Republication of a Will UK: How a Codicil Re-dates Your Will and What Changes

Updated 31 May 2026 · 8 min read · Wills & Estate Planning

When you execute a codicil — a supplementary amendment to your will — you do more than change or add a specific provision. You also republish your will, re-dating it as at the codicil’s execution date. That shift in date has real consequences: it changes which documents can be incorporated by reference, which beneficiaries fall within a class description, and in some cases whether a witness’s gift is saved or forfeited. Understanding republication is essential for anyone who has made a will and is considering amending it.

What Is Republication?

Republication is the doctrine by which a will is treated as having been re-made on a date later than its original execution. The will’s contents do not change (except to the extent the codicil amends them), but its deemed date shifts forward to the codicil’s date. The testator is treated as having re-affirmed and re-published the will as at the codicil’s execution.

The doctrine is recognised both at common law and under the Wills Act 1837. Section 34 of that Act confirms that a will ‘shall be construed to speak and take effect as if it had been executed immediately before the death of the testator’ — but where republication moves the deemed date forward, courts apply the republication date for purposes of class descriptions, incorporation, and witness gifts.

Express and Implied Republication

Republication may be express or implied:

• Express republication occurs when the codicil contains words such as “I confirm and republish my will dated [date]” or “in all other respects I confirm my said will.” This leaves no ambiguity about the testator’s intent.
• Implied republication occurs when the codicil modifies or supplements the will without an express confirmation clause. Courts have consistently held that any valid codicil that deals with the will’s contents implicitly republishes and confirms it as at the codicil’s date.

In practice, most professionally drafted codicils include an express confirmation clause to avoid any uncertainty, but the doctrine operates even without one.

Republication and After-Acquired Property

A will speaks from death: it generally disposes of all property the testator owns at the date of their death. But where the will contains a class gift defined by reference to property held at a particular time — or a gift of “my shares in X company” which the testator sold and repurchased — the date from which the will speaks can affect what falls within the gift.

Republication can be used deliberately to bring after-acquired property within a class or specific gift by moving the will’s reference date forward. Testators and their advisers should be alert to this when using codicils to make minor changes: the republication effect may unintentionally alter which property passes under a specific gift.

Republication and Class Gifts

A class gift — a gift to “my children”, “my grandchildren who reach 21”, or “my employees at the date of my death” — is construed as at the will’s deemed date in some respects. Republication by codicil can widen or narrow the class if additional members come into existence between the original will date and the codicil date.

The clearest case is adoption: a child adopted after the original will was made but before the codicil was executed may be included within a class gift to “my children” as a result of republication, even if they would not have been included under the original will date. Similarly, an employee who joined the company after the will was made but before the codicil might be included within a gift to “my employees.”

This is rarely the testator’s intent when executing a codicil to change an unrelated provision. Careful drafting — specifying names rather than class descriptions, or including a fixed class-closing date — avoids unintended beneficiaries being included by the republication effect.

Republication and Incorporation by Reference

A will can incorporate an unexecuted document (a schedule, a list, a memorandum) only if the document was in existence when the will was made. A letter of wishes written two years after the will cannot be incorporated by the original will — it postdates the will’s execution.

But if a codicil is subsequently executed and republishes the will, the will is treated as re-made on the codicil date. If the letter of wishes existed before the codicil (but after the original will), it may now qualify for incorporation by reference — it predates the (republished) will date. Testators who want to incorporate a list of personal chattels or a memorandum of wishes should time the execution of the codicil carefully to ensure the document they want incorporated is in existence before the codicil is signed.

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