When You Should Review Your Will
Reviewing and Updating your Will. Your Will is a living document and should change as your life and circumstances change. You should review your Will around every 3-5yrs and consider updating your Will if major life events, such as those listed below, have occurred.
Alex Truesdale Wills Limited: A professional Will writing and review service based in Cobham and serving clients throughout the Greater London area.
Call: 07887 946557 to schedule a Will review or update or for all your estate planning needs.
Reviewing your Will
Reviewing and Updating your Will. Your Will is a living document and should change as your life and circumstances change. You should review your Will around every 3 to 5 years and consider updating your Will if major life events, such as those listed below, have occurred.
Alex Truesdale Wills Limited: A professional Will writing and review service based in Cobham and serving clients throughout the Greater London area.
Call: 07887 946557 to schedule a Will review or update or for all your estate planning needs.
When To Review Your Will
As much as your Will might have been “future-proofed” as far as possible, personal circumstances often change so we suggest reviewing your Will every 3 to 5 years or when one of the following events happen in your life.
Twenty reasons why you should review your Will
- You get engaged
- You get married, or register a civil partnership (see below)
- You separate or divorce (see below)
- You remarry (see below)
- You move house
- You move abroad
- You become a parent or grandparent
- You assume guardianship of a child
- Your children reach the age of 18
- Your children marry
- Your children divorce
- You inherit money or property
- You start up your own business
- You sell a family business
- You retire
- Your spouse or partner dies
- An executor, trustee or guardian dies
- Another family member dies
- A beneficiary dies
- There are significant changes in your physical or mental health
The life events most likely to affect your Will are divorce and remarriage.
Wills, Divorce and Dissolution: why you must update your Will before, during and after your divorce
According to the Office of National Statistics, 42% of all marriages in England and Wales will come to an end through divorce. Of those, 60% occur before the couple’s twentieth wedding anniversary. And 50% of divorcees will go on to remarry or form civil partnerships. Modern society is seeing rising numbers of stepfamilies and blended families, in which parents are raising children of a widening age range from multiple relationships and navigating the emotional, practical and financial issues that these raise.
We have expertise in designing and executing estate planning which balances the needs of all the children of the family, acknowledging what each spouse has brought to the marriage and ensuring that the (potentially competing) needs of former and subsequent spouses are catered for. A number of issues arise during what is often a delicate and emotive process.
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Need help getting started on thinking about the future?
Send an online enquiry or email info@alextruesdalewills.com for expert advice and guidance on your Will writing and estate planning needs.
Divorce and Existing Wills
If your existing Will was made during your first marriage or civil partnership, it is highly unlikely that it will still be fit for purpose, regardless of the stage you have reached in your divorce or civil partnership dissolution
Before your decree absolute (or final order) can be issued, the court will issue a decree nisi (or conditional order), which requires a minimum period of six weeks and one day to elapse until a decree absolute (or final order) can be issued leaving you free to remarry or register another civil partnership. Until then the legal relationship is in force for the purposes of the existing Will or any intestacy.
The risk is that the period between these two stages often extends far beyond the minimum six weeks, due to the negotiation of finances, access and custody. Throughout this sometimes protracted process any existing Will is still valid. Unamended, the Will would still benefit your ex in full should you die during the process, regardless of the financial settlement being negotiated.
Beware of a Will which appoints your spouse as a sole executor – an executorless Will inevitably mean an expensive court application. And watch for provisions in your financial settlement requiring you to provide ongoing maintenance to your spouse or children – if you die before these obligations are complete without having made provision for them to be honoured, there is a risk of legal action against your estate.
Reviewing your Will
When to Review your Will PDF Guide
A PDF Guide For When to Review your Will – Alex Truesdale Wills
Your Will is considered a living document. This guide highlights major life events that should trigger revisions to your Will. Please enter your email address to download this PDF.
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More PDF download information guides from Alex Truesdale Wills
- A Guide to Choosing Guardians In 2021
- A Guide Mitigating Inheritance Tax In 2021
- The Rules of Intestacy of England and Wales 2021
- A Guide to The Stages of Probate In 2021
- A Guide For When You Should Review Your Will
- Alex Truesdale Wills – New Client Application Forms
- Alex Truesdale Wills – Client Information Pack
Relationships and Blended Families
If you are intestate, either because you have never made a Will or because your remarriage or new civil partnership has invalidated your existing Will, your new spouse will inherit the first £250,000 of your estate and half of any excess. Your biological children will inherit anything leftover but your stepchildren will not inherit from you. However, once your new spouse has inherited from you, on their (intestate) death, it is their biological children, not yours, who will go on to inherit what was once your money.
As this is rarely what remarrying spouses wish to happen, fresh Wills should be an intrinsic part of forming a new relationship.
The risk is that the period between these two stages often extends far beyond the minimum six weeks, due to the negotiation of finances, access and custody. Throughout this sometimes protracted process any existing Will is still valid. Unamended, the Will would still benefit your ex in full should you die during the process, regardless of the financial settlement being negotiated.
If you want to learn more, visit our page on Intestacy Rules or download the Intestacy Rules Infographic here.
The way in which you own your home with your new spouse or civil partner then becomes of critical importance. Owning a house together as “joint tenants”, which is the basis on which most couples own their home, means that on your death your new spouse receives the entire property automatically, by right of survivorship. This gives full ownership and control of the property to the survivor – who would be under no obligation to share it with your children on their death. Instead, consider purchasing upon, or converting your ownership into, a “tenancy in common”, in which your respective contributions to the purchase of the property are recognised as separate and distinct shares, which can be set at 50:50 or a ratio corresponding to your contributions. This, together with a Will drafted in the right terms (usually incorporating a Will trust) gives you much more flexibility to protect your spouse and also your own children if you pass away first.
