When should you review your Will?

Writing a Will can feel like one of those important life tasks you complete, file away and hope you do not have to think about again for a long time.

The problem is that your life does not stand still.

Families change. Relationships change. You buy and sell assets, build businesses, welcome children and grandchildren, move countries and sometimes experience the loss of people who were important to you.

Your Will needs to keep up.

A valid, up-to-date Will helps ensure that your wishes are understood and that the people you care about are provided for in the way you intended. The Fiduciary Institute of Southern Africa (FISA) also emphasises that estate planning is broader than simply having a Will. Your Will, assets, liquidity, tax position and broader financial affairs should work together.

So, when should you take another look at yours?

Trigger: When you get married, enter a long-term partnership, separate, divorce or have your marriage annulled.

Marriage can change your financial circumstances significantly. The applicable matrimonial property regime, the way assets are owned and any contractual arrangements may affect what falls into your estate and how your estate plan should be structured.

That makes getting married a good time to review your Will and broader estate plan. You may want to reconsider who inherits, how your spouse is provided for and whether your existing estate-planning arrangements still make sense.

Divorce deserves even more immediate attention.

Under section 2B of the Wills Act, if you die within three months after your marriage is dissolved by divorce or annulment, a benefit left to your former spouse in a Will made before the dissolution is generally dealt with as if the former spouse had died before the marriage was dissolved. This does not apply if the wording of the Will shows that you intended your former spouse to benefit despite the dissolution.

Once the three month period has passed, that statutory deeming provision no longer applies. If you have not updated your Will, your former spouse may still inherit under its terms.

Updating your Will should therefore be high on the list of priority and financial matters to address following a divorce.

Trigger: When a child is born or adopted, your family grows, or the needs of a dependant change.

Having or adopting a child changes more than your monthly budget.

Your Will should be reviewed to consider how you want to provide for minor children, whom you wish to nominate as their guardian if necessary, and how any inheritance left to them should be administered. Depending on the circumstances, an appropriately drafted testamentary trust may be considered to manage an inheritance for a minor. A guardian nomination in a Will is important, but any appointment remains subject to the applicable legal process and the child’s best interests.

The same applies if you become financially responsible for another family member or if the needs of an existing dependant change.

FISA identifies provision for minor children and family members with special needs as important considerations in a comprehensive estate plan.

Trigger: When a beneficiary, executor, guardian or trustee named in your Will dies, becomes unavailable or is no longer suitable.

Think about the people mentioned in your current Will.

Are all your beneficiaries still alive? Is the person you nominated as executor still suitable and available to take on the role, subject to appointment by the Master of the High Court? What about a guardian or trustee you nominated many years ago?

A change in any of these circumstances is a good reason to revisit the document.

The aim is not simply to have a valid Will. Your Will should still be practical and capable of carrying out what you actually want to happen.

Trigger: When you acquire or dispose of significant assets, receive an inheritance, start or sell a business, or your financial position changes materially.

Perhaps you bought a property, sold a business, received an inheritance or accumulated investments that did not exist when you drafted your Will.

Significant changes to your assets can alter the way an estate plan works.

The opposite is also true. You may have specifically left an asset to someone but subsequently sold that asset.

A review gives you an opportunity to look at your estate as it exists today rather than as it looked five or ten years ago.

Liquidity should also form part of the conversation. An estate may contain valuable assets but still not have enough readily available cash to settle debts, taxes and administration expenses. FISA identifies estate liquidity as one of the important elements that should be considered during estate planning.

Trigger: When you acquire offshore assets, relocate to another country, or your beneficiaries move abroad.

South African families are increasingly global.

You may acquire offshore investments or property, move to another country, or have children and other beneficiaries living abroad.

Those changes can introduce additional succession-law, tax, exchange-control and administrative considerations. Offshore assets may also require coordinated advice in more than one jurisdiction, and a separate Will may sometimes be appropriate. Any Wills used across jurisdictions should be drafted carefully so that one does not unintentionally revoke another. Beneficiaries living abroad can also create practical considerations when an inheritance is transferred.

Professional advice becomes particularly important when more than one jurisdiction is involved.

Trigger: When your insurance policies, trusts, retirement-fund nominations, business interests or other beneficiary nominations change.

Your Will does not exist in isolation.

Insurance policies, trusts, retirement-fund benefits, business interests, beneficiary nominations and the ownership of different assets can all form part of your wider estate plan. Importantly, not every benefit is distributed under your Will. In the case of a retirement fund governed by section 37C of the Pension Funds Act, the board generally allocates the death benefit in accordance with the legislation and the fund rules, after considering qualifying dependants and nominees. A nomination is relevant, but it does not necessarily determine the final allocation.

A change in one area may mean the overall plan needs another look.

Reviewing your Will is therefore also an opportunity to ask a bigger question: if something happened to me today, would all the different parts of my financial life work together in the way I expect?

Trigger: When changes in legislation, tax rules or personal circumstances may affect your estate plan, and at least once a year even if no major life event has occurred.

A major change should prompt a review, but you do not need to wait for one.

As a practical discipline, review your Will and broader estate plan at least once a year, and sooner after any material personal, family, financial or cross-border change. Ask whether the people, assets, nominations and instructions still make sense and whether the original signed Will remains securely stored and accessible to the appropriate people.

A Will drafted ten years ago may still be legally valid. That does not necessarily mean it is still right for the life you have today.

The Department of Justice describes a Will as a specialised document and recommends obtaining expert assistance when drafting one. FISA similarly encourages regular reviews as personal and financial circumstances change.

A Will is ultimately an expression of your intentions.

Making sure it changes when your life does can give both you and the people you care about greater clarity about what comes next.

References

https://www.justice.gov.za/master/wills.html (02 October 2026)

Wills Act 7 of 1953 | South African Government (07 October 2026)

How to draft a will | Vuk'uzenzele (07 October 2026)

Fiduciary Institute of Southern Africa. “Estate planning”. FISA website. (12 October 2026)

Republic of South Africa. Pension Funds Act 24 of 1956, section 37C, as amended.

This article is for general information purposes only and does not constitute legal, tax or financial advice. Individual circumstances differ, and professional advice should be obtained where appropriate.