[Direct answer]When the contents of multiple wills conflict with each other, according to Article 1142 of the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China (effective from January 1, 2021), the will made later shall prevail, and the notarized will shall no longer have priority effect; the parts that do not conflict with each other shall still be executed according to the respective wills. The invalid parts of the will and the unallocated inheritance shall be handled in accordance with the statutory inheritance. When determining the validity of the will, the formal requirements and the testator's capacity to contract at the time of making the will shall be reviewed one by one. The contents made under fraud, coercion, or tampering shall be invalid. Where the will and the agreement on family division and property division overlap, further consultation may be required.Legal services for inheritance and family property division.

I. Problem Background and Typical Scenarios

The elderly person made wills for different children in different years; first, they executed a notarized will, and later rewrote it by hand; in addition to the will, they also signed a family division agreement and a gift contract; after their death, each child held a copy and claimed to divide the estate according to their "own" share — the situation of multiple arrangements coexisting is not uncommon in families with remarriages, multiple children, and cross-regional assets. The disputes usually revolve around three issues: which will is valid, how to handle conflicting parts, and whether the excluded heirs can still overturn the decision. If the order of judgment is wrong, or if the validity defects of a will are overlooked, the outcome may be completely different.

II. Key points of dispute

  • Confirmation of the chronological order: On the premise that the later will prevails if the chronological order can be proven, if the date of the will is missing, altered, or one party claims to have added the date later, the time of establishment of the will will become the primary point of contention. It is necessary to rely on handwriting identification, paper and writing tools, and witness testimonies to make a comprehensive judgment.
  • Hierarchical review of effectiveness: Each will must be independently reviewed for formal requirements, authenticity, and the testator's capacity for action. Invalid wills will not be included in the comparison of precedence; even if the last valid will is established, if the testator has lost capacity for action at the time of its creation, the preceding will or statutory inheritance may still apply.
  • Conflict with pre-death dispositions: Property that has been transferred or sold before death does not belong to the estate, and no matter how the will is written, it cannot be recovered. If the later will conflicts with previous gift arrangements, the last expressed intention shall prevail. In practice, this often results in the later will "revoking" the previous gift.

III. Professional analysis by Henglue Lawyers

A succession dispute exposed the review path when multiple arrangements conflict with each other. In one family, one heir claimed that the house under the elderly person's name was purchased in his name and should belong to him, while the other party held the elderly person's later self-written will and insisted on distributing the property according to the will. Henglue Law Firm focused on three points: the party claiming the house failed to prove the lending agreement and had explicitly waived inheritance rights at the notary office, so his claim was unfounded; the house belonged to the elderly person's estate, and the later self-written will redistributed the previous gift arrangement. The conflicting parts should be governed by the latest will; on the basis of the effective judgment confirming the validity of the later will, the house was inherited by the two heirs in equal shares according to the will. The case shows that when multiple arrangements coexist, the effective expression of intention made later takes precedence, but the prerequisite are to first refute the other party's claims lacking factual and legal basis. For issues such as the intersection of family internal agreements and wills, and the division of shares and compensation, further reference can be made.Divorce litigation and legal services for family disputesThe experience in handling family property matters in China.

IV. Practical Suggestions and Legal Basis

Legal basis: Article 1142 of the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China (effective January 1, 2021) stipulates that the testator may revoke or modify the will. The implementation of civil legal acts contrary to the content of the will shall be deemed as revoking the relevant content. If there are several wills with conflicting contents, the latest one shall prevail. Article 1143 stipulates that the wills made by persons with no or limited civil capacity shall be invalid. The wills made under fraud or coercion shall be invalid. Forged wills and the contents that have been tampered with shall be invalid. Article 1154 stipulates that the inheritance involved in the invalid part of the will and the inheritance not disposed of by the will shall be handled in accordance with the statutory inheritance. Article 1123 stipulates that after the inheritance begins, the inheritance shall be handled in accordance with the will if there is one, and in accordance with the statutory inheritance if there is no will or the will does not involve the relevant content. Practical advice: Comprehensively collect the originals, drafts, envelopes and storage evidence of all wills, and fix the timeline of their establishment. If the other party denies the authenticity of the signature, apply for handwriting identification in time. If there are doubts about the capacity for action, retrieve the medical records before and after the establishment of the will and apply for judicial appraisal if necessary. In litigation, first resolve the issue of "which one is valid and which one shall prevail", and then proceed to the calculation of shares.

