The dangers of out-of-date wills
Having a will allows you to control who gets what when you pass away. However, it is just as important to ensure that your wishes are up to date.
It is recommended that your will should be reviewed every five years and after any major life event. That could include buying a house, getting married or entering into a civil partnership, following births or deaths, but also events like bankruptcy and divorce, amongst others. These events relate to not just you, but those closest to you who may feature (or not) in your will.
An outdated will can, essentially, lead to your assets passing to the wrong people when you die. It is only as accurate as the circumstances were at the time that you made it, subject to some obvious potential events that should be accounted for, such as a beneficiary passing away before you. You may have accounted for that with an onward gift to their children, for example.
You may have left assets to your partner, spouse, or civil partner in the current version of your will. However, if you are no longer in a relationship with that person, you may not actually want them to inherit from you.
If you were married and you were officially divorced or were in a civil partnership and it was dissolved, your former spouse or civil partner is treated as though they passed away immediately before you when the time comes to consider your will. However, if you were in a relationship without being married or in a civil partnership, that person would still inherit the assets given to them under your will unless you revoke or change it.
Staying on the theme of relationship breakdowns, what if one of your beneficiaries were themselves going through a divorce from their spouse or a dissolution of their civil partnership? The assets you wish to pass on to your intended beneficiary may be lost to a former partner as a result of the terms of a financial order.
Your assets could, alternatively, pass to a trustee in bankruptcy if one of your intended beneficiaries were bankrupt.
You may find yourself in a dispute with someone you previously wanted to provide for in your will, or you may have simply lost touch with someone meaning it is no longer appropriate for them to be a beneficiary in your will.
On the other hand, you may have met someone since making your will who you feel is more, or just as, deserving of your assets than those you have provided for already. If that person is reliant on you financially, they could face unwarranted hardship following your death if you have not updated your will.
All of these circumstances involve the potential beneficiaries of your estate after you pass away. However, an out-of-date will could also cause issues if you make gifts of specific assets which no longer exist in your estate, or a certain value of money that you no longer have. Bringing matters up to date would ensure that the beneficiaries you wish to inherit receive the assets you want them to receive.
Ultimately, an out-of-date will can lead to costly and stressful legal disputes for your family and loved ones. It could also result in a greater tax liability if the legislation relied upon when the will was made is out of date.
If you wish to review your will, no matter how old it is, but do not know how to go about it, speaking to a specialist such as an accredited member of The Association of Lifetime Lawyers can help to ensure that your wishes are properly executed. You may even find that changes are needed that you had not even considered. You can use the Find a Lawyer tool to find an Accredited Lifetime Lawyer near you.