as if they had died before the testator and so will not benefit.
Where a will has been accidentally destroyed， on evidence that this is the case， a copy will or draft will may be admitted to probate.
Dependent relative revocation
Many jurisdictions exercise an equitable doctrine known as dependent relative revocation （ DRR） . Under this doctrine， courts may disregard a revocation that was based on a mistake of law on the part of the testator as to the effect of the revocation. For example， if a testator mistakenly believes that an earlier will can be revived by the revocation of a later will， the court will ignore the later revocation if the later will comes closer to fulfilling the testator s intent than not having a will at all. The doctrine also applies when a testator executes a second， or new will and revokes his old will under the （ mistaken） belief that the new will would be valid. However， for some reason the new will is not valid and a court may apply the doctrine to reinstate and probate the old will， as the court holds thatthe testator would prefer the old will to intestate succession.
Before applying the doctrine， courts may require （ with rare exceptions） that there have been an alternative plan of disposition of the property. That is， after revoking the prior will， the testator could have made an alternative plan of disposition. Such a plan would show that the testator intended the revocation to result in the property going elsewhere， rather than just being a revoked disposition. Secondly， courts require either that the testator have recited his mistake in the terms of the revoking instrument， or that the mistake be established by clear and convincing evidence. For example， when the testator made the original revocation， he must have erroneously noted that he was revoking the gift“because the intended recipient has died”or“because I will enact a new will tomorrow”.
DRR may be applied to restore a gift erroneously struck from a will if the intent of the testator was to enlarge thatgift， butwill notapply to restore such a gift if the intentof the testator was to revoke the gift in favor of another person. For example， suppose Tom has a will that bequeaths＄5， 000 to his secretary， Alice Johnson. If Tom crosses outthat clause and writes“＄7，000 to Alice Johnson”in the margin， but does not sign or date the writing in the margin， most states would find that Tom had revoked the earlier provision， but had not effectively amended his will to add the second； however， under DRR the revocation would be undone because Tom was acting under the mistaken belief that he could increase the gift to＄7，000 by writing that in the margin. Therefore， Alice will get＄5，000. However， if Tom crosses out that clause and writes in the margin“＄5，000 to Betty Smith”without signing or dating the writing， the gift to Alice will be effectively revoked. In this case， it will not be restored under the doctrine of DRR because even though Tom was mistaken about the effectiveness of the gift to Betty， that mistake does not affect Tom s intent to revoke the gift to Alice. Because the gift to Betty will be invalid for lack of proper execution， that＄5，000 will go to Tom s residuary estate.
The will in United States
In the United States， many states have probate statutes which permit the surviving spouse of the decedent to choose to receive a particular share of deceased spouse s estate in lieu of receiving the specified share left to himor her under the deceased spouse s will. As a simple example， under Iowa law （ see Code of Iowa Section 633.238 （ 2005） ） ， the deceased spouse leaves a will which expressly gifts the marital home to someone other than the surviving spouse. The surviving spouse may elect， contrary to the intent of the will， to live in the home for the remainder of his/her lifetime. This is called a“life estate”and terminates immediately upon the surviving spouse s death.
The historical and social policy purposes of such statutes are to assure that the surviving spouse receives a statutorily setminimumamount of property from the decedent. Historically， these statutes were enacted to prevent the deceased spouse from leaving the survivor destitute， thereby shifting the burden of care to the social welfare system.