The Life Events That Quietly Rewrite Your Will in Connecticut

Planning for how you want your property distributed after you pass away is an emotional endeavor for most. Once you have your Last Will and Testament prepared, you expect it to be, well, your last. Generally speaking, people often perceive estate planning as a get-it-and-forget-it process. So, if you have a will in place, it’s likely been relegated to the back of your mind.

But if you have since gotten married or divorced, had or adopted a child, lost your spouse, or made Connecticut your new home state, you should think about having your existing state plan reviewed to determine whether it remains appropriate under Connecticut law. In certain circumstances, state law steps in and changes the provisions of your already-drafted will. In other words, you may need to update your will after a major life event in Connecticut.

In cases where a testator (the legal name for the person who created a will) subsequently gets divorced, married, and/or has a new child, state law can alter the effects of certain provisions in their Last Will and Testament. Changes to existing provisions automatically happen after one (or more) of these events, and in a very narrow way. To ensure your final wishes are indeed yours (and not the State’s), it’s first necessary to know what these automatic changes are, and then to revisit and perhaps revise your will before Connecticut law does it for you.

In this article, we discuss what Connecticut's statutes actually do after a subsequent divorce, marriage, and new child, why these statutory fixes may not match a testator’s true wishes, and other life events the law doesn't address at all.

Key Takeaways

• A Last Will and Testament lets you direct how your property should be distributed after your death.
• A will that hasn’t been updated after certain life events can trigger Connecticut law to step in and change its provisions.
• If the testator gets divorced, marries, or adds new children to their family and doesn’t update their previous will, laws are in place to ensure these changes are accounted for.·
• These laws serve as a safety net and don’t always reflect the testator's wishes.
• Reviewing your will after major life changes is the best way to determine whether it still fully reflects your wishes or needs revision.

Divorce, a Later Marriage, and New Children Automatically Change Your Will

Three separate Connecticut statutes apply to all wills executed from January 1, 1997, on, in the case of specific, subsequent life events: divorce, marriage, and new children, whether natural or adopted. These laws won’t matter while the testator is alive (other than perhaps motivating them to update their will), but they can make all the difference when the person dies and their Last Will and Testament is presented to the Probate Court.

Under Connecticut General Statute Section 45a-257c, the dissolution of a marriage (whether through divorce or annulment) automatically revokes any provision in a will that leaves property to a former spouse. This revocation applies to any gift of personal or real property, fiduciary nomination, or power of appointment in the pre-divorce will. The effect is that the law treats the former spouse as if they had predeceased the testator. There are three exceptions: if the testator’s will expressly provides that the law shall not apply, the testator and their former spouse remarry, or there was only a separation and no official dissolution of the marriage. And, this law only cancels provisions for the former spouse; it doesn’t revoke the will as a whole.

Next we have the later-marriage rule. In Section 45a-257a, the law provides for the spouse of a testator who married after executing their will if the will was not updated afterward. Here, the new spouse generally received the same share from their late spouse’s estate as they would if there were no will at all (meaning under the rules of intestacy). This rule will be applied absent two exceptions: the will shows that the omission was intentional, or the later-married spouse was provided for outside the will.

Finally, new children are covered under Section 45a-257b. If, after signing their will, the testator has a child (natural, adopted, or by assisted reproduction) and dies before creating a new will, the child inherits from their parent’s estate per this specific law. The policy behind the law providing for later children is that their omission in the will was accidental rather than deliberate. If the omission is intentional (say because the will is clearly written to leave out the child), this omission will override application of this law.

The Divorce, Marriage, and Child Protections Only Go So Far

Each of these three protections is real, but each is narrower than people assume. They don’t apply to assets that pass outside the will, such as retirement accounts, life insurance, or jointly held property, where a beneficiary form would control instead.

Let’s walk through the limits of the laws:

• The divorce statute gives the ex-spouse's share to whoever is next in line under the will's terms or, if no one else is named, under the rules of intestacy. Obviously, the transfer of this gift isn’t always to the person the testator themselves would have chosen;
• The later-marriage share is capped at an intestate share; it can't be increased with a separate elective share; and
• The after-born child's share depends entirely on how the will treated existing children. Their share is capped at an amount equal to bequests (if any) in the will to then-living children. There can also be no share at all if the will left substantially everything to the child's surviving parent.

These protections produce a default outcome, not a chosen one. That's why you should be prompted to update your will after a major life event in Connecticut. This way, you retain control of your estate instead of leaving it to the state.

Life Events Connecticut's Will Statutes Don't Address at All

Some life events that can affect how a testator wants their estate distributed don’t have a “safety net” law at all. Of course, the testator can always change their will upon any of these things happening, but the law leaves it to them and does not step in when it comes to updating a will after a major life event in Connecticut.

Here are common life events that Connecticut law doesn’t address when a will is later offered for probate:

• Remarrying an ex other than the former spouse who is named in the will. The revival rule mentioned above only revives the provisions that would have been revoked if the testator remarries the same former spouse;
• Becoming a stepparent. A stepchild who was never legally adopted has no automatic inheritance rights in Connecticut, no matter how long the relationship lasted;
• Moving to Connecticut. If you’re moving from another state, Connecticut will recognize an out-of-state will so long as the execution and witnessing requirements conform with the law of the state where the will was originally signed;
• Acquiring a new, major asset. This includes buying a new home or investment property, starting a business, or any other large-scale asset the testator bought or received after creating their will; and
• The death of a named fiduciary. It’s always good practice to name backup executors, trustees, or guardians in a will in the event one passes away or is unable to serve in the role.

None of these situations triggers an automatic fix, which means the will keeps operating as written until the testator makes changes.

A Will Review Turns the Default Into a Decision

One reason to update a will after a major life event in Connecticut is to ensure the default law does not apply. People make wills for two reasons: to direct how they want their property distributed, and to minimize any conflict or unnecessary work for the loved ones they leave behind. The last thing most individuals ever want is a litigious dispute among their family and friends after they die. But will and estate contests happen more frequently than one would like to imagine.

The likelihood of conflict increases when you, and then your loved ones, don’t know that Connecticut law has changed the letter of your Last Will and Testament.

These specific Connecticut statutes are intended to prevent unintended and obviously unfair results, and are in no way written to produce the plan a testator would have chosen. Reviewing your will after a major life event helps ensure your property plan reflects your intent. Keeping your will up to date as your life changes helps prevent default, unintended outcomes during probate. Instead, your family gets the instructions you intended from your will, and the probate process becomes easier during an already difficult time.

Work With a Connecticut Estate Planning Attorney to Update Your Will

An unreviewed will isn’t a crisis, but Connecticut law's automatic fixes can affect how your estate is distributed. When revising a previous will after a major life event, such as divorce, marriage, or the addition of new children to your family, you want the help of an experienced estate planning attorney.

The probate attorney team at Lawrence & Jurkiewicz, LLC assists clients in Hartford and Litchfield Counties when life happens and they need to update a will after a major life event in Connecticut or create their first one. Attorney Edward Jurkiewicz can help ensure that your wishes for how your property should be distributed after you pass away are truly yours. Please call us at 860-626-1333 or contact us at your convenience to schedule a confidential consultation.