When Should You Update Your Will? Careful What You Read

When Should
You Update Your Will? Careful What You Read:

No shortage of
newsletters in your mailbox or inbox, but can you really rely on what you read?
A recent newsletter we received from a financial planner identified 6 reasons
to update your will. Let’s review it.  The newsletter advises you to revise your will if:

(1) There is a
birth or death in your family. Reasonable advice, but most wills are written
with sufficient flexibility so that the birth or death of a beneficiary will
often not require any modification.

(2) Marriage,
divorce or separation. This certainly is a time to revise your will, but that
is never enough. Powers, living wills, beneficiary designations, and more, all
need to be revised. Not just your will.

(3) If your
executor is disabled or dies. Reasonable, but its likely you’ve named
successors and that if the current named executor cannot serve the successor would.

(4) Revoking a
bequest to a son-in-law or daughter-in-law who has divorced your child. Sure,
you’d want to do that but very few people make such bequests, and generally when
they do so, the bequest itself is contingent on a divorce not having occurred.

(5) If the
witnesses are not alive or cannot be located a codicil could be done with new
witnesses. Does anyone actually track the status of witnesses? If you want to
modify your will and you’re competent, why use a codicil instead of a new will? A codicil can
often introduce interpretation and other problems such that it can be simpler
and safer to sign an entirely new will revoking the prior will. Also, a codicil
documents what you changed creating a more obvious trail that might attract a
will challenge.

(6) Tax law
changes. That’s valid, but not enough. Apart from the newsletter listing
reasons that probably won’t require action, it ignores many of the obvious and
important reasons to change your will. If the value of your estate has changed.
It might require additional tax planning, or the ability to forgo otherwise
complex planning. Specific dollar bequests might have to be modified to reflect
your changed net worth. . If the composition of your assets changes
modification may be essential (e.g., you sold your business and now own only marketable
assets). If laws other than tax laws change revision may be vital. This could
include the rules governing investment, duration of trusts, and so on.

Be careful what
you read, too often articles in the mass media lack the sophistication and
accuracy you need.