Tennessee: Will Revocation and Revival Requirements

Requirements one by one

Governing law and scope

Tennessee's statutory revocation scheme is in Title 32, chapter 1, part 2.
Section 32-1-101(2) defines a will to include a codicil. Section 32-1-106(c)
draws a firm boundary for the state's narrow oral-will form: a nuncupative will
cannot revoke or change an existing written will.

Later will, codicil, or writing

Section 32-1-201 supplies two written routes. A later non-oral will can revoke
the prior will or part expressly or by inconsistency. A standalone document of
revocation works only when it expressly revokes and is executed with all the
formalities of an attested will or a holographic will. The statute excludes a
nuncupative will from both routes.

Physical or electronic revoking act

The listed acts are burning, tearing, canceling, obliterating, or destroying the
will or part. The act must be performed with both the intent and the purpose of
revocation. Section 32-1-201 does not separately list deleting or altering an
electronic record.

Act by another person

Someone else may perform the listed act only in the testator's presence and at
the testator's direction. Section 32-1-201 does not add a witness count, but an
act performed elsewhere does not fit the text even if the testator asked for it.

Partial revocation

All three voluntary routes reach less than the whole instrument. The later will
and formal revocation document may revoke the prior will “or part,” while the
physical-act sentence begins from the statute's rule that a will “or any part
thereof” may be revoked.

Intent, proof, and presumptions

The destructive-act route expressly requires intent and purpose to revoke. The
later-will route turns on express language or inconsistency, and the formal
revocation-document route must act expressly. Sections 32-1-201 and 32-1-202 do
not state a quantified evidence standard, a complete-disposition replacement
presumption, or a missing-original presumption.

Divorce, annulment, and other family events

Tennessee has two distinct family-event rules. Under § 32-1-201(4), both a
later marriage and the birth of a child revoke the will. Divorce or annulment of
that later marriage does not bring the prior will back.

Separately, § 32-1-202 revokes will gifts and appointments for the former
spouse, powers of appointment conferred on the former spouse, and nominations
of that spouse as executor, trustee, conservator, or guardian unless the will
expressly says otherwise. The affected terms operate as if the former spouse
failed to survive. Remarriage revives provisions revoked solely by this section,
while a separation decree that leaves the marriage intact does not trigger it.

Revival after a later will or revoking act

Part 2 states no general statutory rule restoring an earlier will after a later
will or revoking act is itself revoked. It does state two family-event outcomes:
remarriage revives provisions revoked by divorce, but divorce or annulment does
not revive a will revoked by the combination of later marriage and a child's
birth. This page does not add uncodified revival doctrines to those express
rules.

Reexecution, republication, and codicil effect

A codicil is a will under § 32-1-101(2), so a properly executed codicil may
revoke a prior will or provision expressly or by inconsistency under
§ 32-1-201(1). The surveyed statutes do not separately prescribe reexecution or
republication as a way to revive an instrument revoked by a later will or act.

What trips people up

Marriage alone and a child's birth alone are not how § 32-1-201(4) is written.
The statutory trigger is both the subsequent marriage and the birth of a child.
Once that combination revokes the will, ending that marriage by divorce or
annulment does not revive the prior instrument.

A typed revocation note is not automatically effective. Unless it is itself a
later will, the document must expressly revoke and use all the formalities of an
attested will or a holographic will. An oral declaration does not fit either
route and cannot revoke an existing written will.

Common questions

Can a Tennessee codicil revoke only one will provision?

Yes. A codicil is included in the definition of will, and § 32-1-201(1)
expressly permits a subsequent will to revoke the prior will or part by express
language or inconsistency.

Does separation revoke a gift to a spouse?

Not under § 32-1-202. A separation decree that does not end the legal status of
the marriage is not a divorce for this section.

Does destroying the newer will automatically restore the older one?

The surveyed Tennessee statutes do not supply an automatic-restoration rule for
that situation. They expressly address revival only for the family-event rules
described above, so the effect of an attempted restoration can require analysis
beyond this statutory survey.

Statutes and sources

• Tenn. Code Ann. § 32-1-101(2) — defines “will” to include a codicil.
  Public-domain Tennessee Code release-76
  text
  (accessed 2026-08-01).
• Tenn. Code Ann. § 32-1-106(c) — says an oral will neither revokes nor
  changes an existing written will. Public-domain Tennessee Code release-76
  text
  (accessed 2026-08-01).
• Tenn. Code Ann. § 32-1-201 — supplies the later-will, formal-document,
  physical-act, directed-act, partial-revocation, and marriage-plus-birth rules.
  Public-domain Tennessee Code release-76
  text
  (accessed 2026-08-01).
• Tenn. Code Ann. § 32-1-202 — governs divorce, annulment, former-spouse
  provisions, remarriage revival, separation, and other circumstance changes.
  Public-domain Tennessee Code release-76
  text
  (accessed 2026-08-01).