Do you know how getting married will impact your personal affairs?

If you already have a Will, beware that marriage will revoke it.  You will therefore need to make arrangements to re-execute your Will once married.  If signing a new Will is unlikely to be a top priority for you immediately after celebrating your nuptials, you could prepare for this in advance by amending your Will to include a clause that states it has been made in contemplation of your forthcoming marriage, which prevents the Will from being revoked.

The same rule applies to civil partnerships.  Since the Civil Partnership Act 2004, members of civil partnerships are treated in the same way as married couples.  When a civil partnership is registered, any Will that either partner has previously made is no longer valid.

If you have children from a previous relationship, you may be wondering how to balance their interest in your estate against those of your spouse-to-be and how to ensure that they are protected if you were to die first.  Similarly, depending on how you own the property you live in (whether you own it solely or perhaps as tenants in common with your spouse-to-be), you may wish to make plans to ensure that they can remain living there after your death.  Trusts can be useful when there are competing family interests; with a life interest trust being most common in these scenarios.

Often, weddings can take some time to plan and you may not have set your date yet, or it may be a year or more in the future.  It is therefore also important to take stock of your current circumstances, rather than wait until after you get married.  The intestacy rules currently make no provision for unmarried couples and this is unlikely to change any time soon, with the Government rejecting calls for reform towards the end of last year.  Therefore, if you want your fiancé(e) to benefit from your estate if you were to die before you marry, you need to make a Will to provide for them.

Marriage is just one of many ‘life events’ that should prompt you to make or revisit your Will.  If it has been some time since you reviewed your Will, or there have been births, deaths, marriage or divorce within the family, or maybe just a change in your financial circumstances, please get in touch with our expert Wealth Preservation team to discuss your options.