When should I update my will?

A will is something that, once signed, gets put away and not thought about again for many years. Wills don't expire so there is no built-in deadline for renewing them. But we should review and update our wills from time to time. The question is - when? How do we know that it's time to dust off the old wills and check them over?

For those of you (you know who you are) who did your wills so long ago that now you can no longer remember where the wills are or which lawyer drafted them or even what the will says, the answer is that you must get new wills now. If your will can't be found, in effect you have no will.

For the rest of us, a will should be reviewed after important life events take place. Obviously this looks a bit different for everyone in terms of how many years are involved, but the life events are shared by all. They are:

• you get married or divorced
• you are widowed
• you have your first child
• your children all reach the age of majority
• you retire

Other things going on in your life that should spur you to re-visit your will are:

• you own a business and are thinking about retiring or selling
• you buy a vacation property in another country
• one of your children has an addiction, bankruptcy or other problem that interferes with handling money
• you have become estranged from one of your children
• you want to set up charitable giving through your will
• your spouse is experiencing early signs of dementia
• your financial status has changed, for better or worse, since you made your will
• you have moved to a different province or country

Finally, there are events related to the will itself that require you to make some changes:

• the person named as executor has died, lost mental capacity or moved far away
• one or more of the beneficiaries has died
• you want to include additional beneficiaries or remove someone who is currently named as a beneficiary
• you want to hold some beneficiaries' shares in trust

 I encourage anyone who hasn't looked at his or her will in the last five years to take it out, skim it over, and possibly sit down with an estate planner to talk about whether the will still meets your needs. Not every review results in changes being made. If your will is still suitable, you've gained peace of mind without changing your documents.