Do you have a will and testament?

Do you have a will and testament?

  • Yes

    Votes: 116 69.0%

  • No

    Votes: 46 27.4%

  • Other

    Votes: 6 3.6%
  • Total voters
    168
JabiRider said:
My wife's one friend is an attorney and our wedding present from the attorney friend was her doing our will and testaments for us. Quite scary that the ink on my marriage certificate wasn't even dry yet, and I already bequeathed every last possession of mine to my brand new wife. Slept with one eye open for a couple of months...updated the wills when our daughter was born.
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Without a will everything would have gone to her anyway. Also your friend gave you a really cheap gift, because it costs very little to have a will drawn up.
 
Brian_G said:
Even if with few possessions best to have one, for others to get a clear roadmap and not be burdened by extra red tape without one.
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If you're leaving the stuff to the people who would get it anyway there shouldn't be any extra red tape. It only becomes a problem if you have no immediate relatives left or you wanted to prevent a sibling/wife/child from getting anything. I've known a case where someone died, no-one could find their will and the money ended up going to family members they loathed in life, because they were the closest living relatives. There was no issue winding up the estate however. In another case a guy died without a will and everything went to his two children to whom he would have left everything anyway.

Brian_G said:
It's valid if fairly clear and signed, even without legal help. But better to structure it properly, for sure.
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There's not much to it unless you want to divide up your belongings in some complicated fashion, like leaving a particular investment to a specific person. If you're just dividing it equally amongst people, then it will be extremely short. Making sure it is signed and witnessed is the key thing.

The only other thing to keep in mind is that nominated beneficiaries on pensions, life insurance, etc. will take precedence. In the case of pensions, and possibly some of the others, the trustees have discretion to override your nomination. So you can't for example nominate your best friend and exclude your minor children.

If someone is wealthy enough there are methods to leave your wealth to your children and potentially avoid some of the estate duty, or at least put it off, but these methods tend to have downsides and ongoing costs while you're alive. They are thus typically counterproductive unless you have a truly substantial estate.

Brian_G said:
One side of my family did something to prevent this - the house being left to two brothers was transferred when their mom discovered she had a terminal illness, rather than wait for her passing.

But there needs to be good trust in such a family of course.
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That also only potentially saves on the administration costs, and a little of the estate duty. All the other costs payable when selling/buying a house would still be incurred. The children taking the house would also have to pay a market price for it. In addition their mother can't simply take the money she receives for the house and give it back to them to pay off the loan.

catdog said:
friends with benefits is a lot less scary and has a lot better outcome if they want to leave the relationship. I don't care if people say sleeping around is bad but look at you. You have to sleep with one eye open because you don't know if she is going to kill you in some way. That is no way to live. Make sure everything goes to your daughter.

When my phone rings and she tells me she wants me to sleep over i know what she wants and I know what I want. no paper work no stress about finding glass in my food.
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So you can be like a couple in the US whose daughter scammed them out of their life savings? Only in this case she'll have you killed.

W@P said:
This is true, unfortunately. However, when one makes use of the capital legacy protection plan these things are covered.

My mother passed away in 2022 she had an up-to-date will and testament with CL and they handled the whole estate for us. Done and dusted in roughly 18 months. Properties transferred, RA's paid out, life insurance paid out, policies paid out, everything done.

I am also with CL and having first-hand experience with something like this I would not have it any other way.
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That looks like insurance and it only works if overall the people buying the product pay in more than they get out. It seems to me like the bulk of what they offer is essentially what an executor would do anyway. You can get lax executors that cause it to take a long time, but I'd expect most would get an uncomplicated estate wound up relatively swiftly.
 
noxibox said:
If you're leaving the stuff to the people who would get it anyway there shouldn't be any extra red tape. It only becomes a problem if you have no immediate relatives left or you wanted to prevent a sibling/wife/child from getting anything. I've known a case where someone died, no-one could find their will and the money ended up going to family members they loathed in life, because they were the closest living relatives. There was no issue winding up the estate however. In another case a guy died without a will and everything went to his two children to whom he would have left everything anyway.


There's not much to it unless you want to divide up your belongings in some complicated fashion, like leaving a particular investment to a specific person. If you're just dividing it equally amongst people, then it will be extremely short. Making sure it is signed and witnessed is the key thing.

The only other thing to keep in mind is that nominated beneficiaries on pensions, life insurance, etc. will take precedence. In the case of pensions, and possibly some of the others, the trustees have discretion to override your nomination. So you can't for example nominate your best friend and exclude your minor children.

If someone is wealthy enough there are methods to leave your wealth to your children and potentially avoid some of the estate duty, or at least put it off, but these methods tend to have downsides and ongoing costs while you're alive. They are thus typically counterproductive unless you have a truly substantial estate.


That also only potentially saves on the administration costs, and a little of the estate duty. All the other costs payable when selling/buying a house would still be incurred. The children taking the house would also have to pay a market price for it. In addition their mother can't simply take the money she receives for the house and give it back to them to pay off the loan.


So you can be like a couple in the US whose daughter scammed them out of their life savings? Only in this case she'll have you killed.


That looks like insurance and it only works if overall the people buying the product pay in more than they get out. It seems to me like the bulk of what they offer is essentially what an executor would do anyway. You can get lax executors that cause it to take a long time, but I'd expect most would get an uncomplicated estate wound up relatively swiftly.
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They set up your will for you etc. You can call it a kind of insurance. They paid out and covered more than R100k worth of costs etc. Cannot remember off the top of my head now.

I have a thread here with all the details.
 
No. If my family wants anything they have to work for it by dealing with a messy estate. Haha.

I will exit this world as I entered it - amid family squabbles.
 
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