Reviewing Your Will

Printer Friendly Version

Your Will is not a static document.

It is prepared to be appropriate to your present circumstances and to try and predict as accurately as possible your circumstances at the date of your death (which is when a Will takes effect).

It is imperative that you regularly review your Will.  Our experience is that most people change their Wills between two and five years after the date upon which changes should originally have been made.  If they had died prior to reviewing their Will, in most of these circumstances people would not have achieved the outcomes they wished.

Reviewing a Will does not necessarily mean changing your Will.  In most cases it means taking out a your copy of the Will from your personal papers, reading it through and considering its contents in the light of your circumstances at that time and any likely changes to your circumstances in the future based upon your circumstances at that time.

The following is a recommended, but not exhaustive, list of the circumstances in which you should review your Will:-

1. On the anniversary of the date of making of your Will (at least once a year).
2. Where an executor or beneficiary dies or the relationship between you and an executor or beneficiary changes.
3. If you separate, divorce, enter into or leave a defacto or other important personal relationship. Divorce does not revoke a Will even though it renders a gift to a former spouse under a Will invalid. Legislation provides for this. How the Will is drafted, however, is important to determine who will take that former spouse’s share.
4. When you marry - or have children - Marriage revokes a Will.
5. If you suffer a serious illness or one which may affect your mental capacity.
6. Where your Executor and/or a beneficiary is involved in any accident or suffers an illness which may effect their mental capacity.
7. If there are changes to taxation or insolvency laws, laws relating to inheritance, family law or domestic relationships.
8. Where your children become adults, marry (divorce or change relationships), have children or there is any change in the relationship between you and your children.
9. If you inherit money from the estate of a parent, relative or other person.
10. Where you change the ownership of any major asset or change any asset or business structures during your lifetime.
11. When you retire from fulltime work or consider retirement.
12. When you make changes to life insurance or superannuation planning.
13. At the time you consult a financial planner or any other professional investment adviser.
14. If there are changes within your business, or trustees or appointors of a trust.
15. When you move interstate, overseas or change your principal place of residence.
16. When you win the lottery!