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When should you update your Will?

Advice, Wills

Do you already have a Will? If so, when should you update it?

You may need to update your Will if any of the following changes have occurred to your circumstances:

  • You have married or divorced since you made your last Will: If so, you now effectively have no Will because marriage or divorce automatically revokes a Will.
  • You have started living with someone: If so, you should be aware that people who qualify as a defacto partner may be entitled to bring a claim against your estate if you do not provide for them.
  • You have had a child, or more children (via birth or adoption): Does your current Will consider all of your children? If you are unsure, you should engage a Lawyer for advice.

Other situations that may require an update of your Will are:

  • If your executor has died, become ill or incapacitated: If your Will does not provide for an alternate Executor, you should update your Will to avoid complications with your Will after your death.
  • You own a business, or have a family trust, or you have a self-managed superannuation fund: It is important to ensure your business, family trust and/or self-managed superannuation fund has the appropriate provisions in place to ensure the continuity of the entities on your death.
  • Overseas Will: If you have overseas assets or a Will from another country, you should seek legal advice about how your Australian and overseas assets can be dealt with without causing complications after your death.

If any of the above changes have occurred, and you have not updated your Will accordingly, please contact us and we will be happy to assist you.

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Why (some) Lawyers love homemade Wills!

Advice, Wills ,

‘Why can’t I draft my own Will?’ you might ask.

Well you can. In fact, there is an old joke, that Lawyers love homemade Wills because lawyers make so much more money after your death, when things go wrong!

It amazes us that some people don’t want to pay a relatively modest amount to engage a lawyer to prepare their Will, and yet will pay their accountant perhaps thousands of dollars every single year to assist with their financial affairs.

If you do decide to draft your own Will, you must accept that you are taking a risk. We practice exclusively in the area of Wills and Estates and this means we frequently see the sometimes-disastrous results from homemade Wills.These can be caused by technical problems, when the will drafter has not appreciated the importance of various Will-drafting conventions, through to errors made at the time of execution of the Wills. It is frustrating for us, because these difficulties could so easily have been avoided if a competent Wills lawyer had been consulted in the first place. As a result, thousands of dollars of estate funds are spent in legal fees and inevitably there is a very long and stressful delay in distributing the assets.

We both have enjoyed many years’ experience in an interesting but rather technical area of the law is. Making a Will is a very personal (and sometimes emotional) process and at times a difficult task for people to face.

However, we take pride in our ability to make the process as painless as possible. We love seeing the relief our clients feel when they have their affairs in order.

Contact us if you don’t want to risk your estate by using a homemade Will.

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