The importance of updating your will regularly
Everyone should have a will in place. It is important for many reasons, not least so that you can control who inherits your estate when you die. But having made a will, you should keep it under regular review to ensure it reflects the changes in your life. Keeping your will up to date is just as important as making a will in the first place.
For example, your financial circumstances may change, your family expands or you may simply decide to change who will benefit from your will. It is important to ensure your will accurately reflects your wishes – remembering that your wishes can change over time and if you fail to amend your will to reflect the changes it may not represent your most current wishes and circumstances.
Here is a list of the most common situations in which you should review your will with a professional:
1. Relationship changes: have you recently married, divorced, or entered into a civil partnership? It is important to note that marriage or civil partnership revokes any previous wills not written in anticipation of that union. This means that any will that was written before you got married will no longer be valid. Also, if you get divorced, your ex-partner will be treated as though they have passed away in your will, meaning they will not benefit from your estate.
You should also be mindful of new additions to the family such as children or grandchildren as this could impact greatly on the choices you make.
2. To change an executor: an executor named in your will may have predeceased you or moved some distance away and you need to appoint an alternative. Or perhaps you may decide your original choice is no longer suitable and wish to appoint someone else. Your affairs may have become more complicated since you wrote your last will and you may decide a professional executor is more appropriate.
3. Your financial situation has changed: you may have received a sizeable inheritance, purchased or sold a property or used up your savings. If your financial circumstances have drastically changed for any reason you should re-visit your will to ensure that it is still valid and still reflect your wishes. For example, you may have left a specific property to your daughter but if you have sold that property then there is nothing to gift to her.
4. Your choice of beneficiary has changed: you may wish to add or remove someone from your will for whatever reason. However, you must take care to ensure that your will properly provides for anyone who is financially dependent on you in order to minimise the risk of your will being contested after you are gone.
Whatever your circumstances, you should always keep your will under review. Wills can be amended as frequently as you wish as any new will you write automatically revokes those written previously. If in doubt as to whether your existing will still reflects your personal wishes, seek advice from a qualified professional to gain peace of mind.
Find out more about how online wills work and how they offer an easy way to regularly update your living will.
Processing your request, Please wait....
