Updating Your Will

Circumstances can often change, wealth fluctuates, families grow etc. and taking all of the possibilities into account the Testator should always be advised to review his Will at regular intervals to see if there have been any variations that need to be addressed.

These include:

• Birth of children - Whom the Testator would like to include as beneficiaries and to make provision for the appointment of Testamentary Guardians.

• Marriage - Marriage will revoke an existing Will just as if it had never existed, unless it was written in contemplation of the marriage. Should the Testator therefore die after marrying or re-marrying without having made a new Will he would die intestate.

• Separation - Separation of spouses may lead to a desire to change a Will to exclude any benefit passing to the estranged spouse.

• Divorce - Divorce cancels those parts of the Will, which relate to the divorced spouse.

• Retirement - Often retirement is a point in their lives at which people take a different view of their property and families. This may encourage them to think more about the certainty of eventual death and the need to make a Will. For example ‘In Service Death Benefit’ will no longer apply upon retirement.

• Inheriting further property - This may significantly alter the value of a Testator’s estate and how he might wish to dispose of it.

• Changes in the Law - This may relate to either succession or taxation. Government policy and statutory adjustments may affect the importance of making a Will or prompt the need to change an existing one.

• An existing Will may contain a legacy that has been distorted by inflation

• Your circumstances may have changed.

• An existing Will may refer to an executor who may have died.

• An existing Will can be updated using a codicil, or by re-writing your Will.