5. Henglu Law Firm's Reminder

The outcome of multiple wills is not as simple as "the latest one wins": if the last one is invalid due to formal or capacity issues, it may still revert to the previous one or even to the statutory inheritance; the non-conflicting parts will remain valid. Testators should develop the habit of drafting a will once and updating it centrally afterward, with the new will stating that it supersedes the old one; when heirs discover conflicts among multiple wills, they should not rush to sue based on a certain share, but first ask a lawyer to conduct an effectiveness review and then determine a strategy, which will be more cost-effective. This case is handled by Beijing Henglu Law Firm.Yuan HangAttorney (Practice Certificate No.: 11101202110286151, subject to the certificate issued by the judicial administrative organ) acting as the agent.

Q1: If there is a conflict between a notarized will and a later handwritten will, which one should prevail?

After the implementation of the Civil Code, Article 1142 shall be uniformly applied: where the contents conflict with each other, the last-made will shall prevail, and the notarized will shall no longer have priority effect. If the testator first notarizes the will and then makes a self-written will, the self-written will shall be executed; conversely, if the testator first makes a self-written will and then notarizes it, the notarized will shall be executed. For the issue of the transition of inheritance where a will was made before the implementation of the Civil Code but the inheritance occurs after its implementation, it shall be judged on a case-by-case basis in accordance with the spirit of the judicial interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on the temporal effectiveness of the Civil Code. It is recommended to consult a lawyer with all the wills before making a conclusion.

Q2: If there are only some conflicting parts between the two wills, how should they be handled?

The conflicting parts shall be governed by the later will, and the non-conflicting parts shall be valid in all versions. For example, if the first will leaves the property to the eldest son and divides the savings equally, and the second will changes the property to be left to the second son while keeping the savings unchanged, then the property shall be executed in accordance with the second will, and the savings shall be executed in accordance with the consistent content of both wills. To avoid disputes over interpretation, when making a new will, it is recommended to state "After the establishment of this will, the content of the previous will that conflicts with this will shall be revoked", and keep the records of the revocation or filing of the previous will, so that the timeline can be clear at a glance.

Q3: Is the amended will still valid?

According to Article 1143 of the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China, if a will is tampered with, the content of the tampering is invalid, but if it does not affect the validity of other parts, the other parts remain valid; a forged will is invalid as a whole. If there are alterations to the will without the signatures of the testator to confirm them, the authenticity of the alterations is questionable. When inheriting, the heirs may apply for handwriting identification and combine with auxiliary evidence such as the video of the making process, the paper and writing tools, etc. If a handwritten will needs to be modified, the standard practice is to rewrite the entire text or have the testator sign and stamp the modified parts to indicate the date.

Q4: How should we handle the invalid part of the will?

According to Article 1154 of the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China, the estate involved in the invalid part of the will shall be handled in accordance with the statutory succession, and the first-order heirs (spouses, children, parents) shall divide it according to law. If there are no first-order heirs, the second-order heirs shall inherit it; the estate not disposed of in the will shall also be handled in accordance with the statutory succession. When the testamentary succession and the statutory succession coexist, the invalid part shall be excluded first, and the property covered by the valid will shall be clarified. Then, the shares of all parties shall be calculated comprehensively to avoid mixing the disputes over the invalid part into the overall judgment of the validity of the will.

Q5: How can we prove that the later-made will is genuine?

Evidence can be provided from several aspects: whether the formal requirements are complete (handwritten, signature, complete date, witnesses); if necessary, apply for handwriting identification to compare the testator's signature with the writing samples; provide physical evidence such as writing tools, paper, envelopes, etc., and evidence of the storage process; provide witness testimonies before and after the making of the will, medical records, to corroborate the testator's physical and mental state at the time of making the will. It should be noted that the determination of the time of formation of the will is subject to technical limitations and has limited accuracy. It usually relies on multiple indirect evidences to form a chain, rather than relying on a single identification conclusion.

If you are facing similar problems, it is recommended that you consult a professional lawyer as soon as possible with the relevant evidence materials, so as to avoid missing the statutory time limit.Legal services for inheritance succession·Attorney Yuan Hang·Beijing Henglu Law Firm