When should you update your will? The straightforward answer is whenever it no longer reflects the people, assets, responsibilities and jurisdictions that define your life today. A will may remain legally valid for many years. That does not necessarily mean it will still produce the outcome you intend. Relationships change, children are born, businesses grow, families move abroad and personal wealth becomes more complicated. The document itself does not evolve unless you review it. Your family should inherit your estate. They should not inherit the responsibility of deciding what you meant. That distinction matters particularly for internationally mobile families. When assets, beneficiaries and family members are spread across several countries, an outdated will can create more than an uncomfortable conversation. It can leave important decisions exposed to different legal systems, tax rules and competing interpretations. When should you update your will? GOV.UK recommends reviewing your will every five years and following any major change in your life. That provides a sensible minimum review cycle, but the age of the document is only one consideration. A review should also be triggered whenever there is a material change to: Your marriage, partnership or family relationships The people you want to benefit Your executors, trustees or guardians The value or composition of your estate Your business interests Your country of residence The countries in which you own assets The tax or succession rules affecting your estate A five-year-old will may remain entirely suitable. A will signed six months ago could already need attention if a significant life event has occurred. The real question is not how old the document is. It is whether the instructions still match your circumstances. A will records one moment in your life Every will is drafted using the information available at a particular point in time. It reflects the family you had, the wealth you owned and the responsibilities you carried when it was signed. Consider how much can change over the following decade. A person might marry, have children, move overseas, inherit substantial assets, build a valuable company or establish a second family. An executor may die or become unable to act. A beneficiary may develop needs that were never anticipated. None of these developments automatically rewrites the original instructions. This is why an old will can create a false sense of security. The document exists, has been signed and may remain legally effective. However, it may describe a life that no longer exists. An outdated will does not always fail. Sometimes it operates exactly as written and produces an outcome the person would no longer have chosen. Family changes that should trigger a review Marriage or civil partnership Marriage has significant consequences for a will. In England and Wales, an existing will will usually become invalid when someone marries or enters a civil partnership, unless it was prepared in contemplation of that specific marriage or partnership. This can result in an estate passing under intestacy rules rather than according to the instructions contained in the earlier will. The surviving spouse or civil partner may inherit all or part of the estate, depending on the circumstances. The rules are not identical across every UK jurisdiction, so the appropriate legal position should be confirmed for the country whose succession law applies. The position can become more complicated when the marriage, residence, assets and existing will are connected to different countries. GOV.UK provides further guidance on marriage, civil partnerships and existing wills in England and Wales. Separation or divorce Separation does not necessarily have the same legal effect as divorce. A separated spouse could therefore retain rights or responsibilities that no longer reflect the relationship. In England and Wales, divorce does not simply cancel the entire will. Broadly, provisions involving the former spouse are generally treated as though that person had died before the person who made the will. That can alter how gifts pass, who receives the residue and who is available to administer the estate. Relying on these default legal effects may still produce an unintended outcome. A review allows the document to reflect the new family position clearly. Children and grandchildren The arrival of a child or grandchild is one of the clearest reasons to review a will. A new child does not simply insert themselves into instructions written before their birth. The review should consider more than who receives a share of the estate. It may also need to address: Guardianship wishes for minor children The age at which a child may receive an inheritance Who will act as trustee How education, care or housing needs could be funded Whether children from different relationships are treated as intended Whether additional support is required for a vulnerable beneficiary Informal assurances that one relative will “look after” another are not a substitute for clear, coordinated instructions. A new partner or an unmarried relationship Many people assume that a long-term partner will be treated like a spouse. In England and Wales, there is no general legal status of common-law marriage, even where a couple has lived together for many years or has children. If a partner is not properly provided for, the surviving family may face uncertainty, claims or difficult decisions at an already challenging time. A will review should establish whether the legal arrangements reflect the financial reality of the relationship. Changes in wealth can make an old will unsuitable A will prepared when an estate was relatively straightforward may become inadequate as wealth develops. Someone who originally owned a home, savings and a pension may later hold investment portfolios, private company shares, trusts, overseas property, digital assets and interests in several legal entities. The original division of the estate may no longer achieve what was intended. A review should follow events such as: Receiving a substantial inheritance Building or selling a business A significant increase in property or investment values Creating a trust or family investment structure Acquiring property in another country Taking on substantial borrowing or guarantees Changing pension, insurance or investment nominations Acquiring

