Changing Wills

[Brendadale]

My jurisdiction is: New York

My uncle is 103 years old and I am the Executrix of his will. He keeps changing his will and the amounts he is leaving to individuals and I type it up for him. No lawyer is involved and he takes the will to be notorized and witnessed at his bank. He is a former attorney and thinks he can do this. Can he?

Also, he has a prior girlfriend who keeps making him change names on CD's that he has for different people. For example, he has a CD for about $75,000 that is in my name and his and it has been that way for well over 10 years. She has talked him into putting her name on this CD, to be divided equally. My sister and I are his closest living blood relatives. He is very forgetful and I don't even know if he can be considered "of sound mind" and how to handle this.

I also posted a question about being a co-Executor on another thread. If I should have put this all in one thread, I apologize.

 

[dee_dub]

He's allowed to change his will. No lawyer is required. So long as he complies with the formal requirements (and in New York, that means this: http://www.legalzoom.com/wills-state-requirements/new-york-will.html), it will be valid.

From what I can tell about the changing CDs issue, there may be concerns about undue influence or mental capacity. If you want to challenge these changes, you can either do so now or after his death. Doing it now gets messy and divides families. Doing it after his death means there's no direct way to evaluate his fitness.