Getting married changes many things: your household, your finances, your responsibilities and, perhaps surprisingly, your estate planning.
One of the most important traps is assuming that a Will you prepared before getting married will simply continue to operate afterwards.
In New South Wales, marriage generally revokes an existing Will, subject to some important exceptions. This means that if you marry and do nothing, a Will you prepared years earlier may no longer operate in the way you intended.
Why does marriage affect your Will?
The law recognises marriage as a major change in personal circumstances.
If an existing Will is revoked and you die without putting a new valid Will in place, you could potentially die intestate — effectively meaning you die without a valid Will governing your estate.
In NSW, intestacy rules then determine how your assets are distributed. Depending on your family situation, that may produce a very different result from what you had planned.
This becomes especially important for people entering a second marriage, blended families, people with children from an earlier relationship, or anyone wanting to leave money to particular relatives or charities.
There is an important exception
A Will can be prepared in contemplation of marriage.
In other words, if you are engaged and preparing your Will before the wedding, the document can be drafted so that the upcoming marriage does not revoke it.
NSW law specifically provides exceptions for Wills made in contemplation of a particular marriage, as well as certain Wills expressed to be made in contemplation of marriage generally.
This is one reason it is important to tell your solicitor about an upcoming marriage when preparing estate planning documents.
It is not just the Will
Marriage should also trigger a broader review of your estate plan.
You should revisit who has been appointed under your enduring power of attorney and enduring guardian arrangements. These documents deal with who can make financial, legal, medical and lifestyle decisions for you while you are alive if you cannot make those decisions yourself.
Marriage does not necessarily make all of these documents automatically invalid, but a change in relationship status is specifically a reason to review whether the people you previously appointed are still appropriate.
You should also review your superannuation death benefit nominations, life insurance beneficiaries and how jointly owned assets are structured. Not everything you own necessarily passes through your Will.
A simple example
Imagine Sarah prepared a Will at age 30 leaving her estate to her parents and siblings.
At 38 she gets married, but never revisits her estate planning.
If she dies several years later, she should not simply assume that the Will she signed at 30 will dictate where everything goes. The marriage may have changed its legal effectiveness, and the outcome could instead be determined by succession law.
The lesson
Estate planning is not something you prepare once and forget about.
Marriage, separation, divorce, children, new relationships and major changes in wealth should all trigger a review.
Getting married is exciting, and reviewing your Will is unlikely to be high on the wedding checklist. But alongside changing your name, updating your bank accounts and combining finances, it is worth adding one more item:
Make sure your estate plan still says what you think it says.