When should a person review their Will?

Associate Colin Flannigan regularly advises clients in the practice areas of wills, trusts, estate and incapacity planning, estate administration, residential and commercial real estate, property matters, corporate transactions and business law.

Frequently Colin is asked about reviewing and potentially changing a person's Will. He explains that all Wills are customized, and the intention is for them to be built to last. However, life happens, and there are times when a change indeed needs to happen. Listen to this episode of Legal Matters.

Transcript:

A question that comes up is, how regularly should I review my estate plan? Your estate plan is customized to you. It's often built to last; however, there's only so much "crystal ball gazing" you can do. As a rule of thumb, people often say you should review your plan every five to ten years. However, because of the level of customization, it shouldn't be just based on time.

For example, if there's a change in your asset holdings that someone might receive as a gift, such as the types of asset or a value change in your asset (change in your house value), you might need to relook at how that balance works. 

Also, if there's a change in relationship with your beneficiaries, whether you might want to add someone or remove them, that might cause a change in your Will. If one of your beneficiaries were to pass away, or if a new family member is born, that might also be a trigger to make a change. 

You might also want to consider if there's a change in the personal circumstances of one of your family members - if there's a change for them, you might have an obligation to change your Will too.