Will Revocation and Revival Requirements in Wyoming

At a glance

Wyoming's revocation rule is one short subsection with two routes. Its divorce rule is long and reaches further than most. And on the question most people ask second — does destroying the new will bring back the old one — the Wyoming Probate Code says nothing at all.

Requirements one by one

Later will, and why there is no separate "revocation writing"

Section 2-6-117(a)(i) revokes a prior will or part "expressly or by inconsistence." Both routes are on the face of the statute, so a later will that says nothing about earlier ones still displaces them wherever the two cannot both stand.

Wyoming does not offer a separate non-will writing route the way many states do. The reason is in the definitions: "will" includes "a testamentary instrument that merely revokes or revives another will" (§ 2-1-301(a)(xxxiv)). A document whose only job is to revoke is therefore a will, and it has to be executed like one — two competent witnesses under § 2-6-112(a), or entirely in the testator's handwriting and signed by the testator's own hand as a holographic will under § 2-6-113.

The practical effect: a typed, signed, unwitnessed "I revoke my will" letter fits neither route. A handwritten and signed one can.

The five destructive acts

Section 2-6-117(a)(ii) lists burning, tearing, canceling, obliterating, and destroying. The act must be done "with the intent and for the purpose of revoking it."

The list is closed and paper-shaped. Wyoming's probate code has no electronic-will statute and no deletion or record-control route. Section 2-6-112(b) permits witnesses to appear by audio-video technology and to sign electronically by secure means, but that provision governs making the will, not revoking it.

Wyoming also does not name the signature as a separate target the way some neighboring codes do — the acts run against "it," the will.

Another person may do it

The act may be performed "by another person in his presence and by his direction." Both conditions apply: the testator's presence and the testator's direction. The statute adds no witness count, no writing, and no separate proof rule for the directed act.

Partial revocation, and the limit the court added

"A will or any part thereof is revoked." Both routes reach a part.

The Wyoming Supreme Court applied the physical route to a partial cancellation in Seeley v. Estate of Seeley, where a testator cut three lines out of a holographic will and taped the remaining pieces back together. The court accepted the rule that a partial revocation works only if "the remainder, standing alone, is an understandable testamentary expression and the alteration does not result in a new dispositive scheme." 627 P.2d 1357, 1361 (Wyo. 1981). Because the cut removed only a purchase option and left the disposition intact, the partial revocation held.

Intent and proof

Intent is a fact question. Seeley treated it as one for the trial judge, upheld on a clearly-erroneous standard, and drew it from circumstances: the meticulous re-taping showed an intent to keep the rest of the will, and storing the document in a safety deposit box pointed the same way. 627 P.2d at 1362.

The code sets no evidence percentage for a revoking act and creates no presumption from a missing original. A separate section governs proving a will that is gone: § 2-6-207(b) lets a lost or destroyed will be probated only if it is proved to have existed at the testator's death or to have been fraudulently destroyed during life, and only if its provisions are "clearly and distinctly proved by at least two (2) credible witnesses." That is a proof threshold for probating the missing document, not a rule that its absence proves revocation.

Divorce and annulment

Section 2-6-125(b) is the code's long provision. On divorce or annulment it immediately revokes any revocable disposition, appointment, power of appointment, or fiduciary nomination in favor of the former spouse — and, unusually, in favor of a "relative of the divorced person's former spouse," meaning someone related to the former spouse by blood, adoption, or affinity who is not related to the divorced person after the split.

It also severs joint tenancies with right of survivorship and tenancies by the entirety into tenancies in common, subject to a third-party protection in subsection (c) for someone who acquired an interest for value and in good faith before any severance writing was recorded.

Four things defeat the section: the instrument's own express terms providing for the former spouse after divorce, a governing law, a court order, or a marital-division contract. A decree of separation that does not terminate spousal status is not a divorce here.

Construction follows in subsection (d): revoked interests are given effect as if the former spouse and the former spouse's relatives had disclaimed them, while revoked fiduciary nominations are given effect as if those persons died immediately before the divorce.

