What Happens to Your Existing Will If You Get Married?

Getting married is hopefully a joyous event, and we are confident the last thing the happy couple wants to think about is how this affects their Wills. There are thank-you notes to write, weird gifts to return, and bathroom counter space to negotiate.

However, getting married can have a huge impact on your estate planning, and it’s worth taking a few minutes to go over this very important issue.

First, to set a baseline, if a married person dies without a Will, their spouse inherits from their estate in an amount that depends on how many children the deceased spouse has:

·         No children – Spouse receives all of the estate;

·         1 child – Spouse and child each receive 1/2;

·         2 children – Spouse and children each receive 1/3; and

·         3 or more children – Spouse receives 1/3, the children evenly split the remaining 2/3.

If a person already had a Will before they get married, then the marriage automatically modifies the Will to include the new spouse. Essentially, Georgia law adds the new spouse as a beneficiary under the Will and gives them the same portion of the estate as if there was no Will, using the baseline formula above.

However, it is possible to avoid this automatic modification by including language in the Will stating that it is made “in contemplation of” marriage. If that language is included, then the marriage makes no change to the Will.

In a simple example, let’s say Dianne makes a Will before she gets married. Her Will does not include language that says it was made in contemplation of marriage and gives 100% of her estate to her son, Don.

Then Dianne gets married to Carl but does not change her Will. If she dies before Don and Carl, then even though her Will says she wants 100% of her estate to go to Don, Georgia law will change her Will so that Don and Carl each get 50% of her estate.

There are two main ways to resolve this issue. The first is simply to get a new Will when you get married. In a Will made after two people are legally married, special contemplation language is not necessary; the Will is interpreted to say what it says.

In the example above, if Dianne made a new Will after marrying Carl, and if the new Will gave Don 100% of her estate, then Don would receive 100% of the estate and Carl would receive nothing.

The second way is to amend the pre-existing Will to include the fact that you are married and to include instructions about what your spouse will (or will not) receive.

As we said before, marriage is tricky enough without having to worry about your estate. But dealing with these issues now is better than leaving your family to deal with them later. If you have gotten married since you made your Will, we strongly encourage you to take a few minutes to review your Will and make sure it does what you want it to do.