UK The common belief, and what the law actually does
Many people believe that divorce cancels their will. In England and Wales it does not. What actually happens is narrower than that, and the difference matters if you have left everything to your spouse.
It helps to compare the two events. Marriage revokes a will entirely (section 18 of the Wills Act 1837), unless the will was made in contemplation of that specific marriage. Divorce is different: the will itself is not revoked. Only the former spouse's place in it changes.
What happens automatically under section 18A
On divorce or annulment, section 18A of the Wills Act 1837 treats the former spouse as having died before you for two purposes: any gift to them in the will fails, and any appointment of them as executor or trustee is revoked. The rest of the will stands exactly as written.
That is the trap. If your will says 'everything to my spouse' and names no substitute, the gift to the spouse has nowhere to go. Where a substitute beneficiary was named, the gift passes to them. Where none was named, the gift can fall into the residue of the estate — or, if the residue itself was left to the former spouse, part or all of your estate can pass under the intestacy rules, which may be the opposite of what you intended.
The automatic rule is a default, not a plan. It is designed to stop an ex-spouse inheriting by accident, not to express what you now want.
Why a new will is still the right answer
Because the automatic rule only removes the former spouse and then leaves the rest untouched, the only reliable way to give effect to your current wishes is to make a new will after the final order.
One further catch is worth knowing about in advance: remarriage revokes a will entirely, under the same section 18. So if you make a new will after a divorce and then marry again, that will is automatically revoked the moment you remarry, unless it was made in contemplation of that specific marriage. People who carefully updated their will after a divorce have lost it again on remarriage — and a will that is revoked leaves no will at all.
What the automatic rule does not touch
A will is not the only place your money goes on death, and the automatic rule reaches only the will. Other things pass outside it and are not changed by divorce:
Pension death benefits and lump-sum death-in-service payments are paid under the scheme's rules and your nomination to the scheme, not under your will. If your nomination still names your former spouse, that is where the money is directed until you change it — check and update the nomination directly with the scheme.
Assets held jointly, or owned in a way that passes to the survivor, can leave your estate entirely by survivorship. Ownership of the family home is a matter for the financial settlement, not for the will, and the way it is held can change what a will can do with it. There is no substitute for a proper review of the whole picture once the finances are settled.
Separation is not divorce
None of the automatic effect above applies while you are merely separated. In the eyes of the law you are still married, so a will that leaves everything to your spouse still leaves everything to them, and on intestacy a separated spouse still inherits as a surviving spouse.
If you are separated and do not want your spouse to inherit under your will, that is a reason to make a new will promptly rather than wait for the divorce to finish. A judicial separation sits somewhere in between and has its own effect on intestacy — take advice if that is your situation.
Scotland
The rule in Scotland is different in both directions. Marriage does not revoke a will in Scotland, so an old will made before the wedding can still be in force afterwards. Divorce does have an automatic effect: under the Succession (Scotland) Act 2016, where you are domiciled in Scotland and die on or after 1 November 2016, a gift in the will to a former spouse or civil partner, and their appointment as executor or trustee, take effect as though they had died before you — unless the will expressly provides otherwise. A former spouse appointed as a guardian to your children is the one exception and keeps that role.
The practical advice is identical: make a new will. Northern Ireland has its own succession law and its own courts, so the position there needs to be checked separately rather than assumed from either of the above.
What to do, in order
Once the final order is made — and again after any new marriage — review the will, the pension and insurance nominations, and how the home is owned. These are three separate documents, and updating one does not update the others.
The will is a job for a solicitor; the nominations are usually a form the pension scheme or insurer will give you. Neither this guide nor the system is legal advice about your estate, and the sums involved are usually large enough to be worth doing properly.
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