The past couple of years have demonstrated that life is anything but predictable. Most of us could not have predicted a long global pandemic any more than we could predict at what age we get married, divorced, whether we move abroad or have children. Regardless of what life throws at us and the path we follow, one thing is true for all of us – we need to write a Will and certain life events will trigger the need to update it.
None of us wants to think about dying but it’s the only certainty in life so having a Will in place is important. It’s equally important to keep the Will updated as life changes.
Review your Will regularly, at least every 5 years but particularly when significant life events happen.
Here are 5 significant events that should trigger an update.
– The addition of new family members – children, grandchildren, adoption.
– Marriage or entering into a civil partnership.
– Moving abroad.
– Buying property.
– Divorce or separation.
Figures show that 59% of the parents in Britain either have no Will or have not updated it to include provisions for their expanding family.
This is a shocking statistic because having a baby, adopting or taking on a stepchild is a life-changing and significant event and therefore a key time to update your Will.
There are three main reasons why your Will should be updated when new children join the family:
1. Your children need to be taken care of if something should happen to both parents (or the sole parent if it is a single-parent family). As well as having someone familiar to take care of them, they also need to be taken care of financially. If there are stepchildren it is even more crucial because they are not currently accounted for under the laws of Intestacy. If you have stepchildren who have not been formally adopted by you they will only benefit financially from your Will if they have been included in it.
2. The second point is that a Will enables you to appoint a guardian for your children in the event that your children lose their parent(s). If you do not have this written into your Will it will be left to the courts to decide who should take care of your children and this may not be who you or they would have chosen.
3. The third point relates to grandparents. If you are a grandparent and you intend to leave some of your estate to your grandchildren make sure you update your Will every time a new child joins the family and remember to include the stepchildren if this is what you want.
Contact us if you need to write or update your Will
