Making a Will After Someone Dies

It is a natural blind spot. When someone close to us dies, our attention is on their estate, their wishes, and supporting the wider family, not on our own paperwork. Yet if the person who died was named in your will, as a beneficiary, an executor, or a guardian for your children, that part of your will may no longer work the way you intended.

This is not about acting urgently in the immediate aftermath of a loss. It is about recognising, whenever you feel ready, that your own will was written around a set of people and relationships that has just changed, and that it deserves a review rather than being left as it was.

If someone you named as a beneficiary in your will has died before you, what happens to the gift you intended for them depends on how your will is worded. Some wills include a clause specifying what should happen if a beneficiary predeceases you, sometimes passing the gift to their children instead. Without such a clause, the gift may fail entirely and fall back into the general estate, or in some cases pass under rules that were never really your intention.

This is worth checking properly rather than assuming your will already handles it sensibly. If your will does not say what should happen, or says something you would not actually choose, this is a straightforward thing to update.

If someone you appointed as an executor, or as guardian for your children, has died, that part of your will effectively falls away for them, and it is worth naming a replacement rather than leaving the role vacant. If you named more than one executor and at least one survives, your will may still work, but it is still worth reviewing whether the remaining arrangement is still what you want.

The same applies to a reserve guardian if you had named one, since that role too may need refreshing. Losing someone close often changes who else in your life you would now trust with these responsibilities, which is a normal and healthy thing to reconsider.

Receiving an inheritance yourself, whether from a parent, spouse or another relative, often changes your own financial position enough to justify reviewing your will, particularly if it means your estate is now larger, includes new property, or brings assets you had not previously planned for.

In some circumstances, a deed of variation allows beneficiaries of an estate to agree, within a limited time and following particular formalities, to redirect part of an inheritance to someone else, for example to skip a generation to grandchildren, or to rebalance what different family members receive. This can have tax and other implications and works within specific rules, so it is worth taking individual advice if you are considering it rather than assuming it can be arranged informally.

None of this needs to happen the week after a funeral. Grief takes the time it takes, and practical paperwork can wait until you feel ready to face it. What matters more is not letting it drift indefinitely, since it is easy for months, then years, to pass with an outdated will quietly sitting in a drawer.

When you are ready, updating your will to reflect a bereavement is usually a straightforward process, particularly if the changes are limited to naming new executors or adjusting specific gifts. It can be done online from £69, at whatever pace feels right for you.