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Britt Erica Tunick is an award winning financial journalist who has spent the past 17 years writing about virtually every aspect of finance. She has mastered the art of boiling down complicated financial topics for readers to understand. |
You should review your will periodically in order to make any necessary changes. Why You Should Periodically Review Your Will By Britt Erica Tunick Getting a will done is something most people have the best intentions of doing, but it's also something many people continuously put off or simply forget about. If you’re someone who has actually taken the time to have a will drafted, you are ahead of the game. Just know that the game doesn’t end there and that simply filing your will away and never looking at it again can be almost as big a mistake as not getting a will done to begin with. Life isn’t stagnant, so wills shouldn’t be either. Just as the circumstances of an individual’s life are constantly changing, there are many situations that necessitate changing your will from major life events such as marriage, divorce or the birth of a child, to simple changes such as moving to a new home. Since a will is the final say in how an individual’s estate will ultimately be distributed at the time of their death, it is important to make sure that significant changes are reflected in your will. While having a will drafted in your 20s while you are still single is great, it is more than likely that that original document will not reflect changes such as marriage, the purchase of a home or the birth of children. In the case of marriage or the birth of a child, it is almost certain the individuals you planned to leave your estate to in your 20s will be replaced by these more significant people in your life. Updating a will is also important in the case of the birth of a child, as a will is where you will indicate who should be responsible for raising that child in the event of your death assuming your child has not yet reached adulthood at the time of your death. Another reason to revisit the people named in your will is to occasionally check whether any other changes need to be made, such as the replacement of an executor if the person you originally named has passed away. Given the importance of keeping your will as up to date as possible, the best thing you can do is to pull it out every five years and thoroughly review it to determine if any changes are needed. If changes are necessary, it doesn’t necessarily mean the need to have an entirely new will drafted, as lawyers can add what is called a codicil to your original will an addition to the original that can add new terms, or make changes to the original document. |
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