Why National Wills Week is more important than you realise

Until a few years ago, not many people knew National Wills Week even existed, but there has been growing support from the industry to raise awareness of the importance of getting a will drafted and the impact of passing away without a will.

Capital Legacy, South Africa’s leading wills and estates business, with nearly one million clients’ wills drafted, has spearheaded this awareness drive and, recognising that one week a year is insufficient to tackle the enormity of the problem, labelled it ‘Wills Month’. A few years later, Wills Month has been broadly adopted by financial institutions.

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Losing a loved one triggers a long, difficult process emotionally, administratively and financially, and this is only compounded when there is no will in place. Without a will, you lose the ability to control how your estate is distributed and you essentially hand that process over to the state.

Imagine working hard your whole life, looking after your loved ones, and accumulating things of value so that you can leave a meaningful legacy, only to pass away without a will and have no say in what happens to your assets and possessions. Imagine the chaos in your wake when your affairs were not in order and your wishes were not made clear… leaving your loved ones guessing, or worse, arguing.

The drama is real

Capital Legacy has one of the largest deceased estate departments in the country, with more than 300 specialists taking care of every detail in the winding-up of clients’ estates. 

Finalising thousands of deceased estates every year, Capital Legacy could tell endless stories about feuding families and the fights they get into even when there is a will. The list is long. The drama is real. Ex-wives. Life partners. New partners. Business partners. Biological children. Stepchildren. Adopted children. Blended families. Extended families. Assets in SA. Assets abroad. Assets in cyberspace. You get the picture. Death is complicated.

“Losing a loved one is not easy, but our mission is to help make the loss of a loved one easier. Not easy – just a little bit easier. We do this by addressing all the unknown complications that people only ever encounter when they are deep into the estate administration process,” says Grant Fietze, executive manager of marketing at Capital Legacy.

It includes doing things like leaving no stone unturned to ensure that clients sign their wills and get them into safe custody by offering a free courier service and free safekeeping. Most people think drafting their will is sufficient, but the reality is that only a signed and witnessed will is valid.

Choose your executor

There are many horror stories of deceased estates taking years to finalise and families having to wait for their inheritances for much longer than anticipated. Many people don’t realise how complicated and time-consuming the administration of a deceased estate can be. So choosing your executor is as important as choosing who helps you draft your will. Drafting your will may take an hour of your time, but executing your estate can take months or even years if there are complications, administrative roadblocks and delays. If you don’t appoint an executor in your will, the court will appoint one on your behalf which may not be someone you would choose to walk this journey with your family once you’re gone.

Capital Legacy prides itself on winding up estates significantly quicker than industry averages. They do this by drawing on a full complement of dedicated partners and in-house experts around the country – including specialist property conveyancing, tax, trusts, legal and finance teams – who are all aligned and in your corner to help make these arduous processes as quick and easy as possible. This year alone, Capital Legacy has helped transfer more than R3bn worth of inheritances to beneficiaries through the successful finalisation of deceased estates.

Stop procrastinating

Why then do so many South Africans still not have a will? The answer is surprisingly simple: procrastination. 

In a recent Capital Legacy survey, more than a third of respondents (37%) said they simply had not yet gotten around to drafting their will. Conversely, having a will was ranked number one on their to-do lists of personal finance tasks. However, even though respondents acknowledged the importance of having a will, they still don’t prioritise it – probably because they do not realise the consequences and implications of passing away without a will. 

In terms of the gender split among respondents, more women (56%) than men (44%) said that they had drafted their wills.

The reality is that drafting your will with a company like Capital Legacy is a quick and easy process that costs you nothing and saves your family from drama and heartache. 

So, this Wills Month, take the opportunity to get this vital task ticked off your to-do list – your family will thank you for it when it matters most.