Is it Time to Up-Date Your Will?

When we were very young, neither my husband nor I had a will. "Why do we need wills?" we asked. "We don't have anything to leave to anyone anyway." As the children came along, it never entered our minds that wills settled more things than just disposing of our assets. It was just assumed, in those days, that children would be taken care of by family members if anything happened to their parents.

Luckily, nothing happened to deprive our children of their parents, although by the time our youngest child got to middle school, our parents had aged to the place that we had serious doubts about them taking on such a task should it become necessary. Our siblings didn't have some of the values we had worked to instill in our children, so we finally got around to making a will-mainly so we could name a friend as a guardian for our remaining minor child.

"It's done," we said, and stuck our will in a safe deposit box, hidden from view for the next 15 years.

In the meantime, we started a business; our assets changed-for the better, thankfully; and our minor child grew up and left home.

One day, the subject of wills came up and I joked with my, now adult, daughter that if anything happened to her father and me, she would be shipped off to Texas to live with the friend we had chosen as her guardian. She didn't think it was funny and insisted that we up-date our will, even though the reality of her being shipped anywhere was nil since she was now an adult.

I could see her point, and the conversation did eventually prod me into action. I only procrastinated for another year or two before actually setting up a new will, which provided a few dollars in cash for each grandchild. (We had several by then.)

Would you believe it-only 5 years have gone by and the new will is already out of date. A couple more grandchildren have appeared on the scene, and I certainly don't like the idea of them sitting down to hear that their sisters, brothers and cousins were mentioned in Grandma and Grandpa's will, and they didn't receive one red cent. Worse yet, their names weren't even mentioned.

Just re-reading your will doesn't necessarily mean you will need to up-date it. It just means that you will be less likely to be caught off-guard like I was by realizing that someone important to you had been totally left out of your will. You will be more likely to do regular re-reading if you set a date for it. Once a year is a good idea, but if that seems too much, try every 3 years, or every 5 years. I wouldn't recommend going much longer than 5 years, because most of us have had some major financial or family changes in that length of time.

What about your will? Isn't it about time to head down to your bank, dig that aging will out of your safe deposit box, and bring it up to date again?