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it’s never too early to plan for the future if you have a will. Accidents might occur at any time. If you don’t plan, your loved ones can end up battling to manage your estate. You have a will for that reason. But once a will is written, it requires changes along the changes in life. An amendment to your will can be warranted if circumstances in your life have changed. Here are eleven factors to consider before updating your will.

11 Things To Take Into Account Before Updating Your Will

1. Changes in Assets

You should review and update your estate planning documents with your estate planning attorney. This should be done if the value of your estate significantly rises or falls. Additionally, you should examine whether anything changes in terms of estate planning. Whether you acquire or sell real estate or other high-value assets.

You can divide your estate among your beneficiaries in your will like a pie. Moreover, you can leave “specific gifts,” which are presents of particular goods or amounts of money made to specific people. Wills lawyers can help you amend your will if your estate’s value substantially changes. A lawyer can modify your will if your estate’s value significantly rises or falls.

2. Marriage

Unless the will was particularly written in anticipation of a particular marriage, getting married revokes it. Additionally, you should probably plan for your future spouse and any stepchildren.

If you are sharing a home with a new partner, they can also be entitled to benefits. You ought to think about including particular provisions for them. This helps to avoid probate courts which require will and probate lawyers.

3. A Divorce

If you divorce, any bequests you make to your ex-spouse are immediately revoked. As a result, you must explicitly indicate that you still want your ex-spouse to receive benefits.

A divorce could have some automatic repercussions on your Will depending on the province in which you reside (removing your ex-spouse as your executor, among other things). But it’s crucial to make the changes yourself to ensure that the document accurately reflects your views.

Additionally, the planned distribution of your inheritance might not be what you would expect. This can happen if your province’s default laws treat divorced and separated partners equally. The best course of action is to update your documentation to reflect your present circumstances rather than waiting till “all is settled.”

Regardless of how long you have been apart, if you are separated from your spouse but have not yet divorced, he or she still has a legal claim on your wealth.

4. A Change of Mind

You can decide that a certain friend or member of your family deserves a present more than another. You might want to substitute the Guardians you’ve chosen for your kids. You could want to support a charity that wasn’t listed earlier. You might want to alter the person you originally designated to receive one.

5. Changes in Location

If someone you specified in your will moves to a different location, you might need to update it. Concerning estates, each province has a few slightly distinct laws and regulations. You should check your current Will and, if necessary, make revisions if you’ve relocated to a different province or territory. Your prior Will can be insufficient, or invalid due to varied estate planning regulations in several jurisdictions.

6. Beneficiaries Issues

You could change the will If that beneficiary has a drug addiction, or if the beneficiary has significant creditor issues. Create this will as soon as you feel a problem exists because a trustee will be better equipped to evaluate these issues in the future.

7. Financial Issues

Another good reason to amend your will is if your financial status has changed. Whether these modifications are favorable or unfavorable, they have an impact on how you choose to distribute your estate.

Positive changes could encourage you to add more beneficiaries to your will. While unfavorable ones might encourage you to set priorities.

8. A Certain Law Changes

Laws are always evolving, which may have an impact on your will’s legality. These modifications may invalidate your will or influence how it is understood. You might need to have your will revised if it has been more than two years.

9. Executor’s Death

Will typically designate an executor who is in charge of carrying out the directives contained in the will.

This person is in charge of compiling a list of all assets and debts and valuing them. Additionally, they compile all beneficiaries’ and next-of-addresses kin’s and finalize your concerns (among many others).

This individual is crucial in ensuring that your final wishes are carried out. Verify that they are still capable of doing the work. You could need to change your will executor for several reasons, including

• They are no longer alive.
• They may have relocated
• Your relationship has altered and it is no longer appropriate, or another person might be a better choice.

10. Births of Children

Making changes to your Will is crucial for a variety of reasons, but one of the most crucial ones is to ensure that your children are taken care of. If you recently had your first kid or have had a new child after writing your last will, be sure they are mentioned in your will in the manner you intend.

You should consider guardianship as well. You must specify a guardian in your will if this is your first child. If you already have a guardianship clause in your will and this is not your first kid, you should consider if the guardian you originally chose is still the best option.

The age at which you want your child or children to receive their inheritance is a further factor to take into account. Are you comfortable with your province’s (18 or 19) legal age of majority? Or would you prefer to put off that decision and hold their inheritance in trust until they are of legal age?

11. Family Member’s Death

You might need to change your will to account for your spouse’s death. With this modification, you will be able to decide how your inheritance is distributed among the other will’s beneficiaries. Additionally, you should check to see if your earlier “alternative” plans still align with your preferred primary plan.

Conclusion

After you finish writing your will, you could decide to revisit it annually or a few times after that. And you should without a doubt. But far too frequently, after someone completes their will, they leave without thinking about it again.

There are many reasons to update your will, and it should represent your intentions not just on the day you signed it but also at each stage of your life. 

Your loved ones might find themselves in uncomfortable situations if your will doesn’t accurately reflect your current wishes, such as if a family member isn’t included in it. To prevent these issues, it is best to make sure that you update your will after significant life events.