I live in Pennsylvania. My husband had a will executed prior to us being married. Is that will still valid?

Question

I live in Pennsylvania. My husband had a will executed prior to us being married. Is that will still valid?

Answer

Yes it is valid but it has likely been modified by your marriage. Do you have your own will?

Answer

Yes it is valid as noted by Attorney Brown. However, in PA you cannot disinherit your spouse and you have to leave them as much as the PA elective share. So if something happened to your husband before he could make a new will, you would be entitled to an elective share of his estate and the remainder would pass as per his will.

Any time you have a life-changing event like birth, marriage, death, divorce, adoption or relocation to a new place, it presents the perfect time to dust off any prior wills and change if needed.

Since you and your husband are now married, you both need to see an estate planning lawyer and should have a will, financial power of attorney, health care power of attorney and living will in place. However, your husband definitely needs to have his will re-done.

You also should make a will - even if you think you have no assets now, things may change or you could end up being a dead millionaire (this happens a lot in wrongful death cases where someone may be killed, like in a horrible traffic accident, and the estate of the dead person inherits money from the wrongdoer's insurance company).

So you and your husband need to see an experienced local estate planning attorney.