How often should I review my estate plan?

There is no fixed rule, but a good habit is to look at it every few years and always after a major life event. The passage of time alone is a reason to check, because your assets, relationships and wishes drift even when nothing dramatic happens. A stale plan is one nobody has looked at in a long while.

Does getting married cancel my will?

In general, yes. Marriage revokes an existing will, with limited exceptions, so a will made before you married may no longer be valid after it. This catches many people out. If you marry, treat making a fresh will as part of setting up your new life, not an optional extra to get to later.

Does divorce cancel my will?

No. Divorce does not revoke your will. This is the dangerous mirror image of the marriage rule. A will made during your marriage can continue to name your former spouse as a beneficiary or executor after the divorce unless you change it. Reviewing and updating your will is an essential piece of post-divorce admin.

What should a full estate plan review cover?

More than the will. Check your lasting power of attorney and who you named as donee, your CPF nomination, any insurance nominations, guardianship arrangements for young children, and any trustees. These pieces are separate and can each still point at the wrong person, so review them together rather than one at a time.

Why is a plan that still names an ex-spouse dangerous?

Because parts of it may still take effect. A will, an LPA donee, or a nomination that names a former spouse can hand them your assets or decision-making power if you die or lose capacity before updating it. That is rarely what a divorced person wants, and it is entirely avoidable with a review.

Does moving to another country affect my estate plan?

It can, significantly. Cross-border assets and a change of home raise questions about which country's law governs your estate and whether your existing documents still work. If you move abroad, or acquire assets overseas, review your plan and take advice rather than assuming a Singapore will covers everything.

Reviewing Your Will and Estate Plan in Singapore: Triggers

General information, not legal advice. We work with licensed Singapore law practices who can advise on your situation.

An estate plan is not a document you make once and forget. It is a set of arrangements (your will, your lasting power of attorney, your CPF and insurance nominations, your guardianship choices) that only work if they still reflect your life. Life changes; the plan has to keep up. The most important rule to know at the outset is a pair of opposites: marriage generally revokes your will, while divorce does not touch it at all.

This article sets out the life events that should trigger a review, and the whole-plan checklist to run when one does, because a review is never just about the will. It closes on the specific danger of a stale plan that still names an ex-spouse. If you are building a plan from scratch, start with writing a will in Singapore; this piece is about keeping it current.

The life events that should trigger a review

Certain moments change the picture enough that your existing plan may no longer do what you want. Treat any of these as a prompt to look again.

Marriage, which revokes a will

Marriage generally revokes an existing will, with limited exceptions. A will you made before marrying may simply cease to be valid once you marry, leaving you effectively without one. If you marry, making a fresh will belongs on the list of things you set up in your new life, not something to postpone.

Divorce, which does not

Divorce does not revoke your will. A will made during the marriage carries on exactly as written, which can mean it still leaves everything to a former spouse or appoints them as executor. Updating it is essential post-divorce housekeeping. See our guide to life admin after divorce for the wider list.

A birth or a death in the family

A new child or grandchild is someone you may want to provide for, and a young child needs a guardian named. A death (of a beneficiary, an executor, a guardian, a trustee) can leave a gap in your plan that you need to fill.

A new property or major asset

Buying property or acquiring significant assets changes what your estate contains and how you may want it divided. A plan written when you owned little may not distribute a larger estate the way you would now choose.

Moving country

Relocating abroad, or acquiring assets overseas, raises questions about which country’s law governs your estate and whether your Singapore documents still work across borders. A move is a strong signal to review and take advice.

A beneficiary’s changed circumstances

A beneficiary who develops a disability, runs into financial trouble, or becomes estranged may need a different arrangement than the one you first made: a trust rather than an outright gift, for instance.

The passage of time

Even when nothing dramatic happens, plans drift out of date. Assets change, relationships shift, and the law moves on. If you cannot remember when you last looked at your plan, that alone is reason to look now.

The whole-plan checklist

A review is not just re-reading the will. Your estate plan is made of several separate documents, each of which can independently point at the wrong person or the wrong outcome. Run through all of them together.

Your will: does it still name the right beneficiaries, executor and guardians, and reflect your current assets and wishes?
Your LPA donee: is the person you appointed under your lasting power of attorney still the person you would trust to make decisions if you lost capacity?
Your CPF nomination: CPF savings pass by nomination, not by your will, so check that your CPF nomination still names the right people.
Insurance nominations: like CPF, many insurance policies pay out according to their own nomination, separately from the will.
Guardianship: for young children, is your named guardian still willing, suitable and available?
Trustees: if your plan uses a trust, are the trustees still the right choice?

Because these pieces are separate, updating one does not update the others. Our estate planning checklist sets the full list out in one place, and it is worth working through the lot in a single sitting rather than fixing one document and forgetting the rest.

The trap is treating the will as the whole plan. Someone can carefully rewrite their will after a life event and leave a CPF nomination, an insurance nomination and an LPA all pointing at the arrangements they thought they had changed. Because these instruments each operate on their own terms, and some pass money entirely outside the will, a plan is only as current as its least-reviewed part. Keep a simple record of what each document says and when you last checked it, so a review is a quick confirmation rather than a scramble to remember what you signed.

Updating versus starting again

Not every change needs a brand-new will. A small, clean amendment can sometimes be made by a formal addition to an existing will, while a substantial change is usually better handled by making a fresh will that revokes the old one. What you should not do is scribble changes onto a signed will. That does not work and can create confusion or invalidity.

If you are formally cancelling an old will, do it properly; our guide on revoking a will explains how. The safest habit is to treat each significant life event as a reason to have the whole plan looked over, and to let a professional judge whether an amendment or a fresh document is the right tool.

The danger of a stale plan that names an ex-spouse

The single most common, and most avoidable, problem is a plan left unchanged after a divorce. Because divorce does not revoke a will, and because CPF and insurance nominations and an LPA donee all stand until you change them, a former spouse can remain written into your affairs long after the marriage ended.

The consequences are real. Die before updating, and a will made during the marriage may hand your estate to your ex. Lose capacity, and an LPA still naming your ex-spouse as donee may put your decisions in their hands. Nominations may pay CPF or insurance money to them. None of that is usually what a divorced person wants, and all of it is prevented by a review. Insurance in particular is easy to overlook. See our note on insurance and divorce. For the full picture of how the documents fit together, our wills and probate guide is the place to start, and we can connect you with a licensed Singapore law practice if you want your plan reviewed for your own situation.

When to Review Your Will and Estate Plan