Codicils were very popular back in the days when Wills were handwritten, or even typed out. You should not make a quick manual change to a Will, so even slight changes would require the whole document to be re-typed. To save on this effort Will writers and lawyers used a codicil to refer back to the Will with the change, and then attach the codicil to the original document. It would effectively say something like " in clause 3, instead of naming John Brown as the Executor, I want to name Stephen Green". The codicil would then be signed in the presence of two witnesses in exactly the same way as the Will was signed.
Today, this is a very dated practice and most estate planning attorneys no longer use codicils. If you prepared a Will using the service at LegalWills.ca you wouldn't need to, you would simply login to your account, make the change and then print out a new Will.
Even if you have a Will that was previously written by a lawyer, and you have now come to LegalWills.ca looking to update that Will, we would recommend that you prepare a brand new Will. The cost for preparing a codicil with a lawyer is usually several hundreds of dollars, and certainly more than the cost of preparing a new Will at LegalWills.ca, and the entire process would take you about 20 minutes. Most importantly, you can be assured that you new Will is compliant with any potential law changes that have happened since you wrote your original Will.
There is no cost saving with preparing a codicil, and the signing requirements are exactly the same as preparing a new Will. We would recommend that you step through our service and prepare a new Will, rather than writing a codicil. Since the age of computers and printers, codicils are rarely used.
The opinions expressed herein by "LegalWills.ca" are designed to provide educational information only and are not intended to, nor do they, offer legal advice.