Most people write a will, tuck it away in a drawer, and never think about it again. That’s understandable – nobody enjoys dwelling on end-of-life planning – but it’s also one of the more common mistakes we see at Family Lawyers Glasgow. Life moves on. You marry, have children, buy a house, lose someone close to you, or simply change your mind about who you’d like to inherit what. Your will should move with you.
This article looks at how often you should review and update your will in Scotland, the life events that should prompt you to pick up the phone to a solicitor, and the main ways to update a will without having to start from scratch every time. If you’re unsure whether your own will still reflects your current wishes, our Complete Clarity Solicitors Family Law Team would be glad to talk it through with you – there’s no pressure, just honest advice tailored to your situation.
Why Updating Your Will Actually Matters
A will is a legal document, and like most legal documents, it’s only useful if it’s accurate. When you first made your will, it would have reflected your circumstances then – your assets, your relationships, the people you wanted to appoint as executor or leave something to. The trouble is, circumstances change, often in ways we don’t fully appreciate until much later.
Failing to update a will doesn’t necessarily make it invalid under Scots law, but it can lead to unintended consequences. We’ve seen situations where an ex-spouse remained named as a beneficiary years after a divorce, or where a sole executor had died and nobody had thought to appoint a replacement. In both cases, what should have been a straightforward estate administration turned into something far more stressful for the family involved, at an already difficult time.
This is really the heart of the importance of updating your will: it’s not about ticking a box; it’s about making sure your estate is distributed according to your wishes, and about protecting your family from disputes that could otherwise have been avoided entirely.
Key Life Events That Should Prompt a Review
There isn’t a single rule that fits everyone, but in many cases, certain life events are a natural trigger to review and update your will. Marriage or civil partnership is one of the biggest – in Scotland, this can affect how your existing will operates, and it’s worth checking with a solicitor rather than assuming everything still stands.
The birth of children, or the arrival of grandchildren, is another obvious moment. You may want to update your will to reflect new guardianship wishes, or simply to make sure that children or grandchildren are properly provided for. Similarly, receiving an inheritance yourself, buying property, starting a business, or acquiring new assets can all change what your estate looks like and how you’d want it split.
Then there are the harder events – the death of a beneficiary, or the death of an executor you’d named. These aren’t pleasant things to think about, but they matter practically. If your named executor has passed away and you haven’t appointed a replacement, your family could be left navigating avoidable complications. A quick review with a solicitor at these key life events can prevent a great deal of difficulty later on.
The Main Ways to Update Your Will
There are really two main ways to update your will in Scotland, and which one suits you depends on the scale of the change. For smaller, specific amendments – perhaps changing one beneficiary, updating an executor appointment, or adjusting a particular gift – a codicil can often do the job. A codicil is a supplementary legal document that amends your existing will without rewriting the whole thing. It has to be signed and witnessed in the same way as the original will to be legally binding.
For more significant changes, though, we’d usually recommend making a new will rather than relying on a codicil. If you’ve been through a major life event – divorce, remarriage, a new spouse, a substantial change in your estate, or you simply want to revoke earlier provisions and start again – a new will tends to be cleaner and less prone to confusion. Having previous wills and codicils scattered together increases the risk of disputes among family members, since it’s not always obvious which version reflects your current wishes.
Either way, using a solicitor to make these updates isn’t just a formality. It ensures that the document is legally binding, correctly signed and witnessed, and consistent with the rest of your estate planning, including anything relevant to inheritance tax planning or power of attorney arrangements you may already have in place.
How Often Should You Review Your Will, Even If Nothing Obvious Has Changed?
Beyond the specific triggers above, we generally recommend reviewing your will every three to five years, or whenever significant life events occur, whichever comes first. This isn’t because your wishes are likely to have changed dramatically in that time – for most people, they won’t have. It’s more that circumstances change quietly, and it’s easy to lose track of small but meaningful details: a beneficiary’s contact information, the value of your estate, or whether your executor is still willing and able to act.
Regularly reviewing and updating your will also gives you a chance to check that it still fits with the law as it stands. Scots law around succession, legal rights, and intestacy does shift from time to time, and a will drafted a decade ago may not sit as comfortably with current rules as it once did. This is one area where Scottish solicitors can be genuinely useful, simply by flagging changes you wouldn’t otherwise know to look for.
It’s worth saying, too – if nothing has changed and you’re happy your will still reflects your wishes, that’s a perfectly good outcome from a review. You don’t change something for the sake of it. But you won’t know unless you look.
What Happens If You Don’t Update It
This often comes as a surprise to clients, but an outdated will doesn’t just risk being slightly wrong – it can actively work against what you wanted. If your will doesn’t reflect your current wishes, your estate could end up passing to people you no longer intended, or missing out people who should have inherited, such as a new child or a spouse or civil partner. Under Scots law, certain relatives also have legal rights that can affect estate distribution regardless of what your will says, which is another reason it pays to consult a solicitor rather than guess.
There’s also the emotional cost. Family disputes over a will that no longer reflects the person who wrote it are painful, and they tend to happen precisely when everyone is already grieving. A modest amount of time spent keeping your will current is, in our experience, one of the more effective ways to give both yourself and your family peace of mind.
Speak to Family Lawyers Glasgow About Your Will
If it’s been a while since you looked at your will – or if you’ve never quite got round to making one – there’s no need to feel behind. Wills solicitors exist precisely to make this process manageable, and updating an existing will is often far simpler than people expect. Our Complete Clarity Solicitors Family Law Team has supported clients across Glasgow and beyond with everything from a simple codicil to a full new will following a major change in circumstances.
Whether you’re dealing with a recent life event, planning for your children or grandchildren, or simply want the reassurance of knowing your will still reflects your current wishes, get in touch with Family Lawyers Glasgow. A short conversation with one of our solicitors could save your family a great deal of difficulty down the line – and there’s genuinely no pressure to do anything more than ask a few questions to begin with.
