Short answer: Review your will after any major life event, marriage, divorce, a birth or adoption, the death of a beneficiary or the person you named as executor or guardian, or a move out of state. Review it again periodically even if nothing has changed. The stakes are real: if you die without a valid, updated will, California’s intestate succession statutes decide who inherits, not you, and the results often surprise people (Probate Code § 6400).
What life events mean it is time to look at my will again?
Marriage and divorce are the two biggest triggers. A new spouse is not automatically covered by an old will, and an ex-spouse named in an old will can create a mess for your family to sort out. Add a birth or an adoption to that list. So does the death of anyone your will depends on: a named beneficiary, the executor you appointed, or a guardian you chose for minor children. If any of those people are gone, your will has a gap where a decision used to be.
Moving out of California, buying or selling significant property, starting a business, or a sharp change in your net worth are also good reasons to pull your will back out. None of these events change your will automatically. The document sits exactly as you signed it until you change it.
What happens if I never update my will, or never made one?
If you die without a valid will in California, the intestate succession statutes control who gets your property, not your wishes. For community and quasi-community property, a surviving spouse takes all of it, both their own half and the decedent’s half (Probate Code § 6401(a) through (b)). For separate property, the surviving spouse’s share depends on who else survives you: all of it if there are no surviving children, parents, or siblings; one-half if there is one child or that child’s descendants, or no children but a surviving parent or sibling; one-third if there are two or more children (Probate Code § 6401(c)). If nothing passes to a spouse, or you were unmarried, the estate passes in a fixed order, first to children and their descendants, then to parents, then to siblings and their children, and outward from there (Probate Code § 6402).
That fixed order does not bend for people you actually intended to provide for. Stepchildren who were never legally adopted and unmarried partners generally inherit nothing under intestate succession (Probate Code §§ 6401 through 6402). An outdated will that still names an ex-spouse or leaves out a child born after you signed it can produce results almost as far from your intent as having no will at all.
What if I cannot find my old will, or I made a new one?
If a will was last known to be in your own possession and it cannot be found after your death, California law presumes you destroyed it on purpose, meaning you revoked it. That presumption can be rebutted, but rebutting a presumption in court is expensive, slow, and uncertain (Probate Code § 6124). When you review your will, confirm you know exactly where the original is, and if you sign a new one, formally revoke the old one rather than just setting it aside somewhere.
Does updating my will avoid probate?
No. A will only takes effect once a court validates it through probate. It does not avoid probate by itself, no matter how current it is. Only a properly funded revocable living trust passes assets to your beneficiaries outside of the probate process. If your will review turns up a lot of real property, multiple accounts, or a genuine desire to keep your estate out of court entirely, that is the point to ask whether a trust belongs in your plan alongside, or instead of, your will.
How often should I review my will even without a major event?
Set a recurring reminder to look at your will periodically, not just when something happens. Family situations drift, asset values change, and the people you named as executor or guardian years ago may no longer be the right choice even if nothing dramatic occurred. A short periodic check costs you almost nothing. Discovering a stale will after you are gone costs your family a great deal.
Figures verified July 2026.
What to do next
Pull your current will and any related trust documents, note the date you last touched them, and list what has changed in your life since then. If you find gaps, outdated names, or you are not sure whether your plan still does what you want, talk to an estate planning attorney about updating it. Ridley Law offers a trust health check and can walk you through whether your will or a living trust better fits where your life stands today.
Want a straight read on where you stand?
Talk to Eric. A free 30-minute call, no pitch. He’ll tell you where you’re exposed, what it would cost to fix, and what you can skip.
Talk to Eric