Remarriage to the former spouse revives provisions revoked solely by this section — unless a prenuptial or other written agreement signed by both parties specifically prohibits it. And subsection (f) closes the family-events question: "No change of circumstances other than as described in this section revokes a will."

What trips people up

• There is no revival statute in Wyoming. Chapter 6 of the probate code has no provision telling you whether tearing up a 2024 will brings a 2019 will back. The only "revival" in the chapter is the divorce-remarriage rule of § 2-6-125(e), which restores the former spouse's provisions and nothing else. Wyoming's reception statute makes English common law as modified by judicial decisions the rule of decision where it is not inconsistent with Wyoming law (§ 8-1-101), so the question is left to a court applying general principles rather than a statute you can read in advance. If you want the older document to govern, execute it again or make a new will saying so; do not destroy the newer one and hope.
• A typed unwitnessed revocation letter is not a revocation route. Because a revoking instrument is itself a "will," it needs two witnesses — or it has to be entirely handwritten and signed by the testator.
• Cutting out one gift can go too far. Seeley permits partial physical revocation only if what remains reads as a complete testamentary expression and the cut does not build a new dispositive scheme. Removing a residuary clause is not the same as removing one option.
• Divorce reaches the ex-spouse's family, not just the ex-spouse. Gifts and fiduciary appointments to in-laws who are no longer your relatives fall too.
• Divorce also changes how you hold title. The severance of joint tenancy and tenancy by the entirety happens by operation of § 2-6-125(b)(ii), independent of anything in the will.
• Marriage, birth, and adoption do not revoke a Wyoming will. Subsection (f) says so directly. A surviving spouse's separate elective-share right under Wyo. Stat. § 2-5-101 is a different question from revocation.

Common questions

Does an inconsistent later will revoke the old one automatically?

To the extent of the inconsistency, yes — § 2-6-117(a)(i) names revocation "by inconsistence" alongside express revocation. Where the two documents can both operate, the older provisions are not displaced by that route.

Can someone else tear up my will for me?

Yes, but only in your presence and at your direction, and the act still needs your intent to revoke. A relative who destroys a will on their own has not revoked it.

If my will can't be found after I die, is it revoked?

The code does not say so. What § 2-6-207(b) says is what it takes to probate a missing will: proof that it existed at death or was fraudulently destroyed during life, plus two credible witnesses proving its provisions clearly and distinctly. That is a demanding standard, so an original nobody can find is a real practical risk even without a revocation presumption on the books.

What happens to my will if I remarry my ex-spouse?

Provisions revoked solely by § 2-6-125 come back on remarriage to the former spouse. The exception is a prenuptial or other written agreement, signed by both of you, that specifically prohibits that revival.

Statutes and sources

• Wyo. Stat. § 2-6-117 — the two revocation routes, "any part thereof," the five destructive acts, the intent requirement, and the directed-act rule. Official Title 2 text (accessed 2026-08-01).
• Wyo. Stat. § 2-6-125 — divorce and annulment revocation reaching the former spouse and the former spouse's relatives, tenancy severance, third-party protection, disclaimer/predecease construction, remarriage revival, and the no-other-change rule. Official Title 2 text (accessed 2026-08-01).
• Wyo. Stat. § 2-1-301(a)(xxxiv) — "will" includes a codicil and an instrument that merely revokes or revives another will. Official Title 2 text (accessed 2026-08-01).
• Wyo. Stat. §§ 2-6-112 and 2-6-113 — two-witness execution and the holographic alternative, which set the formalities any revoking or restoring instrument must meet. Official Title 2 text (accessed 2026-08-01).
• Wyo. Stat. § 2-6-207(b) — the separate proof threshold for probating a lost or destroyed will. Official Title 2 text (accessed 2026-08-01).
• Wyo. Stat. § 8-1-101 — reception of English common law as the rule of decision where not inconsistent with Wyoming law. Official Title 8 text (accessed 2026-08-01).
• Seeley v. Estate of Seeley, 627 P.2d 1357 (Wyo. 1981) — partial physical revocation of a holographic will; the remainder must be an understandable testamentary expression and must not create a new dispositive scheme; intent is a question of fact. Opinion text (accessed 2026-08-01).