Your company can still exist on Monday morning. That doesn’t mean anyone can run it. The bank account needs authorising. Payroll needs approving. Employees need decisions. Suppliers need paying. Clients expect calls to be returned. If the person who normally makes those decisions died or became unable to work over the weekend, what would happen next? For many SMEs, that person is the owner. They may also be the managing director, largest shareholder, primary client relationship, bank signatory and the only person who understands some of the company’s most important systems. It is an enormous concentration of responsibility in one individual. Yet many successful business owners spend years planning how to grow their company without making equally detailed plans for what happens if they can no longer run it. That is where business succession planning becomes important. And succession planning isn’t only about retirement. Death matters. Incapacity matters too. For an owner-managed SME, either could turn a successful business into an operational problem remarkably quickly. The Business May Survive You. Can It Operate Without You? A limited company has a legal identity separate from its owner. The death of its founder does not automatically mean the company ceases to exist. But legal existence and operational continuity are very different things. Imagine a business employing 20 people. Its founder owns all the shares and is its sole director. They approve major payments. They manage the relationship with the bank. Several important clients deal directly with them. Some systems use two-factor authentication through their phone. They understand the company’s cash flow better than anybody else. Then, unexpectedly, they die. The company may still exist. Its employees still have employment contracts. Its customers still expect service. Its suppliers still expect payment. But suddenly the person sitting at the centre of almost every important decision is gone. This is one reason SME business succession planning needs to consider much more than simply who inherits the shares. Ownership, Control and Operation Are Different Things For business owners, it is useful to separate three questions. Who owns the business? Who controls the business? Who can actually run the business? They are not necessarily the same person. A spouse or children might ultimately inherit the deceased owner’s shares. A surviving director may have responsibility for operating the company. A senior employee may understand the business better than either of them. Estate planning establishes what happens to someone’s assets. Business succession planning needs to connect that outcome with the practical reality of keeping the company operating. For an SME, getting one without the other can create significant problems. What Happens to a Sole Trader? The structure of the business matters enormously. A sole trader and their business are not separate legal entities in the same way that an individual and a limited company are. HMRC’s guidance states that a sole trader’s trade will normally cease on death unless the personal representatives continue trading. That can create immediate practical questions. Who deals with existing customers? Who completes outstanding work? Who collects money owed? Who pays creditors? What happens to employees? Can the business itself be sold? If a valuable trading operation depends almost entirely on one individual, succession planning needs to begin before those questions become urgent. What Happens to a Partnership? Partnerships introduce different issues. The partnership agreement is particularly important. Where appropriate provisions have not been made, the death of a partner can potentially result in the partnership being dissolved under the Partnership Act 1890. A well-drafted partnership agreement can instead establish what should happen when one partner dies, how their interest is valued and whether the remaining partners have a mechanism to continue the business. For a business with several owners, this leads to another important question: Do the surviving owners want to run the company with the deceased owner’s beneficiaries? The family may want the economic value of the deceased person’s share. The remaining owners may want control of the business. Those objectives can potentially be reconciled, but they require planning. What Happens If a Company Director Dies? A limited company can continue following the death of a director, but the company’s articles and ownership structure become important. Where there are surviving directors, they can generally continue managing the company subject to its articles. If a sole director dies but there are surviving shareholders, those shareholders may be able to appoint a replacement director. The more difficult scenario is where the deceased was both the sole shareholder and sole director. The model articles for private companies contain provisions allowing the personal representatives of the last shareholder to appoint a director in certain circumstances. But relying on the family to discover the correct corporate procedure after an unexpected death is not much of a succession plan. The better question is: Have you already established how control of the company would continue? What If You Don’t Die, But Can’t Make Decisions? Death receives most of the attention in estate planning. For SME owners, incapacity can be equally disruptive. A serious accident, stroke, neurological illness or other event could leave someone alive but temporarily or permanently unable to make decisions. Their will does not take effect because they have not died. Their shares still belong to them. But who can deal with their financial affairs? A Property and Financial Affairs Lasting Power of Attorney can allow appointed attorneys to make certain financial decisions on someone’s behalf. Business owners, however, need to be particularly careful. A director’s appointment is personal. Simply being someone’s attorney does not ordinarily mean you can automatically assume their position as a company director. This creates an important distinction. An LPA may help someone deal with the owner’s financial interests. It does not automatically replace the director responsible for running the company. For some SME owners, separate arrangements for personal and business affairs may be appropriate. The company’s articles, shareholder arrangements, board structure and LPAs need to work together rather than being considered independently. Who Can Access the Bank on Monday Morning? Succession planning