Generally speaking, a will should be reviewed every three to five years, or sooner if a major life event occurs: marriage, divorce, a new child, or an unexpected death in the family. Gaps are usually created when reviews are delayed too long… and those gaps tend to surface at the worst possible time. Nika Law LLP can help fill in these gaps before they cause problems.
Fast Facts
- A will drafted more than 5 years ago is often found to be out of step with current assets or family structure.
- In Ontario, marriage will not automatically revoke a will, but the exercise of spousal rights can drastically change how estate assets are distributed to the beneficiaries
- Just under one-half of Canadians have no will at all, according to available data from national surveys.1
- Powers of attorney should be reviewed alongside a will, not treated as a separate, forgotten document.
- Homes in Mississauga, Etobicoke, Brampton, and the GTA often appreciate quickly, and how an estate is divided can be shifted by this if the will isn’t updated.
A will is not a “set it and forget it” document.
A will is often drafted during a specific life stage by people, say, right after a first home is bought, or after a child is born, and the job is then assumed to be done. It isn’t, not really. Circumstances shift, sometimes quietly. In the Greater Toronto Area, where property values move fast and families are often spread across Mississauga, Etobicoke, and Brampton, a plan written five years back can feel disconnected from present reality. Periodic review of a will isn’t about distrust in the original document; it’s about keeping pace with life. Anyway, that’s usually where things click for most clients.
Major life events are the clearest signal.
Marriage, divorce, the birth of a child, a death in the family; these moments tend to prompt questions that hadn’t been asked before. A hypothetical client living in Etobicoke could leave their will untouched since their child was three, and contact Nika Law LLP on their 26th birthday. Nothing major needs to have happened between those two dates, but the guardianship clauses and specific-age trusts they set up would have become meaningless, and this theoretical client’s entire estate plan no longer matched the present reality. m
Even smaller changes deserve a second look.
Not every update needs to be triggered by something huge. A new business, a shift in assets, a falling-out with a named executor; these reasons are quieter, but they matter just as much. Estate plans are personal documents, and personal circumstances rarely stay fixed. In many cases, something dramatic happens before a change gets made, when smaller, gradual shifts, quieter ones, would have been reason enough on their own.
Provincial rules add another layer.
Estate planning in Canada isn’t uniform across provinces, and people can be caught off guard by that; especially those who’ve moved to Ontario from elsewhere. What worked legally in one province may not apply the same way here. This is where guidance from a wills and estate lawyer in Toronto becomes less about paperwork and more about making sure nothing falls through the cracks. Rules shift; so should the plan.
Powers of attorney are often forgotten during reviews.
The will itself tends to get most of the attention, understandably, but powers of attorney for property and personal care are often left behind. These documents matter just as much, particularly for aging individuals in the GTA who may need someone to make decisions on their behalf down the road. Just as many problems, sometimes more, can be caused by a stale POA as by a stale will.
Probate delays are usually traced back to outdated documents.
When a will hasn’t been reviewed in years, gaps are often discovered by executors only once probate begins, which is the worst possible timing. Assets get contested, taken, or lost. Family members get frustrated. It’s avoidable, mostly, with regular check-ins on the document itself. Months have been spent by families untangling situations that a single afternoon of review could have prevented, years earlier.
At Nika Law LLP, we care about getting this right, not just once, but over time.
Estate planning isn’t a single transaction; it’s an ongoing relationship between a person’s life and their legal documents. You will be heard when circumstances change, and the plan should reflect that. Put your trust in us. What’s shifted, what needs revisiting, and what can stay the same? All of it can be walked through together. If it’s been a few years since your will was reviewed, or if something in your life has changed, that’s usually reason enough to talk it through. Visit https://nikalaw.ca/ to connect with our team and take the next step toward a plan that still fits.
Mini-FAQ
Q: Do I really need to update my will after a divorce?
Yes, and it’s often overlooked. In Ontario, certain provisions naming a former spouse can be revoked by divorce, but the rest of the will may still stand as written, which creates confusion. Executors get named who shouldn’t be. It’s a mess, usually avoidable, with a quick review.
Q: What happens if I never update my will?
The will stays legally valid, technically, though it may no longer reflect reality. Assets get distributed based on outdated instructions, sometimes to people no longer part of one’s life. Family disputes tend to follow. That still surprises people.
Q: Funny enough, does buying a house count as a reason to update?
It can, especially where the property makes up a large part of the estate. A home in Brampton or Etobicoke, purchased after the original will was signed, may not be addressed anywhere in the document; not anywhere at all, really. Left unaddressed, probate can be slowed considerably by this.
Q: Should I update my will if my kids are now adults?
Probably. Guardianship clauses written for young children become irrelevant, and inheritance structures might need rethinking. It’s common for parents to assume the old plan still works; assumptions like that, though, are rarely tested until it’s too late.