You'd be forgiven for thinking that when you make a final Will and Testament, that's exactly what it is – final and definitive instructions as to how you would like your property and personal possessions distributed, when the time comes.
But this is not necessarily the case. As this article will show, there are certain life events that can automatically change your will or even invalidate it, and unless you are aware of this, your carefully thought-out plans for the future could be for nothing.
Marriage
Picture the scenario – you have gone to the trouble and expense of sitting down with a solicitor and preparing a will. You may well also have taken detailed tax-planning advice, created trusts in the will and to the best of your ability, provided for those closest to you in the event of your death. Perhaps you left something to an elderly relative whose wellbeing depends on your financial assistance; or to a favourite charity that you support; or you might even have left your shoe and handbag collection to a dear friend. After having signed your will and arranged for its safe storage, you relax in the knowledge that you have responsibly planned for your passing. You then get married, perhaps many years later, and understandably give no thought to the effect this might have on your will.
In fact, your marriage will invalidate any will you might have made previously, meaning that your estate will instead be distributed under the intestacy rules. Under these rules, the people you chose to receive a legacy from your estate may well receive little or nothing, whereas others may benefit whom you did not wish to do so. The only exception to the rule that marriage invalidates a previous will is if it is clear in the will that you knew you were to be married soon, and to whom, and that your intention was that your will should not be revoked by this marriage. Therefore unless you prepared your will shortly before your wedding and had therefore been able to add the necessary wording so that it remains valid after the wedding, you should see your solicitor and prepare a new will. It will be a nice treat to look forward to when you return from honeymoon.
Rewriting your will after your marriage ought not to be a very expensive process, unless you decide to make other changes to your will at the same time. For example, now that you are married you may want to leave far more to your new husband. Also anything you leave him will be tax-free compared to leaving gifts to other people so that may influence your thinking. If it's your second marriage then there may well be additional complications, particularly if you already have children or were widowed from your first husband.
Civil Partnership
Entering a civil partnership has exactly the same effect on your will as marriage, in that an existing will will generally be revoked and a new will should therefore be prepared. This applies to wills made at any time even including those signed before civil partnerships came into effect in 2005.
Divorce
Now let's fast-forward a decade or so. After getting married, you had a new will prepared. Your will may have appointed your husband as one of the executors of your estate (meaning that he will be responsible for dealing with the administration of your estate in accordance with your will if you die before he does). You will probably also have left him a substantial legacy.
But then the marriage founders. Getting divorced, unlike marriage, will not automatically revoke your will. What it does, for the purposes of your will, is treat your ex-husband as having died the day that your Decree Absolute was granted. This means that if he was named as an executor, the appointment will fail and a substitute executor will carry out the necessary duties instead. This could either be someone you appointed in your will as a fail-safe or a Court-appointed executor. More importantly, any legacy you might have left your former husband (for example, a monetary gift or your share of the former matrimonial home) will not take effect.
Instead it will be distributed in accordance with the other terms of your will. In some cases the will may not then be flexible enough to deal with it in which case it would pass under the potentially unwelcome intestacy rules mentioned above. So while you may be happy that your ex-husband no longer benefits from the legacy, the substitute recipient might not be much better.
To be safe, you should see a solicitor straight after your divorce to change your will.
Dissolution
As with marriage, the dissolution of a civil partnership will affect your will as though your partner had died at the date the Dissolution Order was granted. Your former civil partner cannot be your executor (assuming they had been appointed to that role), and any gifts you might have left them will fail.
Again, to be sure your will gives full effect to your wishes after the dissolution, you should see your solicitor to amend your will.
To Conclude
Having a valid will is essential if you want your estate to pass according to your wishes when the time comes. To ensure that your carefully thought-through will is not automatically and unexpectedly altered or invalidated through your marriage or divorce, you should arrange an appointment with your solicitor to review your will.
Andrew Goldstone is head of Mishcon de Reya's Estate Planning Group.
