When should you review your Will, family trust and Enduring Powers of Attorney?
Legal documents tend to be prepared at moments when something important is happening. A house is purchased. Children arrive. A family trust is established. A business grows. A relationship changes. A Will is finally signed after being on the to-do list for years.
Then life keeps moving.
Assets increase in value. People come and go. Children become adults. Trustees age. Businesses change structure. Digital assets appear. Relationships begin or end.
The legal arrangements underneath all of that can quietly stay exactly where they were.
That is why estate planning is not simply about having documents. It is about making sure the documents and structures you already have still fit the life you have now.
Your Will may still be valid and still be wrong for you
A Will does not necessarily become ineffective simply because it is old. But an older Will may no longer reflect your current intentions.
You may have acquired significant property since it was signed. A beneficiary’s circumstances may have changed. An executor may no longer be the person you would choose. Your family structure may be different. You may now own a business, investment property or digital assets that did not exist when the Will was drafted.
The important question is therefore not only “Do I have a Will?” It is: Would this Will still produce the result I want if it had to operate today?
Family trusts need attention after establishment
A trust is not simply a document that is signed and put into a drawer.
Circumstances can change significantly after a trust is established. Property may be sold or acquired. Beneficiaries grow older. Trustees change. Family relationships evolve. The purpose for which the trust was originally created may become less relevant or require reconsideration.
Trust administration also matters.
For an existing trust, useful review questions include whether the current trustees remain appropriate, whether records and resolutions are being maintained, whether the trust deed still reflects the family’s circumstances and whether the trust continues to serve a clear purpose.
Enduring Powers of Attorney can become outdated too
An Enduring Power of Attorney is designed to allow someone else to make decisions in circumstances where you have authorised them to do so.
But the person you trusted years ago may no longer be the person you would choose today. Your financial affairs may also have become considerably more complex.
You may now own property, business interests, investments, online financial accounts, digital assets, trust interests or other assets that were not part of the picture when the EPA was prepared.
The practical question is simple: If your attorney needed to act tomorrow, would the document and the people named in it still make sense?
Review the system, not just the documents
Wills, trusts, EPAs, property and business structures should be reviewed together where appropriate, not always in isolation.
A Will may say one thing while important assets sit inside a trust. A business may have its own ownership and succession arrangements. Property may be owned jointly. Some assets may pass outside the estate entirely. An EPA deals with decision-making during lifetime rather than inheritance after death.
Each document has its own job. The estate plan works properly only when those jobs fit together.
Life events that should prompt a review
A review is worth considering when there has been a significant change in family, assets, ownership or intentions.
Examples include marriage, separation, a new relationship, the birth of children or grandchildren, a death in the family, buying or selling significant property, establishing or winding up a business, major changes in wealth, changes to trustees or executors, or simply discovering that the documents have not been looked at for many years.
The trigger does not need to be dramatic. Sometimes the best time to review an estate plan is simply when enough small changes have accumulated that the old arrangements no longer reflect reality.
Don’t overlook digital assets
Online financial accounts, cryptocurrency, domain names, cloud storage and other digital assets may not have existed when an older estate plan was prepared.
That is one more reason estate planning now needs to look beyond traditional physical assets. See our guide to digital assets and your Will.
A useful annual question
You do not necessarily need to rewrite everything every year.
But once a year, ask: Has anything changed in my family, assets, ownership structures or intentions that could affect my Will, trust or EPA?
If the answer is yes, it may be worth having the documents reviewed. If the answer is “I have no idea what they say anymore”, that is also fairly useful information.
Planning works better before there is a problem
The best time to discover that a Will, EPA or trust arrangement needs updating is while everyone still has the time and capacity to do something about it.
Canterbury Legal can review your Will, family trust, Enduring Powers of Attorney and wider estate-planning arrangements together.
Talk to us before yesterday’s legal plan becomes tomorrow’s problem.
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This article provides general information only and is not legal advice. The appropriate estate-planning arrangements depend on your individual circumstances.