Visit our Will Trusts page, to find out more.
Many clients come to us with the view that simple mirror Wills, leaving the entire estate to each other on first death and then to the children on the second death, is the right solution. However, this can be extremely counterproductive – even though it is undoubtedly the most simple and tax efficient solution. If you die first, such a Will passes everything to your spouse, but there is then nothing to stop them changing their Will subsequently – on a remarriage or purely to reflect personal preferences – so as to leave everything to their own children, effectively disinheriting your children.
Even if you trust your spouse not to do such a thing (which, in my experience, is unfortunately naïve – if you need a very public example, just Google Lynda Bellingham), your spouse may remarry after you are gone, rendering their mirror Will invalid and themselves intestate, so that the bulk of their estate, including what was once your money, will go to their new spouse!
The better solution is to make Wills including trusts, which benefit not only your spouse but also your children and remoter descendants, protecting assets for the family for up to 125 years after your death.
Declarations of Trust regulate who is entitled to real property held on tenancies in common or by sole owners. Click here if you would like to learn more.
Many clients have children from their first marriage who are nearly a generation older than those of the subsequent marriage – this is no longer the sole preserve of the Rolling Stones. And the more children you have, the more chance there is that something might go wrong in one of their lives, meaning that the appointment of trustees is of critical importance. Whether family, friends or professionals, trustees have to be people you believe have the skills to carry out your wishes fairly. And the best way to inform those trustees of your wishes, is to draw up Letters of Wishes, giving your trustees clear instructions as to how you want them to share out your assets to maximise the benefit to your family. and how you want it to be distributed for the good of the whole family.
Follow the link to learn more about Letters of Wishes.
In many cases, Enduring Powers of Attorney fail to specify substitute Attorneys and so this renders the document useless; for Lasting Powers of Attorney, many clients wish their new spouses to become their Attorneys perhaps with existing family members. It is important therefore to consider revoking existing Lasting Powers of Attorney for Health and Welfare and for Property and Financial Affairs and making new ones to include your new spouse or civil partner – unfortunately you cannot simply amend an existing LPA. As in all matters, the sequencing of these actions is important when carrying out this vital aspect of estate planning.
More on Lasting Powers of Attorney here.
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Client Testimonials
“After many years putting off writing my Will I finally entrusted Alex Truesdale with the task of compiling it for me and my family. My main wish was to pass my estate on to my son, and have guardianship put in place, should the worst happen before he came of age. Alex guided us through the difficult and emotional process with the utmost professionalism and put us at ease from the outset. She was able to address all of the issues we put to her and brought up many we had not considered regarding our estate.
“As we were about to travel abroad, we were also on a very tight schedule for the wills to be drawn up and signed. Alex went above and beyond to make sure everything was in place for us in the allotted time, even to the point of being personally on hand to instruct ourselves and our witnesses during the signing procedure.
“In using Alex Truesdale Wills, we now feel totally secure if the worst should happen our affairs are in order. We will be continuing to draw on her knowledge as and when our wills need updating in the future and are delighted to recommend her first class service.”
“Very clear explanation of what the options and implications were for us. It was also good to have someone focused on the end result we had to get to, as it’s very easy on your own to leave to another day.”
“Thank you again for helping me sort out all our Wills and the funeral plan for my godmother. I cannot believe how timely that was bearing in mind today’s situation. Only good news from her care home so far, but to know that resources are there to help the staff directly if the worst happens certainly gives me peace of mind.”
“We would like to thank you for your professional help in getting us to a point of having signed Wills after many years of procrastination. Not only that your advice gave us the impetus to arrange a Civil Partnership and we now feel that we have got at least some of our affairs in order in these worrying times.”
“The support Alex gave me and my husband after our Wills and LPAs were finalised was second to none especially as he was diagnosed with a terminal illness a few months later. This ongoing support, advice and bringing in other specialists to assist was outstanding and I felt that we were in very good hands and would continue to be when the inevitable happened.
After my husband died, the comfort of knowing all was in order with the Wills was a great relief and her help in the immediate aftermath was much appreciated. It wasn’t just the professionalism but the genuine concern for my situation and that of the family. Alex then continued to guide me through the process and through some pretty complicated issues relating to the estate administration. She always responded to my copious emails and phone calls with clarity, efficiency and care.
The whole process was dealt with in a timely manner and to a very high standard and I felt that I was being looked after like one of her own family.
I can’t recommend Alex highly enough – a very talented professional dedicated to her work with a heart of gold.”
“I have known Alex Truesdale for over 6 years, during which time she prepared Wills and Lasting Powers of Attorney for my sisters and assisted us in the administration of my sister Elizabeth’s estate after her death in 2018. I testify to her attention to detail, her knowledge and experience in her work and the warmth of her communications whether by letter, by telephone or in person. She responds to us quickly and we have full confidence in what she does on our behalf and on her advice on various aspects. She has a good network of people when particular advice is needed beyond her field of expertise or training. She became a friend to us as a family. I gladly recommend her services to others.”
“Alex arranged an appointment for my husband and I to update our Wills in view of a change in family circumstances. She was organised, efficient and extremely sensitive to our needs. We discussed advance directives and lasting powers of attorney in-depth – things we had only considered in vague terms previously but realised how intelligent it was to sort them out early.
“I cannot fault Alex’s professionalism and caring attitude, and will be recommending her service to my friends and colleagues.”
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Will Writing And Estate Planning From Alex Truesdale Wills
Alex Truesdale Wills Limited offers a professional and personal Will writing service, giving you flexibility and control for the present and your loved one’s peace of mind about the future.
Contact Alex Truesdale today to arrange a free, no-obligation initial consultation, virtual meetings or face to face.