Marriage generally revokes an existing will in New South Wales under Succession Act 2006 section 12, unless that will was clearly made in contemplation of the marriage. If your will doesn’t spell that out, arrange a properly executed new will as soon as possible, even if you want the same beneficiaries and terms. When the wording is unclear, get legal advice before assuming your old will still stand.
TL;DR:
- A will made before marriage usually gets revoked under section 12 of the Succession Act 2006 unless it was created specifically in contemplation of that marriage.
- Updating your estate plan after marriage generally requires a new, properly signed and witnessed will rather than a codicil, which is only suitable for minor changes.
- Beneficiaries and executor choices should be reviewed and updated promptly, especially for superannuation and business interests, which are often more valuable than the estate itself.
- An ambiguous contemplation clause in an old will can lead to costly and lengthy court disputes, making regular legal reviews essential after significant life events.
- Joint or mutual wills are typically revoked or complicated by marriage, and separate wills often provide a clearer, more flexible estate plan for married couples.
Table of Contents
- Does marriage revoke a will in NSW? The statutory rule explained
- What should you review after your wedding?
- How do you update a will in NSW after marriage?
- Why your will isn’t the full picture on superannuation
- When should you get legal advice about a new will?
- Do joint wills or mutual wills still work after marriage?
- Why acting promptly matters: a practitioner’s perspective
- Funding Your Legal Matter — No Win, No Fee
- Getting a new will drafted properly, without the guesswork
- Sources
- FAQ
Does marriage revoke a will in NSW? The statutory rule explained
Section 12 of the Succession Act 2006 is blunt: getting married cancels any will you made before the wedding. It doesn’t matter how carefully that will was drafted, how recently it was signed, or how obviously it reflects your current wishes. The law treats marriage as a fresh start for your estate, on the assumption that your priorities have shifted toward your new spouse.
There’s one significant carve out. A will survives marriage if it was made “in contemplation of” that particular marriage, or of marriage generally. This isn’t a throwaway phrase your solicitor adds for luck. It needs to genuinely reflect an intention, at the time of drafting, that the will would remain valid once you tied the knot.
- A will drafted three months before the wedding, naming your fiancé as executor and stating the will is made “in contemplation of my forthcoming marriage to [name],” will usually survive.
- A will drafted years earlier, before you’d even met your spouse, almost certainly won’t.
- A will that’s silent on the topic sits in a grey zone, and that’s exactly where disputes start.
The State Library of NSW’s legal guidance confirms a will stays valid until it’s formally changed, but formal change includes revocation by marriage. If your executor lodges a will for probate and the wording around contemplation is ambiguous, the Supreme Court of NSW may need extrinsic evidence, correspondence, solicitor’s notes, even witness statements, to work out what you actually intended. That’s an expensive, slow way to sort out something a five-minute conversation with a solicitor could have fixed years earlier.
What should you review after your wedding?
Once the ceremony’s done and the thank-you cards are sorted, your estate paperwork deserves the same attention you gave the seating plan. Work through this in order:
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Locate the original will and any codicils, and check whether the document mentions your marriage or uses contemplation wording.
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Review who’s named as beneficiaries and alternate beneficiaries, and whether that still matches your wishes.
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Confirm your executor and substitute executor are still the right choices.
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Decide who should act as testamentary guardian if you have children under 18.
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Check your enduring power of attorney and enduring guardian appointments are current.
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Contact your superannuation fund and any life insurers to check existing binding nominations.
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Think through jointly owned property, business interests, or farm succession, and whether marriage changes the tax or ownership picture.
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Tell your executor exactly where the original will is stored.
Pro Tip: Don’t rely on memory for where the original will sits. If it’s in a bank safe deposit box your executor can’t access without probate, or a filing cabinet nobody else knows about, it might as well not exist. NSW Trustee and Guardian’s WillSafe storage service exists precisely because “I know where it is” isn’t good enough.
Superannuation and business assets often carry more value than the estate itself, so item six and seven aren’t optional extras. They’re frequently where the real money sits.
