SEVEN THINGS SOUTH AFRICANS SHOULD REVIEW THIS WILLS MONTH
Is Your Will Still Fit for Purpose?
There is a familiar pattern when it comes to estate planning. You make an appointment, complete your Will drafting, sign the document, put it somewhere safe, and tick “sort out my Will” off the life-admin list.
Then life carries on.
You get married. A child arrives. You buy a home. Your children grow up. You start a business, build an investment portfolio, receive an inheritance, acquire assets offshore, get divorced, or welcome new people into your family. Five, ten, or even twenty years later, the Will that once reflected your life may be describing a life you no longer live.
That is why Wills Month South Africa should be about more than asking whether you have a Will. A better question is: Is the Will you have still fit for purpose?
It is particularly relevant in 2026. The latest available Sanlam Legacy Wills Survey, published in 2025 and based on responses from 1,200 South Africans, found that 66% did not have a Will. In other words, only around one in three respondents had completed this fundamental part of estate planning.
National Wills Week will take place from 14 to 18 September 2026, with the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development again using the initiative to promote the importance of valid Wills and professional Will drafting.
However, Cornerstone Fiduciary Services encourages clients to look beyond the document itself.
A Will is not your entire estate plan. It is one very important part of it.
Your family circumstances, assets, beneficiary arrangements, executor nomination, trusts, tax affairs, and plans for future generations can all influence whether your estate ultimately works the way you intend.
So, this Wills Month, here are seven questions worth asking.
1. Have You Experienced a Major Life Change?
Think back to the year in which you signed your current Will. A Will should reflect the family you have today, not simply the family circumstances that existed when the document was originally drafted.
Even where an old Will remains legally valid, that does not necessarily mean it still achieves what you want.
This is one reason professional Will drafting is not simply about creating a document once. Our fiduciary specialists focus on ensuring that a Will is comprehensive, clear, and kept up to date so that it continues to reflect the client’s wishes and family circumstances.
Ask yourself: If my estate had to be administered tomorrow, would the instructions in my Will make sense for the family I have today?
If the answer is “I’m not sure”, it is probably time for a review.
2. Have Your Assets Changed?
Your estate at 30 may look very different from your estate at 45 or 60.
If you have built substantial new assets since your last review, your estate plan should ideally grow with you.
3. Are Your Beneficiaries Still Correct?
Most of us can probably name the people we want to benefit from our estate. The more important question is whether our paperwork says the same thing.
Reviewing beneficiaries means going beyond the names written into the Will. Different investments, policies, funds, trusts, and other financial arrangements can have their own rules or beneficiary mechanisms. Your nominations should therefore be considered alongside your broader estate plan rather than in isolation.
This is particularly important after major life changes.
The aim is alignment.
Your Will, beneficiary nominations, ownership structures, and overall legacy plan should not be pulling in different directions.
This is where a professional Will review can add real value. Instead of merely asking, “Who gets what?”, an adviser can help you consider how the different components of your financial life fit together.
4. Is Your Executor Still the Right Choice?
Naming an executor can feel like a small administrative part of Will drafting. In reality, it is a significant decision.
The executor is responsible for administering the deceased estate and dealing with a range of legal, financial, tax, and administrative requirements. For larger estates, this can involve identifying and valuing assets, dealing with creditors, managing estate accounts, addressing tax obligations, communicating with the Master of the High Court, preparing the Liquidation and Distribution Account, and ultimately distributing the estate.
Perhaps you nominated a friend twenty years ago. Perhaps the person has since emigrated, retired, become unwell, or is no longer close to the family. Perhaps your estate has simply become more complicated.
Why a professional executor can make sense
A professional fiduciary partner brings experience, continuity, and established processes to the role.
Cornerstone Fiduciary Services can provide executor and estate administration support as part of our broader legacy-planning offering. Our estate administration service includes assistance with documentation, communication with the relevant parties, Master of the High Court requirements, SARS processes, and the practical management of the winding-up process.
The right executor appointment is therefore not merely about choosing somebody you trust. It is also about considering who is equipped to carry your wishes through.
5. Do You Know What Happens After You Die?
This may sound like a gloomy question. It is really a practical one. A well-drafted Will tells people what you want to happen. It does not remove the estate administration process that follows.
In South Africa, deceased estates are supervised through the Master of the High Court. Where someone leaves property or a Will, the estate must generally be administered according to the Will, or, in the absence of a valid Will, according to the rules of intestate succession. The Department of Justice states that a deceased estate must generally be reported to the Master within 14 days.
From there, deceased estate administration can involve numerous steps. This is why we often describe a Will as the beginning of the process rather than the end.
A good Will expresses your wishes. Good estate administration helps turn those wishes into reality.
Our estate administration team supports families through this process, including relevant documentation, dealings with the Master, estate administration, and SARS-related requirements.
6. Does Your Estate Plan Need More Than a Will?
Not necessarily.
Trusts can be valuable estate and succession planning tools, but they should not be treated as something everybody automatically needs.
A trust may be worth considering where there is a genuine reason for separating the management of assets from individual ownership or where assets need to be managed for particular beneficiaries or long-term purposes.
