6 reasons why you might want to change your will

1. There’s a new baby in town

A new baby in the family, be it a child, grandchild, niece or nephew can be an important time to think about updating your will. You may want to reconsider how you’re splitting your money or you may want to give your newest and smallest family member a special gift like a favourite ring or some old photographs. 

2. You’ve gotten married or divorced

Life can change quickly, and that means the people closest to you can change too. This can be another reason you may want (or need) to change your will. If you’ve gotten married but wrote your will without expecting that to happen, it can be automatically revoked. This is because your will doesn’t take into account your new spouse.

A revoked will means it’s invalid and will be treated like it does not exist. If you get divorced, your will is not automatically revoked. But it does affect how your will is interpreted. So it’s still important to change your will so it reflects your most up to date wishes. 

This does not mean you have to cut someone out entirely or give your entire estate to your partner now that you’re married (though you can if you want!)

But it's important to think about how you'd like to pass on everything you own at this moment in time. 

3. You’ve moved up in the world

When you buy a house for the first time, move house or own multiple properties (wow you’re doing well!) it’s important to take a look at your will to see how it needs changing. You may want to share your house with more than one person if you die, or if you own multiple properties you may like them to go to different people.

4. Someone close to you has died

Moving forward in life isn’t always easy; we lose the people we love along the way. If that someone was previously a beneficiary (someone who benefited from your will) or an executor of your will (the person in charge of your will and sorting everything out after you die), it’s important to evaluate whether your will still reflects what you want. 

5. You get a furry friend

After becoming a cat parent, or a puppy’s new best friend, it’s a good idea to think about who’d take care of them once you’re gone.  Writing it in your will helps make sure the best person ends up looking after your precious Whiskers.

6. You’ve just changed your mind

Maybe you’ve realised you want to include a certain charity in your will or you’ve decided to switch who gets the vinyls and who gets your favourite guitar around.  Once you see your will as the living document it is - you can start to get personal and meaningful with it now you’ve taken the pressure of it only being made once. 

A traditional way to change a will is to use a codicil 

A codicil is a document that alters part of your existing will but leaves the rest of the will intact. You can have a solicitor or other legal professional write your codicil for you, or you can write one yourself. 

Lawyers recommend you create a new will for changes involving more than 10% of your estate

But bear in mind that even with legal guidance codicils can be tricky to get right. They also run the risk of being lost as it’s another legal document that must be kept track of.

Farewill offers one year of free unlimited changes

So when your life changes all you have to do is log back into your account, and adjust your previous will accordingly.

Then we can send you a new copy of your will to be signed, witnessed and stored. Simple.

Whether that’s splitting your estate between 2 children instead of 1. Or making sure the new puppy goes to your best mate- not your sister with the expensive off-white sofas. 

And you only have to pay £10 a year after that to get unlimited changes for life

So when you finally buy that dream house you’ve been saving up for the last 4 years for you don’t have to write a whole new will from scratch.