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Divorce and your Will

This article outlines the impact of getting a divorce on your Will

When a marriage ends, most people assume their Will changes with it. In England and Wales, it doesn't work quite like that, and the detail matters.

Divorce does not automatically revoke your Will. Once the court formally ends your marriage, your existing Will remains legally valid. What does change is how your former spouse is treated within it. The law considers them to have died before you, which means any gifts you left them fall away, and if they were named as your executor, that appointment also comes to an end. The Will survives, but the parts of it that involved your ex no longer apply.

The gap between separating and divorcing

The more complicated period is the time between separating and the divorce being finalised. If you were to pass away during those proceedings, your spouse is still legally your spouse, and your existing Will still applies in full. If you made a new Will during that period and excluded them, they may still be able to make a legal claim against your estate for reasonable financial provision. It is not a situation most people want to find themselves in, and knowing about it early can make a real difference.

What to do

The most straightforward thing to do is make a new Will as soon as you have decided to separate, and review it again once the divorce is complete. That way, you keep proper control of what happens to your estate, who acts on your behalf, and what you have put in place for the people who matter most to you.

Updating your adeus Will

The good news is that updating your Will with adeus takes just a few minutes. Rather than starting from scratch, you can use your most recent approved Will as a template, review only the sections that have changed, and generate a fresh version. Your updated Will is then checked by the adeus team, usually within one working day.

If you have questions about updating your Will, ask Ady. You will find her in the bottom right corner of every page.

For more information, please refer to this comprehensive overview from the Law Gazette: https://www.thegazette.co.uk/all-notices/content/103393



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