wills Archives

I read a paid-for article this morning. It was advertorial by Sanlam Private Wealth and written by one of their trust “experts”, Christine Bornman. It was all about how a discretionary trust protects a legacy through succeeding generations by preventing the future beneficiaries from “looting” the legacy. It cites the well known fact that wealth bequeathed to your children is unlikely to survive beyond about two generations. So build it in a trust and bingo! problem solved. Not so, say I. As the article points out, your succeeding trustees are most likely to be your descendants (along with a few…

Every time we prepare a trust deed, we write a will for the client and their spouse, but who should hold the originals? When you sign your Will, try (I know it’s tough) to imagine the events immediately following your death. Grief (you hope), funeral arrangements, financial affairs to sort out, inventory of your estate to be taken ………… Now where the heck is that Will? It happens all too often. Make sure that your spouse and children know (1) who your executor is and (2) where you keep your Will. Ensure that there are two originally signed copies. One…

The other day, a client sent me his draft will to review. Amongst other things, he had bequeathed his dog to his sister-in-law. This raised a two interesting issues. The first question was why would he want to do that? Those of you who love your pets as children may want to ensure that a close family member agrees to care for them in the event of your death. It may then be appropriate (though not necessary) to include the bequest in your will. Then we must ask whether this can be done, and the answer is simply yes, even…

There are a few simple mistakes that people make when writing their wills. Here they are – 1) Don’t write a joint will with your spouse. Rather two separate wills. 2) Leave everything to your spouse so that your R3,5m Estate Duty allowance passes to him/her. 3) Then, if you die simultaneously, leave everything to your living trust, so that your trustees can look after the beneficiaries in accordance with their needs from time to time. 4) Never bequeath money to a minor, because the money will have to be deposited in the Guardian’s Fund. Rather…

I get to read lots of trust deeds, occasionally one will be well written, but most are just the usual copy and paste stuff by someone who doesn’t apply his or her mind to the job. Here’s what you should be out looking for – 1) If the founder is your parent and not you, ask the person who drafted the deed why that is. If they tell you it is in case the trustees want to award you, as a beneficiary, a fixed property and because there is some doubt as to whether you are a relation of yourself…

What? You don’t even have one? Shame on you. You battle all through your life trying to build up a bit of wealth and then you don’t even exercise your right to say what will happen to it when you die. That’s a bit like not bothering to vote in our new democracy So what happens if you die without a will (known as dying intestate). Then your assets will be distributed according to a rather complicated formula which we all learned at university then promptly forgot. It’s called “per stirpes”. From what (little) I remember it works like this…

wills

How a trust can protect your legacy

Who should keep your will?

Can I bequeath my pets in my will?

10 things to remember in your will

Seven things to look for in a trust deed

When did you last re-visit your Will?