How do you update a will in NSW after marriage?
You’ve got two options: a codicil, or a brand new will. A codicil is a short legal document that amends specific clauses in an existing will without replacing it entirely. It suits minor changes, like updating an executor’s address or adjusting a single bequest. It does not suit your situation, because marriage doesn’t leave a minor gap to patch. It revokes the whole document. A codicil to a revoked will amends nothing.
That means, in nearly every post-marriage scenario, you need a new will, not a codicil.
NSW execution requirements are strict and unforgiving of shortcuts:
- The will must be in writing.
- You (the testator) must sign it.
- Two witnesses must be present at the same time as you sign, and they must sign too.
- Neither witness should be a beneficiary, or their gift can be void.
Crossing out a clause, scribbling a note in the margin, or handwriting “I now leave this to my spouse” underneath your signature achieves nothing legally. Even initialled corrections need the same two-witness process as the original signing, covered in more detail in our guide to will signing and witnessing under section 6. Skip that step and the correction is simply invalid, no matter how clear your intention was.
The practical sequence: draft your instructions, get a solicitor or the public trustee to prepare the document correctly, attend a witnessed signing, then store the original safely and tell your executor where it is. Ask for a fixed-fee quote upfront, and confirm whether storage and related documents like an enduring power of attorney are bundled in, or billed separately.
Why your will isn’t the full picture on superannuation
Your will controls very little of what happens to your superannuation. Super is held in trust, and the fund trustee decides who gets paid based on the fund’s rules and any nomination you’ve lodged, not automatically on what your will says.
There’s a real difference between binding and non-binding nominations. A binding nomination, done correctly, legally compels the trustee to pay your death benefit to the person or people you’ve named. A non-binding nomination is just guidance, the trustee retains discretion. The ATO’s guidance on superannuation death benefits confirms benefits can go to a dependant, a nominated beneficiary, or your legal personal representative, and the fund’s trust deed governs which applies.
Your new spouse is typically classed as a dependant under super law, but “typically” isn’t “automatically.” Fund rules vary, and outdated nominations from a previous relationship can still hold legal weight.
- Contact every super fund you hold, including old ones from previous jobs.
- Check whether your nomination is binding or non-binding, and whether it’s lapsed.
- Update life insurance policy nominations at the same time, since many are held inside super.
Some binding nominations lapse after three years and need renewing, so a marriage is a natural prompt to check the fine print. It sits alongside your will, not inside it, which is exactly why it’s covered in our superannuation and wills guide.
When should you get legal advice about a new will?
Some situations genuinely need a solicitor, not a template. Get advice quickly if your old will’s contemplation wording is ambiguous, if you’re blending families from a previous relationship, if you own a business or farm with succession complexities, or if there’s any realistic chance of a family provision claim down the track.
A solicitor reviewing your matter will typically look at the original will’s exact wording, any prior correspondence about it, your super and insurance nomination status, and a full asset list. NSW Trustee and Guardian’s own intake process follows the same logic: gather assets and relationships first, then draft.
Bring a list of assets, existing estate documents, and details of your family situation to a meeting. The likely outcome is a new will, sometimes an updated enduring power of attorney alongside it, and clear instructions for your super fund. Some legal practices offer an initial free consultation for this kind of intake, a practical, low-pressure way to find out your position before committing to anything.
Do joint wills or mutual wills still work after marriage?
Joint wills, where two people sign a single document, and mutual wills, where two separate wills contain a binding agreement not to change them, both raise particular problems once marriage enters the picture.
A joint will executed before marriage is revoked by section 12 in the same way a standard will is. If you and your new spouse had drawn one up together during your engagement, without contemplation wording specific to the marriage, it’s gone the moment you say “I do.” That surprises a lot of couples who assumed a jointly signed document had some extra legal weight. It doesn’t.
