Mutual wills arise when two parties sign Wills to achieve a particular distribution of their estates and they make an agreement not to change the terms of those Wills without the consent of the other. This agreement is meant to survive the death of the one of the parties. This means that the surviving party cannot change his or her Will to defeat the parties’ original intentions. By way of an example, a couple in a second marriage, each with children from a prior relationship, may agree to sign mutual wills leaving their estates to each other and then equally to all of their combined children upon the death of the survivor.
