# Three out of five people don't update their wills

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2006/11/25/three-out-five-people-don039t-update-their-wills/
- Published: 2006-11-25T00:00:00+00:00
- Author: Howard Lake

New research from Cancer Research UK shows that three in five people have never 
updated their will, despite almost two-thirds of wills being made over five years
ago, and a third more than 10 years ago.
The survey, carried out with BMRB, interviewed
1,000 people nationwide in all age groups and found that many people do not update
their will even after a significant change in their personal lives. A change in 
family curcumstances was the most common reason for a will to be out of date – marriage,
divorce, receiving an inheritance for example – and was cited by 75 per cent of 
those with an out-of-date will.

Over 40 per cent of those with children who said their wills were out of date said
it was because people they now plan to leave to are not included in their will, 
which could suggest wills had not been updated since their children were born.

Happily for charities, 16 per cent of those who do hav ea will said it was out of
fdate because it didn’t include a gift to charity that they now intend to make.

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