The Will Review Reminder Email Estate Lawyers Should Send Every Few Years

01 October 2026·6 min read

Quick answer: Most wills and estate practices only hear from a client again when something's already gone wrong — a death, a divorce, a dispute between siblings. A short, warm reminder email sent every three to five years (or triggered by a life event) nudges clients to check their will is still current, while keeping your firm top of mind as their lawyer. The trick is making it feel like a genuine prompt, not a sales pitch or a scare tactic. Done well, it's one of the simplest re-engagement channels a wills practice has sitting unused. ✨

Here's a thing most wills and estate lawyers quietly know but rarely act on: the will you drafted for a client five years ago probably doesn't reflect their life anymore. They've remarried, had another grandchild, lost the executor they named, or sold the house the will specifically mentions — and most firms never tell them. The file gets closed, the invoice gets paid, and the relationship goes dormant until a death or a dispute drags it back open, often in worse circumstances than a friendly check-in would have been. A periodic will review reminder fixes that, and it's genuinely one of the lowest-effort, highest-goodwill things a practice can set up. 💖 It's not about chasing fees — it's about closing the loop between "your will is valid" and "your will still reflects your life," which are two very different things.

What most law firms get wrong about will reviews

The instinct, when firms do send a review reminder, is to make it generic: "It's been a while — time to review your estate plan!" That's vague enough to be ignored. The other common mistake is making it feel transactional — effectively a disguised invitation to pay for another appointment — which makes clients suspicious of the motive. The best reminders do neither: they name a specific, plausible reason circumstances may have changed, make the next step genuinely easy (a short reply, not a consult booking), and make clear that checking is often quick and sometimes free. Firms also tend to send reminders on a flat timer with no segmentation, when a blended family or business owner needs a very different cadence than a retiree with a simple estate.

The will review reminder system

1. Set the cadence. A general rule: every 3 years for clients with blended families, business interests or minor children; every 5 years for simple estates. Tag clients in your practice management system by "will signed date" plus complexity so the list builds itself.

2. Trigger on life events too, not just time. A marriage, divorce, death in the family, new grandchild, house sale or purchase, or a named executor turning 75+ should fire an earlier reminder regardless of the timer.

3. Subject lines that get opened:

"Quick one about your will — nothing urgent"
"Has anything changed since we drew up your will?"
"A 5-minute check on your estate plan"

4. Body copy template:

Hi [First name],

It's been [X years] since we prepared your will. A few quick questions: has your marital status changed? Have you welcomed a new grandchild, or lost someone named as an executor or guardian? Bought or sold a major asset?

If yes to any of those, it's worth a short conversation — often a quick update, not a full rewrite. If nothing's changed, no action needed; reply here or call [phone] and we'll sort out next steps.

Warmly, [Name], [Firm]

The client who remarried since their will was signed: Her 2019 will still named her ex-partner as executor and a beneficiary. The reminder email was the only reason she found out before it mattered.

The client whose named executor has died: He'd named his older brother as executor eight years ago. His brother passed away eighteen months ago, and he'd never thought to update the paperwork — a reminder tied to the "executor age 75+" flag caught it in time.

The blended family with new grandchildren: Their will was drafted before their youngest child had kids of their own. A review reminder prompted a conversation about whether the existing clause still reflected what they wanted, while everyone was healthy and getting along.

How to actually run this without it becoming a chore

You don't need a fancy system to start — a spreadsheet or a few tags in your practice management software (Smokeball, LEAP, Actionstep all support this) is enough. The mechanics that matter:

Batch-send reminders monthly by "will signed" anniversary, not tracked file-by-file.
Stagger sends across the month so reception isn't fielding twenty replies on one Tuesday.
Route replies to one inbox — a reminder that gets a reply then silence does more damage than never sending one.
Track response and booking rates; most firms see a meaningful chunk book quick, billable amendments.
Keep "will signed date" and "executor age" data inside your practice management system, not a shared spreadsheet.

Please note: general information, not legal advice — check current official guidance (including your law society's rules on client communications and data handling) before relying on it.

💡 Don't wait for the scheduled anniversary for every client. Set up one extra trigger: a reminder six months after a client mentions — in any context, a phone call, an email, a chat at pickup — a major life change. That one habit will catch more out-of-date wills than the scheduled batch ever will.

Sending the same generic "time for a check-up" email to every client regardless of estate complexity.
Making the only call-to-action a paid booking — give people a free, low-friction way to say "nothing's changed."
Forgetting to segment by risk: blended families and business owners need shorter cycles than a simple estate.
Letting replies sit in a general inbox for a week — a slow response undoes the goodwill the email built.
Treating it as a one-off campaign instead of an ongoing, dated system that runs itself.

Frequently asked questions

Will clients find this annoying, like they're being upsold?

Not if it's framed as a check-in rather than a pitch, with a genuine "no action needed, just letting you know" option. Firms that get complaints usually only ever contact clients to ask for more business — a low-pressure reminder tends to read as care, not sales, as long as it's not the only thing you send.

How often should the reminder actually go out?

Three years for blended families, business owners, minor children or named executors over 70; five years for simpler estates. Some firms do it annually for complex, high-net-worth files — that's reasonable too, as long as the cadence matches the actual risk of the will going stale.

Should the review itself be free?

A short reply-and-chat to establish whether anything's changed can reasonably be free — it's what gets people to respond honestly. An actual document review, let alone drafting amendments, is normal billable work. Be clear in the email about which is which.

What's the honest limit of this approach?

It only works on clients you can still reach — if contact details are years out of date, it won't land, and this isn't a substitute for a proper database clean-up first. For higher-value or more complex files, a phone call or letter alongside the email is worth the extra effort.

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Written by

Kate, founder of Chronically Online

I help Gold Coast and Brisbane businesses grow with branding, websites and marketing that actually works.

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