It was about 2 years ago that I had a discussion regarding Wills and deceased estates with a friend of mine who asked me about the guide ‘Where there is a Will…‘ that I had written. He was in his 60′s and had no apparent health problems so didn’t consider there to be any urgency to check his Will.
He put off buying the guide as he felt he couldn’t afford it at the time, as his aged little dog required an operation, cost of which ended up between R5000 – R7000. I advised him to at least look at his Will in the meantime and to change the executor role and appoint his wife as executrix instead. Months went past and nothing was done, but every time we spoke he assured me he would do it.
He had good intentions, but sadly those don’t help if you never get to them, and for him it ended up being just that – good intentions. He suffered a massive heart attack and didn’t recover. He hadn’t gone over his Will and as a result it hadn’t been updated.
Is your Will out of date?
The estate wasn’t a very large one, but the bank appointed as the original executor charged the full 3.5% + VAT (almost 4%) and the widow had to pay R61 000 in executor’s fees.
Fortunately a policy existed of approximately the same payout amount, and this was used to pay the bank their executor fee, preventing the widow from having to sell assets to cover the fees. They also had 2 adult children struggling financially at the time, who could have done nicely with this money. Sadly for them, it didn’t happen.
Procrastination is a typical human weakness – putting off things thinking ‘it won’t happen to me‘, ‘I’ll do it tomorrow/next week/next month‘, etc. Bad things don’t just happen to other people though. It so often only takes a little time and effort (and money) to make sure you are well prepared that in the event of death there are no unnecessary complications with your estate. It’s bad enough having to deal with the loss of a loved one, let alone having to deal with a badly managed estate.
Included with our guide is a pamphlet that gives pointers as to what you can do to make your estate easier to administer when that dreaded day arrives. The main point is to revise your Will and to nominate one (or more) of the heirs or a trusted family member as the executor/s. I also advise that there should be a list of the Testator’s assets, liabilities and sources of income. These, along with any important documents (policies, letters, birth certificates, etc.) should be stored in an Estate File (any folder). This Estate File needs to be reviewed at least every 2 years as a lot can change over 2 years!
Have you done this? If not, when are you going to do it? Please don’t put it off as it could cost your heirs not only financially, but also time, effort and stress. Do it. Now.
