Will Revocation and Revival Requirements in Montana

At a glance

Montana combines two routes that must be read together. Section 72-2-527 supplies the ordinary later-will and physical-act rules. Section 72-2-523 can validate a noncompliant written revocation or revival when clear and convincing evidence proves what the decedent intended.

Requirements one by one

Later will, codicil, or harmless-error writing

A subsequent will may revoke the earlier will or a part expressly or by inconsistency. Section 72-1-103(59) includes a codicil and a testamentary instrument used only to revoke or revise another will within the term "will."

When the later will does not expressly revoke, a complete disposition of the estate creates a replacement presumption. An incomplete disposition creates a supplement presumption, leaving both instruments operative where they are consistent. Clear and convincing evidence is required to rebut either presumption.

Montana also permits a noncompliant "document or writing" to constitute a partial or complete revocation if the proponent proves the decedent's intent by clear and convincing evidence under § 72-2-523. That route does not turn every informal note into a revocation; it creates a demanding proof question.

Physical act, another person's act, and partial revocation

The listed acts are burning, tearing, canceling, obliterating, and destroying the will or any part. A testator's own act requires intent and purpose to revoke. Another individual may perform the act only in the testator's conscious presence and by the testator's direction.

Partial revocation is express under both ordinary routes, and § 72-2-523 separately reaches partial written revocation. Section 72-2-527 states no witness requirement for a directed act and no separate electronic-record method.

Revival after a later will is revoked

Section 72-2-529 uses different starting points for whole and partial revocation. If the later will wholly revoked the earlier will and is then revoked by physical act, the earlier will stays revoked unless circumstances or the testator's contemporary or later declarations show intent to revive it.

If the later will only partly revoked the earlier will, revoking the later will by physical act restores the revoked part unless the same kinds of evidence show that the testator did not want it restored. If another later will revokes the revoking will, the terms of that latest will control the extent of revival.

Section 72-2-523 adds another path: a document or writing that missed execution requirements may constitute a partial or complete revival on clear and convincing proof of the decedent's intent. The current statute does not extend that route to a standalone audio, visual, or audiovisual recording.

Divorce, relatives, separation, and remarriage

Section 72-2-814's rule is subject to a Title 19 retirement-system exception and to contrary express terms, court orders, or qualifying marital-estate contracts. Divorce or annulment otherwise revokes revocable dispositions and property appointments, powers of appointment, and fiduciary or representative nominations involving the former spouse or a qualifying former-spouse relative.

The revoked provisions operate as though the former spouse and relatives disclaimed them; revoked fiduciary nominations operate as though they died immediately before the divorce or annulment. Remarriage to the former spouse or nullification revives provisions revoked solely by the section. A separation decree that leaves the marriage intact is not divorce for this rule.

Section 72-2-528 supplies the broader baseline: other changed circumstances do not revoke a will or part except under the stated statutory exceptions. Separate omitted- heir consequences are outside this survey.

What trips people up

• Harmless error is written, not purely recorded. The current § 72-2-523 says "document or writing." A standalone recording does not fit that statutory route.
• A mark need not reach the words. A burn, tear, or cancellation may qualify even when it did not touch any text, provided the statutory act and intent are proved.
• Whole and partial revival start from opposite defaults. After physical revocation of the later will, a wholly revoked earlier will stays out unless intent to restore it is shown; a partly revoked provision returns unless contrary intent is shown.

Common questions

Can an improperly witnessed note revoke or revive a Montana will?

Potentially. Section 72-2-523 requires a document or writing and clear and convincing evidence that the decedent intended a partial or complete revocation or revival. The statute does not make the result automatic merely because the note mentions a will.

Does the divorce rule control a Montana public retirement system?

Not through § 72-2-814's ordinary automatic rule. Subsection (2) expressly excepts a retirement system established in Title 19, so the governing retirement-system rules and documents require separate analysis.

Statutes and sources

• Mont. Code Ann. § 72-1-103(20), (59) — defines governing instrument and includes codicils and revocation-only testamentary instruments within "will." Official text (accessed 2026-08-01).
• Mont. Code Ann. § 72-2-523 — clear-and-convincing harmless-error treatment for a written will, revocation, alteration, or revival. Official text (accessed 2026-08-01).
• Mont. Code Ann. § 72-2-527 — later-will and physical-act routes, partial revocation, directed acts, intent, and replacement/supplement presumptions. Official text (accessed 2026-08-01).
• Mont. Code Ann. § 72-2-528 — changes of circumstances generally do not revoke a will or part. Official text (accessed 2026-08-01).
• Mont. Code Ann. § 72-2-529 — whole, partial, physical-act, and later-will revival rules. Official text (accessed 2026-08-01).
• Mont. Code Ann. § 72-2-814(1), (2), (4)–(6) — divorce/annulment scope, former-spouse-relative effects, exceptions, construction, remarriage/nullification revival, and other changes of circumstances. Official text (accessed 2026-08-01).