Your Will is an important legal document that sets out who and in what proportion you want your estate to pass to in the event of your death. It also covers such aspects as who will manage your Estate when you die to ensure your wishes are carried out.

It is crucial when your Will is made that it takes into account your personal and financial circumstances as they are at the time the Will is made, in particular the value of your estate including your property.

Your Will should then be updated every time there is a significant change in your life for instance (and these are typical examples but not all)-

Your Will should be reviewed if you move home to ensure it takes into account the new property and to check that it is not affected by the disposal of the old property.

You need to check whether your Will needs to be updated when there is a new birth to ensure that the new child can receive a part of your estate should you wish for them to do so. You will also need to consider the relevance of whether a legal Guardian needs to be appointed.

Marriage/ Entering into a Civil Partnership revokes a Will unless it has been expressly made in contemplation of marriage/ civil partnership; so a new Will must be made in these circumstances. If you do not and die without having done so, then you will treated as not having made a Will and your estate will instead pass in accordance with the intestacy provisions.

Divorce, on the contrary does not automatically revoke a Will however, this is still a significant change in your life and will inevitably affect your financial and/or personal circumstances in some way and as such will require a review of your Will.

If your financial position changes in some way, either you come into an inheritance/ some other form of money or perhaps lose money/ spend/ reduce your estate, again your Will will no doubt need to be updated to reflect your current circumstances. This may be particularly relevant where your current Will contains gifts of specific amounts of money (legacies) and or certain items which you may no longer have or have changed in value.

In summary, any time there is a significant change in your life, review your Will, to ensure it still accurately reflects your wishes. Some changes such as a change of an Executor can be dealt with by a Codicil however, these documents are no longer widely used; and often a new Will will be needed. A change of address that does not affect your financial or personal circumstances nor what you would do in your Will, may not result in a new Will being needed, however, it is still important that it is considered, and legal advice sought where appropriate.