You've got your Will in place, great! You never need to think about it again... wrong!
Life can be fast paced and change dramatically over a few short years, does your Will still work as you want it to?
Life can throw us many curve balls along the way. Children, grandchildren, house moves, marriages, divorces, personal losses and gains, financial ups and downs and many wonderful surprises! Your Will should reflect any significant changes in your life.
Common reasons to update your Will;
Getting Married Marriage automatically revokes an existing Will (unless a contemplation of marriage clause was added). If you only want your new spouse to inherit everything upon your death then you might think it's a waste of time, but if you wanted to leave anything to other loved ones you would need to write a new Will.
Getting Divorced When getting divorced your Will treats an ex-spouse as if they have died. Changes to your Will may be required if they were the sole beneficiary, or you just want to change how your assets are distributed.
A new Child/Grandchild A new addition to the family means changes might need to be made if you want to include them in your Will.
A person named in the Will dies before you Whether this be a beneficiary and you want to add someone else in to receive what would have been their inheritance, or an executor or guardian meaning you need to add someone in to fulfil that role.
A lottery win Ok, maybe that's not likely to happen, but a major change in your financial situation may need to be reflected in your Will.
Buying a house This doesn't mean you have to update your Will, but it may be useful to check how your Property is owned and how it will be distributed on your death.
We recommend that you check your Will every 3-5 years to ensure it still works for you.
If it does then great put it back in that safe place. If it doesn't you may want to consider updating it or having a new one written sooner rather than later, after all we never know what's just around the corner.
If you have any questions or would like to book an appointment contact Holistic Law on 01642 424441 or info@holisticlaw.co.uk.