Will Revocation and Revival Requirements in Pennsylvania

At a glance

Requirements one by one

Later will, codicil, or writing

A written will or codicil may revoke an earlier one. For another writing that is not itself a will or codicil, § 2505(2) requires it to declare the revocation and be “executed and proved in the manner required of wills.”

Document act

Section 2505(3) permits burning, tearing, canceling, obliterating, or destroying the document with both the intent and purpose of revocation. The section speaks to acts to a written document. SB 1138 proposes a separate electronic-will scheme but remains a bill.

Act by another person

Another person may perform the document act in the testator's presence and by the testator's express direction. Section 2505(3) adds this proof rule: “the direction of the testator must be proved by the oaths or affirmations of two competent witnesses.”

Divorce, marriage, and later children

Under § 2507(2), a provision favoring or relating to a spouse becomes ineffective after divorce unless the will shows an intent for it to survive. Later marriage instead supplies the spouse's intestate share, subject to the will's larger gift or a will made in contemplation of that marriage (§ 2507(3)). The pending-divorce condition is addressed below.

Revival and republication

Revoking a later will that expressly or necessarily revoked an earlier will does not itself revive the earlier instrument. Section 2506 permits revival if the written revocation declares that intent or if the earlier will is reexecuted after the later revocation. Its final sentence says: “Oral republication of itself shall be ineffective to revive a will.”

What trips people up

A final divorce decree is not always required for § 2507(2). The provision can apply when the testator dies domiciled in Pennsylvania during divorce proceedings, no decree has been entered, and grounds under 23 Pa.C.S. § 3323(g) have been established. That condition is distinct from a divorce completed after the will was made.

Common questions

May a testator revoke only part of a will? Yes. Section 2505 expressly covers a written will or codicil “or any part thereof,” using its listed revocation methods and their intent and proof conditions.

What if a child is born or adopted after the will? Under § 2507(4), an omitted later-born or adopted child generally receives the stated intestate share from property not passing to a surviving spouse, unless the will shows the omission was intentional.

Statutes and sources

• 20 Pa.C.S. § 2505 — “No will or codicil in writing, or any part thereof, can be revoked or altered otherwise than:” the three listed methods. https://www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/LI/CT/HTM/20/00.025..HTM (accessed 2026-09-26).
• 20 Pa.C.S. § 2506 — “Oral republication of itself shall be ineffective to revive a will.” https://www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/LI/CT/HTM/20/00.025..HTM (accessed 2026-09-26).
• 20 Pa.C.S. § 2507 — “Any provision in a testator's will in favor of or relating to the testator's spouse shall become ineffective for all purposes unless it appears from the will that the provision was intended to survive a divorce”. https://www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/LI/CT/HTM/20/00.025..HTM (accessed 2026-09-26).