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Question Details: My husband and I are both now retired and wonder if it would be wise to rewrite our wills since our personal circumstances have changed with our children leaving home. We are also wondering about the effect of the Wills Act 2007, which was not at the time of writing our will.
Filed under Wills/Estates | 1507 View(s)
Community Law Wellington & Hutt Valley
Yes, it is wise to revisit your will whenever your personal circumstances change.
Your will instructs the executor of your estate, and sometimes the courts, as to your wishes for yourself and your estate after you've gone (your testamentary intentions). So, any time your testamentary intentions change, or your circumstances change so that the will you've previously made no longer applies, you should update your will.
The Wills Act 2007 applies to any will made by a person who dies after 1 November 2007. It was enacted mainly to update the law relating to the technicalities of will-making: for example, the rules around having a will witnessed. If your will was made before 2007 and doesn't comply strictly with the technicalities of the Wills Act 2007, a court will most likely order that your will is still valid, if the will is clearly a reflection of your testamentary wishes. However this could lead to a delay in having your estate dealt with, so you may want to update your will to ensure it meets the requirements of the Wills Act 2007.
You can find out more about wills here: www.communitylaw.org.nz
Answered 24 Feb 2013. The IMPORTANT NOTICE below is part of this answer.
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