This week
Check whether the will still stands
The Records Roadmap maps the will, nominations and property a remarriage touches — and what a blended family needs in place.
Open the Records Roadmap → All continuity events
Event review · a review falls due
Remarriage or a civil partnership
A secondary event with a sharp legal edge: marriage or civil partnership can revoke an earlier will entirely — leaving a blended family relying on intestacy rules that may not reflect anyone's intention.
§I
What changes
Under the Wills Act 1837, marriage or civil partnership revokes an earlier will unless the will was made in contemplation of that marriage. A will written for a previous household does not simply carry over into the new one.
Records to locate
- Your existing will — and whether it predates, or contemplates, the marriage
- Pension and life-insurance nominations across both former and new households
- Property ownership, and how it should pass between new spouse and children
Authority to prove
- Executor and attorney appointments across the new family structure
Formal requirements
- Wills Act 1837 s.18: marriage/civil partnership revokes an earlier will unless made in contemplation of it
- The Law Commission has proposed abolishing automatic revocation — which would shift the review from legal necessity to personal discretion (and strengthen the case for an event-indexed review)
Immediate actions
- Confirm whether the marriage revoked the existing will
- Plan provision across new spouse and any children from before
- Refresh nominations for the new household
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What to do, in order
One thing to do this week, one tool to use now, one conversation to have. Each routes into a free Valoren tool — no card, no sign-up to start.
The tool
Family Knowledge Quiz
Surfaces where the new household's records and the old will now disagree, and produces a Family Meeting Agenda.
Take the quiz →The conversation
With your new spouse
Blended-family provision is a conversation before it is a document. The Family Meeting Agenda structures it.
Open the agenda →Rather have it done for you?
Signum can draft a will made in contemplation of the marriage (unreserved) and re-index nominations for the new household.