How Often Should You Update Your Will?
Drafting a will is a big step, and many people treat it as a job done for life. The problem is that your life keeps changing after you sign. A will that was perfect five years ago may now leave assets to an ex-spouse, overlook a child, or refer to a house you no longer own.
The Short Answer
As a rule of thumb, review your will every three to five years, and immediately after any major life event. A review does not always mean a rewrite. Often it is a quick check that confirms everything still reflects your wishes.
What matters most is not the calendar, but whether your circumstances have changed since the will was signed.
Life Events That Should Trigger a Review
These are the moments when we recommend looking at your will again, regardless of when it was last updated:
- Getting married. In South Africa, marriage does not cancel an existing will. A will signed while you were single may leave nothing to your new spouse.
- Getting divorced. If you die within three months of a divorce, the law reads your will as if your ex-spouse had died before you, unless your will shows you intended to benefit them despite the divorce. After that window, an ex-spouse still named in your will can inherit exactly as written.
- Having or adopting a child. A new child may need to be named as an heir, and young children need a guardian and ideally a trust to manage their inheritance.
- Joining a blended family. Stepchildren do not inherit from you unless your will says so.
- Buying or selling property. A will that leaves a specific house to someone fails if you sold it, and a newly bought property may need its own instructions.
- Starting or selling a business. Business interests, shareholder agreements and buy-and-sell policies should line up with your will.
- Losing a beneficiary, executor or guardian. If someone named in your will dies or is no longer suitable, the will needs to reflect that.
- A significant change in wealth. A larger estate may raise estate duty and executor’s fee questions worth planning around.
The Risks of an Outdated Will
An outdated will is often worse than people realise, because it looks valid. Your executor and the Master of the High Court must follow it as written, even if it no longer makes sense.
That can mean an ex-spouse inheriting, a child born after the will being overlooked, gifts of assets that no longer exist, or an executor who has passed away. Families are then left with delays, disputes and sometimes parts of the estate falling under intestate succession.
Many of these problems appear in our list of common mistakes in wills and estate planning, and nearly all of them could have been avoided with a timely review.
How to Update Your Will
For a small change, such as replacing an executor, a codicil can amend your existing will. For anything more substantial, it is usually cleaner to draft a new will that expressly revokes the old one.
Either way, the same formalities apply as for the original: it must be in writing, signed by you on every page, and signed by two competent witnesses.
A witness, or the witness’s spouse, should never be a beneficiary, as they can generally be disqualified from inheriting. Never write changes by hand on your existing will, as handwritten alterations can be invalid and may cast doubt on the whole document. If you are wondering whether to do this yourself, our article on whether you need a lawyer to draft a will covers the risks.
Book a Will Review
If you cannot remember when you last read your will, or if any of the life events above apply to you, it is time for a review. It is a small investment that protects the people you care about from an expensive and painful surprise.
Our wills and estate planning services include reviewing existing wills and drafting updated ones that reflect your life as it is today.