Mutual wills carry a different risk. They typically include a contractual promise between two people, often to leave assets to each other and then to shared children, and courts have sometimes enforced that promise even after one party tries to revoke their will unilaterally. If you made a mutual will arrangement with a previous partner before this marriage, revoking it now without addressing that earlier agreement could expose your estate to a claim from the other party or their estate later.
The safer path, for most newly married couples, is two separate wills rather than one joint or mutual document. Each will can still reflect coordinated wishes, leaving assets to each other, naming the same executors, without locking either of you into an arrangement that’s difficult to unwind if circumstances change again.
Why acting promptly matters: a practitioner’s perspective
Courts consistently favour clarity over intention guessed at after the fact. Every ambiguous will I’ve seen argued over shares one trait: nobody wrote down what they meant at the time, so a judge has to reconstruct it years later from fragments of correspondence.
A new will costs a fraction of what a contested probate matter costs, in money and in family strain. Executors who inherit a clean, current will move through estate administration in weeks. Executors who inherit an ambiguous one can spend a year in limbo.
Most uncertainty resolves in a single conversation. If you’re unsure whether your existing will survived your marriage, that’s usually a quick fix, not a drawn out one.
— George
Funding Your Legal Matter — No Win, No Fee
If your situation involves a dispute rather than a straightforward update, cost shouldn’t be the reason you don’t act. Some legal firms may offer No Win, No Fee arrangements for eligible estate disputes and contested matters, including certain family provision claims and will challenges.
Eligibility for such arrangements is typically assessed during an initial consultation, so clients can understand their position before costs are incurred. For people with a genuine claim who’ve delayed seeking legal advice due to upfront costs, such arrangements aim to remove that barrier.
Book a free case assessment to find out whether your matter qualifies.
No Win, No Fee arrangements are subject to case eligibility and a written costs agreement. Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation.
Getting a new will drafted properly, without the guesswork
There are practical alternatives to trying to patch an old will yourself, or leaving it in a drawer and hoping the contemplation wording holds up. Some legal practices based in Sydney and its surrounding areas draft new wills, review existing ones for contemplation-of-marriage issues, and handle the superannuation and power of attorney housekeeping that accompanies life events such as marriage.
Many wills and estates matters are managed by experienced legal professionals who provide clear advice and transparent fees from the outset, whether a straightforward will or a more involved estate plan covering blended family structures or business succession. If you’re not sure whether your current will survived your marriage, that uncertainty is exactly what a first conversation resolves. Book a complimentary 30 minute consultation through Making & Amending A Will and get a definite answer instead of a guess.
This article is general information, not a substitute for advice from a qualified lawyer. Consult a qualified legal professional about your own circumstances before acting on anything here.
Sources
Verify the detail yourself before acting on anything estate related:
- Succession Act 2006 No 80
- Changing or revoking a will | State Library of New South Wales
- Making a will – Legal Aid NSW
- Superannuation death benefits | Australian Taxation Office
FAQ
How do I update my will in Australia?
In NSW, you update a will by making a new will, since a codicil only works for minor amendments to a will that’s still legally valid. If your marriage has revoked your old will under section 12 of the Succession Act 2006, you need a fresh document, properly signed and witnessed by two people.
Does a valid marriage invalidate a will?
Yes, in most cases. Marriage revokes an existing NSW will unless it was made in contemplation of that specific marriage or of marriage generally, as set out in section 12. If your will doesn’t contain that wording, treat it as revoked and arrange a new one.
What is the easiest way to update a will?
For a genuine update after a life event like marriage, the simplest path is a new will prepared and witnessed correctly, rather than trying to amend the old one. Legal Aid NSW recommends reviewing your will whenever your circumstances change, and Simons George Legal offers a complimentary consultation to make that process straightforward.
Do all wills have to go through probate in NSW?
Not every estate needs a probate grant, small or simple estates sometimes don’t, but most estates with real property or significant assets do. If there’s uncertainty about whether marriage revoked the will being relied on, the Supreme Court of NSW may require additional evidence before granting probate, which is another reason to resolve ambiguous wording well before it becomes a court’s problem.