Keeping a codicil, not emailing it

A codicil has its own, strictly handwritten form. The original on paper needs a place that you name in the life file: a safe, a drawer, or the notary if the notary keeps the document for you. The name of the place, and if it is with a person the name and the telephone number. Without that place the paper exists only in your head. With that place someone can take the original without turning the house upside down. You describe where it is kept. You do not have to copy out the contents if you do not want every invited reader to see the text. The form of the document remains the handwriting on the original, not the sentence with which you point to the drawer.

A photo of the codicil in the file is a pointer, not the original. The photo helps to see that there is a document, if you want to share that photo at all. It does not replace the paper. A typed copy is not a codicil. An email with the text is not a codicil. Do not send the original around by post or by email to share it with the family. The original stays in the place you have named. If you want someone to know the contents, you let that person see the original, or you deliberately share a photo in a small circle, knowing that a photo does not take over the form. Remove a photo if you make the circle larger and the text is not for everyone.

The life file records where the paper is and who may read this file. It is not itself a codicil and it appoints no heir and no executor. That appointment belongs in a notarial will. What a codicil can and cannot carry, you do not judge in this note and you do not promise to the family. The notary can lay the text next to the form if you ask that question. Ervazo stores where it can be found and, if you upload it, the photo. The program does not send them to a notary. If you change the document, the new handwritten original belongs in the place, and you remove the old photo. Two versions in the folder leave a reader guessing which is the latest.

A life file is a note for later. It is not a will, not a medical instruction and not advice. A photo or a typed line is not the codicil. The handwritten original in the place named is the document someone must be able to find. This page appoints no heir and no executor. Ervazo does not send the note to a doctor or a notary. Do not email the original, and do not treat an attachment as the deed. The drawer, the safe or the notary remains where it is kept. The rest of the file only points there.