9 Things You Need To Know About A Will

Love your tribe

Some people foolishly think that they can tell their parents, spouse or even a friend that they will inherit their possessions if they die. However, if you die without a Will or “intestate”, there are a set of rules that a court will apply. Dying without a Will is a messy business! It has major implications for your family, so if you don’t want the State to decide who ends up getting what, it’s finally time to sit down and draw up a Will.

  1. In short, a Will can be defined as a legal document, that contains the wishes of the person making it (aged 16 years or older) regarding the distribution of the assets in their Estate, on their death.
  2. You are required to be mentally competent when you create the Will. In other words, you must be able to understand the consequences of creating a Will and be in a reasonable state of mind when doing so.
  3. For a Will to be valid you must make sure that the Will is in writing.
  4. Two people older than 14 must witness a Will (these witnesses cannot be beneficiaries of the Will).
  5. You and the witness must initial every page of the Will and sign the last page.
  6. Someone else can sign your Will on your behalf, provided they are in your presence, with two witnesses.
  7. In your Will, you can appoint an executor who will wind up your Estate (handle the distribution of your assets and pay off any outstanding debts). The executor is entitled to charge up to 3,5% (Ex VAT) of the total value of the assets left in your Estate. So, if your Estate is worth R2,000 000, the executor would legally be able to charge R70,000. It’s important to note that executor’s fees are negotiable if you are sitting on a large Estate.
  8. If you don’t choose an executor, the court will appoint someone, usually a family member, to be your executor. This can be tricky for the family member, and without enough experience, potentially a very daunting prospect. Even though it comes at a cost, appointing an expert as your executor makes most sense.
  9. The executor must be residing in the country at the time of your death. You cannot always control this, so it is better to name two executors if you aren’t making a financial institution, like a bank, the executor.

If you don’t have a Will in place, there is no better time than right now.

Until next time.
The Wise About Life team

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Be Wise - Find your ideal plan with Stangen

We understand that you want to make wise choices that suit you. Use our cover calculator to easily get an idea of your cover requirements.

Need assistance? We'll call you back.

Why not subscribe?

What can you expect from us? We promise to keep content on this site relevant and useful so that you can make wise money choices.
Every time we knock out another great piece of “stay financially wise” content, we will send you a notification via email.