Got Married? What Marriage Does to Your Will in Ireland

This is not a reason to panic after the honeymoon. It is simply a legal consequence of a major life change, and usually a good prompt to make a new estate plan that reflects your married life.

Why can marriage revoke an earlier will?

Section 85 of the Succession Act 1965 provides that a will is generally revoked by the testator's subsequent marriage. An exception applies where the will was expressed to be made in contemplation of that marriage. There is also a statutory exception in certain circumstances where existing civil partners marry each other.

What if you now have no valid will?

If a married person dies intestate and leaves no children, the surviving spouse takes the whole intestate estate. If there is a spouse and children, the spouse takes two-thirds and the children share one-third under the statutory rules.

Those default shares may be perfectly acceptable to some couples. A will is still useful if you want to appoint an executor, make specific gifts, provide clear fallback beneficiaries or deal with children and guardianship.

Your spouse also has a legal right share under a will

If you make a valid will, section 111 protects a surviving spouse with a legal right share of one-half of the estate where there are no children and one-third where there are children.

That does not mean every married couple needs complex drafting. It means a will should be designed around the legal family situation rather than copied from something you made while single.

Which will fits a newly married couple?

What if this is a second marriage or blended family?

Use a solicitor. Children from earlier relationships, stepchildren, the family home and the surviving spouse's legal rights can create competing objectives that are not well suited to a standard couple template.

Read Blended Families and Wills in Ireland.

What should newlyweds check besides the will?

• How the home and major assets are legally owned.
• Who is nominated on pensions or life policies.
• Whether each spouse's executor and fallback beneficiaries still make sense.
• If there are children under 18, whether guardianship and provisions for young beneficiaries are addressed.

A will is one part of the picture. Joint ownership, pensions and nominated benefits can operate differently.

Official references

• Succession Act 1965, section 85
• Succession Act 1965, section 67
• Succession Act 1965, section 111

Important: This is general information. Separation, previous relationships and unusual ownership arrangements can require individual legal advice.