Q. My husband and I celebrated our 4th anniversary in December and are finally getting around to reviewing our estate-planning documents. We both already had Wills in place when we got married and as this is a 2nd marriage for both of us, the wishes set out in those Wills have not changed. My husband thinks I should do a new Will to update my surname. Is that necessary?
A. It is not necessary to do a new Will just to update your surname. However, even though our current legislation states that marriage no longer revokes a Will, our previous legislation did. The BC Wills, Estates and Succession Act specifically states that if a will was revoked by marriage prior to March 31, 2014, it cannot be revived. This means that your Wills are no longer valid!