How Often Should You Update Your Will? 9 Life Events That Mean It’s Time

Writing a will is treated like a milestone you cross once and check off forever. It isn’t. A will reflects your life at the moment you signed it, and life does not hold still. The will you wrote at 30 might actively work against your intentions at 45 if nobody updated it in between.

You don’t need to rewrite your will every year. But certain events should trigger a review every time, and a general checkup on a regular schedule catches everything else.

The General Rule

Review your estate plan every three to five years even if nothing obvious has changed. Asset values shift, laws change, and the people you’d name as executor or guardian may not be the right choice a decade later, even if no single dramatic event marked the change.

Beyond that baseline, these nine events should trigger an immediate review, not a someday-eventually one.

1. Marriage or Remarriage

A new spouse changes who you likely want as your executor, healthcare agent, and primary beneficiary. It can also affect what your existing will actually does under your state’s law, some states give a new spouse an automatic share of your estate even if your will predates the marriage and doesn’t mention them.

2. Divorce or Separation

Most states automatically revoke provisions naming a former spouse in a will after divorce, but not all, and the rule usually does not extend to beneficiary designations on life insurance or retirement accounts. An ex-spouse can end up inheriting a 401k or life insurance payout years after a divorce simply because nobody updated the paperwork. Update your will and every beneficiary designation the moment a divorce is final, not eventually.

3. Having or Adopting a Child

A new child needs a named guardian, and your beneficiaries need to reflect that there’s now a dependent to plan for. This is also the moment to think about how assets would be managed for a minor if something happened to you, most wills use a trust structure so a child doesn’t inherit a lump sum at 18 with no guidance.

4. A Child Reaching Adulthood

Guardianship provisions become irrelevant once your kids are adults, but that’s also a natural point to revisit how and when they’d actually inherit, and whether you want to name an adult child as a future executor or healthcare agent.

5. Death of a Named Executor, Guardian, or Beneficiary

If someone you named in your will passes away, your document may not have a clear backup plan, or worse, may still name them as if they’re available to serve. Review your will any time someone named in it is no longer able to fill that role.

6. A Significant Change in Assets

Buying a home, starting a business, receiving an inheritance, or a major shift in your net worth in either direction changes what your estate plan needs to account for. A will written when you rented an apartment may not adequately address owning a house and a small business a decade later.

7. Moving to a New State

Estate planning laws vary significantly by state, including what makes a will valid, how property is divided between spouses, and estate tax thresholds. A will drafted in one state is often still valid in another, but it’s worth a review to make sure it still does what you intended under your new state’s rules.

8. A Falling Out or Reconciliation With Family

Relationships change, and your estate plan should reflect your actual relationships, not the ones that existed when you signed the document. This applies to beneficiaries, executors, and guardians alike.

9. A Change in Your Health

A serious diagnosis is an uncomfortable trigger to think about, but it’s exactly the moment to confirm your healthcare power of attorney, living will, and financial power of attorney reflect who you actually want making decisions, while you’re still able to make that call yourself.

What Updating Actually Involves

Depending on the size of the change, updating your will can mean a formal amendment called a codicil, or in many cases, simply drafting a new will that revokes the old one, which is often cleaner and less prone to confusion than a patchwork of codicils. Either way, the update isn’t complete until you also revisit your beneficiary designations separately, since those pass outside your will and won’t update just because your will did.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I just cross something out and write in a change myself?

No. Handwritten changes to a signed will are generally not legally valid and can create confusion about which version is accurate, or invalidate the whole document depending on your state. Use a proper amendment or a new will.

What if nothing major has happened in years?

Review it anyway on your three-to-five-year schedule. Laws change, asset values shift, and it’s worth confirming your named executor and guardian are still the right people, even without a dramatic trigger.

Does updating my will also update my power of attorney documents?

No, these are separate documents. Review your financial power of attorney and healthcare power of attorney at the same time as your will, since they’re often triggered by the same life events.

How do I know if my beneficiary designations are outdated?

Pull your most recent statements for retirement accounts, life insurance, and any payable-on-death accounts, and check the beneficiary listed on each. Do this any time you review your will, since these designations override what your will says.

Keeping track of what needs updating, and when you last actually updated it, is easier with everything in one place. The Standard Kit includes a system for tracking your documents, accounts, and key contacts, so a review doesn’t mean starting from scratch every few years. Find Your Kit →

Orderly Affairs helps families get their important documents in order before they are needed. We are not lawyers or financial advisors. Rules on revocation, codicils, and spousal inheritance shares vary by state; talk to an estate planning attorney about your specific situation.