I am following through on my promise to provide do-it-yourself guidance about how to make changes to a will.

I’ll start with a basic British Columbia rule about will validity. The will-maker must sign it in the presence of two adult witnesses. Then each witness must also sign in the presence of the will-maker and the other witness. The witnesses should not be the will-maker’s beneficiary or the spouse of a beneficiary.

I’ll refer to these rules as “validity rules” in this column.

None of the rules are written in stone. Wills that don’t follow these rules can be “cured” by the court in appropriate circumstances. But, if you follow the rules, you can be assured of the will’s validity.

It’s also helpful for a will to include the date it was made—not to make it valid but to help determine if the will is the will-maker’s last will.

Options for changing your will include making a new one, writing the change on the will you are changing........

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