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After you have made your Will, it is important to make plans for its safekeeping. It is also important to review your Will from time to time. Certain life events, such as marriage and divorce, can affect it. Other changes in your personal life may prompt you to change your Will or cancel it altogether.
You should keep your Will in a safe place where your executor can easily locate it after your death. Care should be taken to protect it from being accidentally destroyed or lost.
If you have a lawyer prepare your Will, they may offer to keep the original copy at no additional cost. You should be provided with a copy of the original Will to keep with other important papers that your executor may need. The copy should indicate contact information for the lawyer who prepared the Will. Your executor can obtain the original copy from the lawyer after your death and is not under any obligation to use that lawyer's services.
Courthouses throughout the province also provide safekeeping of a Will for a one-time fee. You can take your Will to the nearest Court of King's Bench to deposit it. You will be given a certificate to keep with your other important papers that states the location of your original Will. A copy of the certificate is also filed in a central registry at the Court of King's Bench in Regina.
Many people put off reviewing a Will even more than they delay making one in the first place. However, a regular review of your Will helps make sure that it still does what you want it to in light of changing circumstances in your life. You can change your Will as often as you want during your lifetime as long as you continue to be of sound mind.
Some experts suggest a periodic review every two to five years. At the very least, you should review your Will when significant events occur in your life, such as:
If you make a Will and later marry or live in a spousal relationship for two or more years, your Will remains in effect and unchanged.
Ending a spousal relationship, however, can revoke or cancel your Will or parts of it. For the purposes of a Will, a spousal relationship ends on divorce. For common law spouses, it ends after having not lived together for 24 months. When the relationship ends, any appointment of your spouse as executor or property left to your spouse is revoked unless the Will says otherwise.
Wills come into effect only after your death, meaning that beneficiaries under a Will have no interest in your estate before your death. During your lifetime you can change or cancel your Will whenever you like. You can cancel your Will by doing any of the following:
Minor changes to a Will are often done by making a codicil. A codicil is a separate document made in addition to your Will. Changes may also be made directly on your Will. If the changes are made entirely in your handwriting and signed by you, no witnesses are required. However, if the changes are not entirely in your own handwriting, they must be signed by you and two witnesses. In either case, it is not sufficient to simply initial the changes. The signing formalities are the same as when the Will was originally prepared.
When Wills were type-written, codicils were a convenient way to make a change without re-typing the entire Will. Today, Wills are generally made with word-processing software. This also means you can easily make changes and create a new Will. This may be preferable to avoid any confusion or dispute over the changes.
The Regina Public Library and Saskatoon Public Library are hosting free Law Fair events during Saskatchewan Access to Justice Week to connect people with free legal information, assistance, and support. Attend to acquire legal knowledge and to broaden awareness of legal rights and responsibilities!