Codicils are obsolete in the era of word-processing!” That was the instantaneous response from practicing lawyers when I mentioned reading “Fragmented Wills” by Professor Mark Glover. That reaction wouldn’t surprise Prof. Glover because his thesis is that practitioners unduly denigrate and, therefore, avoid codicils. Does he make a convincing case?
The heart of the article is based on interesting empirical work Prof. Glover undertook in Hamilton County, Ohio (Cincinnati), using its online wills database. Of the 1,670 wills admitted to probate there in 2014 of decedents who died domiciled in the county in 2013 or 2014, 110 had been amended by a codicil that was also probated (13 decedents had two codicils, and four had three). More testato…