How Long Is a Will Valid For?

Once a will has been validly signed and witnessed under section 9 of the Wills Act 1837, it remains legally effective for as long as the person who made it is alive and has not revoked it, however many years pass. There is no rule requiring wills to be renewed after five, ten or twenty years, and no automatic expiry linked to age.

This means a will made decades ago can still be the operative document when someone dies, provided nothing has happened since to revoke it. The question worth asking is not 'has my will expired' but 'has anything happened since that revokes it, or makes it seriously out of date'.

Under section 18 of the Wills Act 1837, getting married or entering a civil partnership automatically revokes any will you made beforehand, in almost all circumstances. This catches people out regularly: someone makes a will, later marries, and does not realise their earlier will no longer has any legal effect at all.

The exception is a will made specifically 'in contemplation of' a particular forthcoming marriage or civil partnership, where the will makes clear it is intended to survive that marriage. This needs specific wording, so do not assume an ordinary will made shortly before a wedding falls into this exception without checking.

Divorce or dissolution of a civil partnership does not revoke your will, but it does have a significant automatic effect: under section 18A of the Wills Act 1837, your former spouse or civil partner is treated as if they had died on the date of the divorce, for the purposes of any gift or executor appointment made to them in your will. This means a gift you left them typically fails, and if they were your executor, that appointment falls away too.

This can leave a technically valid will with real gaps, no effective executor, or a share of the estate falling into residue in a way you never intended. It is a strong reason to make a new will promptly after divorce rather than assuming the old one still works as written.

A will remaining legally valid does not mean it still reflects reality. Over years, beneficiaries named in a will may have died, executors may no longer be able or willing to act, specific gifts, an item of jewellery, a named property, may no longer exist or may have changed significantly, and new family members, children, grandchildren, stepchildren, may not be mentioned at all.

None of this makes the will invalid in the legal sense, but it can make administering the estate confusing or lead to outcomes you would never have chosen if you had reviewed it more recently. See our guide on when to update your will for the events that most commonly make a will outdated.

As general good practice, review your will every three to five years even if nothing obvious has changed, simply to confirm the people named are still appropriate and the assets described still exist. Review it immediately after marriage, divorce, the birth of a child or grandchild, a significant change in your assets, or the death of a named executor or beneficiary.

Updating a will can be done either by making a completely new one, which automatically revokes the old, or through a formal codicil for smaller changes; see our guide on how to change a will for the difference and which is right for your situation.