Will Revocation and Revival Requirements in Massachusetts

At a glance

Requirements one by one

Governing law and scope

Massachusetts places the core rules in chapter 190B, §§ 2-507 through 2-509 and 2-804. Section 1-201(57) defines a will to include a codicil and a testamentary instrument that revokes or revises another will, so the later-will rules reach a properly executed codicil as well as a replacement will.

Later will, codicil, or writing

Section 2-507(a)(1) permits a subsequent will to revoke the earlier will or a part expressly or by inconsistency. If the later instrument does not state an express revocation, a complete estate disposition is presumed to replace the earlier will; an incomplete disposition is presumed to supplement it, leaving both operative except where they conflict. The statute does not assign a quantified evidence standard for rebutting either presumption.

Physical or electronic revoking act

The listed acts are burning, tearing, canceling, obliterating, or destroying the will or any part. Section 2-507(a)(2) requires both the intent and the purpose to revoke. It does not separately list deleting an electronic record as a revocatory act.

Act by another person

Another individual may perform the act only in the testator's conscious presence and at the testator's direction. Section 2-507 does not add a witness count for that directed act, but the required presence, direction, and revocatory purpose remain facts that may have to be proved.

Partial revocation

Both statutory routes expressly reach only part of a will. A subsequent will may revoke a previous will “or part,” and a revocatory act may target “the will or any part of it.” The replacement-versus-supplement presumption also determines whether an unexpressed inconsistency displaces the whole earlier instrument or only the conflicting terms.

Intent, proof, and presumptions

The act route requires actual intent and purpose to revoke. The later-will route uses different intent presumptions: complete disposition points to replacement, while incomplete disposition points to supplementation. Revival intent may be shown by the circumstances surrounding revocation of the later will or by the testator's contemporary or later declarations.

Divorce, annulment, and other family events

Subject to an instrument, court order, or marital-estate contract that says otherwise, divorce or annulment revokes revocable gifts, appointments, powers, and fiduciary nominations benefiting the former spouse and qualifying relatives of that former spouse. The remaining terms operate as though those persons disclaimed or, for a fiduciary nomination, died immediately before the divorce. The provisions revive if the former spouses remarry or the divorce or annulment is nullified. A separation judgment that leaves the marriage intact does not trigger the rule.

Later marriage is handled differently. Section 2-301 can provide an omitted spouse an intestate-share measure subject to its exceptions; it does not say the entire premarital will disappears. Section 2-508 otherwise rejects revocation merely from a change of circumstances except for the provisions it identifies.

Revival after a later will or revoking act

Section 2-509 draws three lines. Physically revoking a later will that wholly revoked the earlier one leaves the earlier will revoked unless the circumstances or declarations show revival intent. If the later will revoked only part, that part of the earlier will revives unless contrary intent is evident. If another later will revokes the intervening will, revival occurs only to the extent the newest will's terms show that intent.

Reexecution, republication, and codicil effect

A codicil counts as a will under § 1-201(57). It may therefore operate as the later will that expressly revokes an earlier provision or, under § 2-509(c), shows an intent to restore an earlier will or part. The statutory revival rule looks to the terms of that later instrument; possession of the old original is not the intent evidence named in that paragraph.

What trips people up

Destroying the newer will can produce opposite defaults. If it had completely replaced the older will, the older will stays revoked unless revival intent is shown. If it had only partly revoked the older will, the affected part comes back unless contrary intent is shown. A new later will is different again: its own terms must show how much of the older instrument is meant to return.

Divorce reaches more than gifts to the former spouse. The statute also covers specified powers, fiduciary nominations, and provisions for qualifying relatives of the former spouse. Separation alone is not the trigger, and remarriage can restore provisions revoked solely by the divorce section.

Common questions

Can an informal note revoke a Massachusetts will?

Not under § 2-507's later-instrument route. That paragraph requires execution of a subsequent will, and Massachusetts's definition treats a codicil as a will. The separate physical-act route has its own listed acts and intent requirements.

Does losing the original prove that it was revoked?

Section 2-507 requires a listed act plus revocatory intent and purpose. The cited statutory text does not turn loss alone into one of those acts; the facts of a missing original may still create a separate probate proof dispute.

Does divorce revoke the whole will?

No. Section 2-804 revokes the covered former-spouse and former-spouse-relative provisions and gives effect to the rest of the instrument under its deemed-effect rule.

Statutes and sources

• Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 190B, § 1-201(57) — defines “will” to include a codicil and a testamentary instrument that revokes or revises another will. Official text (accessed 2026-08-01).
• Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 190B, § 2-301(a) — supplies the omitted-spouse share and its exceptions when marriage follows execution of the will. Official text (accessed 2026-08-01).
• Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 190B, § 2-507 — governs express and inconsistent later wills, revocatory acts, directed acts, partial revocation, and the replacement and supplementation presumptions. Official text (accessed 2026-08-01).
• Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 190B, § 2-508 — rejects revocation from a change of circumstances except under the listed sections. Official text (accessed 2026-08-01).
• Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 190B, § 2-509 — supplies the three revival rules based on complete or partial prior revocation and the method used to revoke the later will. Official text (accessed 2026-08-01).
• Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 190B, § 2-804 — governs divorce and annulment, covered former-spouse and relative provisions, deemed effect, remarriage, and the separation exclusion. Official text (accessed 2026-08-01).