Yes. You can change your will at any time while you are alive and of sound mind, either by adding a short signed amendment called a codicil or by writing a fresh will that revokes the old one. The change must follow the...
Yes. You can change your will at any time while you are alive and of sound mind, either by adding a short signed amendment called a codicil or by writing a fresh will that revokes the old one. The change must follow the same formalities as the original: written, signed by you, and attested by two witnesses who receive nothing under it.
A codicil suits small updates: a new grandchild added, a substitute executor named, one gift adjusted after a plot was sold. A fresh will suits anything larger. Once the changes touch several gifts, or the family's shape has shifted through marriage, death, or a falling out, a stack of codicils becomes a puzzle your heirs must assemble in the right order, and puzzles invite argument. The cleanest fresh will opens by revoking all previous wills, the standard first clause in The Will-Writing Session, so only one version of your voice exists.
The common misunderstanding is that crossing out a line and writing the new wish in the margin works. It does not. Unwitnessed alterations are exactly the kind of ambiguity courts distrust and relatives litigate, because nobody can prove the hand, the date, or the intent. The other misunderstanding is the opposite error: treating the will as a monument, finished forever on the day of signing. The Document Refresh Rhythm states the problem plainly: a will written at 45 is often a bad will by 70, not because the drafting failed but because you kept living. If the will says the plot in Mukono goes to your daughter and you sold the plot in Mukono, her inheritance evaporated while everyone else's held.
So the real answer to this question is a rhythm, not a one-time permission. Certain events should trigger a review within thirty days: a birth, a marriage, a death among your named people, an asset bought or sold, a falling out or a reconciliation. Between triggers, one annual read-through, aloud, on a fixed date such as your birthday week, checking three things: are these still the people, are these still the assets, are these still my reasons. Most years the answer is yes, and a dated note saying so is itself evidence of a maintained intention. The year something has drifted, twenty minutes catches it while a codicil or a fresh signature can still fix it.
Two notes for Ugandan families. Amend while you are well, because a change signed in the last weeks of life by a visibly weakened person is the easiest document in the file to challenge. And remember that some assets ignore the will entirely: NSSF, insurance, and SACCO nominations pay whoever the institution has on record, so every will review should include a nomination sweep.
One action: put next year's will read-through date in your phone today, attached to a date you never forget. The right to change your will is only useful if you actually look at it.