Have you written or updated your Will?

Did you know that between 60 and 70% of adults haven’t written a Will yet?

Not only that…. a large proportion of Wills that are in place are out-of-date and need to be revised.

This has been put down to the fact that some people may find it difficult to find the time and money to create a Will in the first place or to book an appointment and pay the professional fees to make changes to an existing will.

When you create a Will with a solicitor, you really have no idea how long that Will is going to last. There is even a chance that by the time you get home from the lawyer’s office, your Will could be out of date (although this is unlikely). There are a huge number of reasons why you should change your Will. This includes obvious things such as a change in marital status or the birth or death of a new family member.

When you give birth to a new child, the likelihood is that amending your Will is not going to be at the forefront of your mind and there are countless examples of parents of young children not getting around to writing a new Will immediately after the child is born.
In reality though, the need to update a Will is more nuanced than that. You not only have to look at changes to your own situation but also any changes in circumstance of anybody or anything mentioned in your Will.

Some people update their Will every few months, based on interactions with the people around them; for example when a dinner party goes wrong, following a snubbed invitation or even after an unwelcome comment about an inheritance. You are certainly free to update your Will whenever you wish, but going through this exercise every time a beneficiary falls in and out of favour will not necessarily result in your estate plan reflecting your final wishes. It may make more sense to update your Will after a change in circumstance rather than a change in heart.

An outdated Will can be worse than no Will at all. You should double check your Will, whenever there is a significant event that could affect anybody mentioned in the document, and make any required changes. At a bare minimum, you should read through your Will at least once a year to confirm that it still reflects your wishes and that your instructions can still be carried out.

If you would like to have a Will professionally drafted by a solicitor’s firm, please contact Beeston Shenton’s Will Writer, Mike Cooper, on 01782 66 24 24 or e-mail mike.cooper@beestonshenton.co.uk.