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Having a valid and a well-executed Will is very important. A Will provides a person with the certainty and comfort of knowing that in the case of death, the assets that have been accumulated during a person’s lifetime will be distributed according to the person’s wishes.
During a Testator’s life, there are often planned and unplanned changes to a person’s personal circumstances. . These changes in circumstances could include, amongst others, the birth or adoption of a child, divorce, the death of an heir or legatee mentioned in the Will, or a breakdown in the relationship with an heir or legatee. Often the Testator is so overwhelmed by emotion that they forget to update the Will or they genuinely overlook the importance of updating the Will to reflect the current changes.
The danger of not updating one’s Will regularly is that in the event of untimely death, the wishes of the Testator will not be reflected in his/her Will, and the estate of such Testator will ultimately devolve contrary to what was intended. This is often the case in circumstances where a Testator bequeaths all the assets in his estate to a spouse, and subsequently divorce occurs. This may be exacerbated by the Testator re-marrying and dying before the new spouse is provided for in the Will. This could severely prejudice the latter spouse. Although the latter spouse could attempt to contest the Will, this is often a costly exercise involving applications to the High Court, with improbable prospects of a favourable outcome.
The above and similar scenarios could be avoided if the Testator updates his Will regularly. A good suggestion to ensure that a Will aligns with ever-changing personal circumstances is to set a reminder to review one’s Will every 6 to 12 months for possible amendments.
The importance of keeping your Will up to date cannot be stressed enough. It is less costly and time consuming to update one’s Will than having beneficiaries engaging in litigation to contest a Will that is outdated.