Divorce operates to treat your ex-spouse as if they had predeceased you on the divorce. That means that they cannot inherit under any pre divorce Will, however it could mean, depending on the terms of that Will, that your estate or parts of it fall to be dealt with under the rules of intestacy. That means that part of your estate may not go to where you want it to go to.

In certain circumstances, regardless of what a Will says they may be able to make a claim on your estate, but if you have an up-to-date Will prepared after the divorce it may help your executors deal with any such claims.

It may be that although you do not want your ex to inherit anything from you, you would still want them to be involved with your children and possibly administer a trust fund on their behalf. In this case, you need to make a new Will after the divorce because a pre-divorce Will just treats your ex as if they died before you and therefore they cannot have any formal involvement.

The safest thing to do, to achieve any outcomes that you want to achieve is to make a fresh Will quickly after you have divorced.

For any advice about drawing up a new Will please seek individual legal advice from a lawyer that specialises in this area so that you can be provided the right advice that reflects your own personal circumstances and situation. You can easily search for local solicitors that specialise in Wills, Trusts and Tax Planning by using our site, all our solicitors are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), and you can search our site for free and confident in the knowledge that we do not require your personal data.