Our trust services include assistance with the drafting and registration of trusts and guidance on structures including inter vivos or family trusts, special trusts, and charitable trusts. Our approach is centred on the client’s circumstances and long-term estate-planning objectives.
The important point is not that everyone needs a trust. It’s that trusts should be considered where they solve a genuine estate-planning problem.
7. Does Your Estate Plan Still Reflect the Legacy You Want to Leave?
This is the biggest question of all.
Estate planning can easily become a paperwork exercise: documents, account numbers, assets, liabilities, executor appointments, and beneficiary details.
But behind all that administration is something much more human. That is why legacy planning should not begin and end with a signed Will.
Cornerstone Fiduciary Services looks at the bigger picture: Will → Trust → Executor → Estate Administration → Legacy Planning.
Our fiduciary offering includes professional Will drafting, Will reviews, trust services, executor and deceased estate administration support, as well as access to broader estate-planning expertise. We also provide secure Will storage and annual Will reviews as part of our wider fiduciary approach.
The goal is not simply to leave documents behind. It is to create an estate plan that makes sense for your family, assets, responsibilities, and wishes.
Your Wills Month South Africa Checklist
You do not need to redesign your entire financial life every September. What Wills Month South Africa can provide is a useful annual prompt to check whether anything important has changed.
This Wills Month, ask yourself:
- Is my Will still up to date?
- Has my marital or family situation changed?
- Have children or other dependants entered or left my financial life?
- Have I acquired or disposed of significant assets?
- Have I bought property, built a business, or accumulated offshore assets?
- Are the beneficiaries in my Will still correct?
- Have I reviewed beneficiary arrangements associated with my financial products?
- Is my nominated executor still willing and appropriate?
- Does my executor know where important information and documents can be found?
- Do I understand what will happen during the administration of my estate?
- If I have a trust, is it still serving the purpose for which it was created?
- Should I investigate whether a trust or another estate-planning structure is appropriate?
- Does my overall estate plan still reflect what I want for my family?
If you answered “no”, “not sure”, or “I haven’t thought about that in years” to several of these questions, that is useful information.
You have identified something worth reviewing.
Is Your Will Still Fit for Purpose?
Having a Will is an important achievement. Keeping it relevant is just as important.
Wills Month South Africa is an ideal opportunity to take your Will out of the drawer and look at it in the context of the life you have today.
Cornerstone Fiduciary Services does more than help clients with Will drafting. We can help you consider your Will as part of the broader estate-planning picture, including trusts, executor appointments, estate administration, and long-term legacy planning. Our fiduciary specialists provide professional Will drafting and updating services, trust services, and support with the administration and winding up of deceased estates.
Whether you have never drafted a Will, created one years ago, recently experienced a major change, acquired significant assets, started a business, or simply want reassurance that your affairs remain properly structured, a review is a sensible place to start.
Speak to Cornerstone Fiduciary Services about reviewing your Will and broader estate plan, and make sure the legacy plan you have today still reflects the people, assets, and priorities that matter to you.
Frequently Asked Questions About Will Drafting
How often should I review my Will in South Africa?
There is no single review interval that will suit every person. As a practical approach, consider reviewing your Will regularly and whenever there is a significant change in your personal, family, or financial circumstances.
Do I need Will drafting if I do not own a lot of assets?
A Will is not only relevant to wealthy South Africans. If you have assets, possessions, children, dependants, or specific wishes about how your estate should be handled, having a valid Will can be important.
What happens if I die without a Will in South Africa?
If you die without a valid Will, your estate will generally be distributed according to the Intestate Succession Act. The Master of the High Court explains that intestate succession determines how the estate devolves where there is no valid Will. Professional Will drafting helps you formally document how you would like your estate dealt with, subject to applicable South African law.
Should I update my Will after getting married or divorced?
Marriage or divorce can materially change your family, financial, and estate-planning circumstances. It is therefore sensible to arrange a professional Will review rather than assuming an older Will still produces the outcome you want. The same applies after remarriage or significant changes to dependants and family relationships.
Can my Will deal with everything I own?
Not necessarily in the same way. Different types of assets, financial products, beneficiary arrangements, business interests, trusts, and offshore holdings may need to be considered differently. That is one reason estate planning should extend beyond the Will itself. A fiduciary adviser can help you understand how the different parts of your estate plan interact.
What does an executor do after someone dies?
The executor administers the deceased estate. Depending on the circumstances, this can include identifying assets and liabilities, dealing with creditors, managing tax requirements, preparing the Liquidation and Distribution Account, liaising with the Master of the High Court, and distributing assets once the required processes have been completed.
Do I need a trust as well as a Will?
Not everybody needs a trust. A trust may be appropriate where there is a particular need, such as managing assets for minors or vulnerable beneficiaries, preserving certain assets for future generations, or addressing specific family or succession-planning objectives.
Can Cornerstone Fiduciary Services help if my Will was drafted somewhere else?
A fiduciary review does not need to start from scratch simply because an existing Will was prepared elsewhere. The purpose of a review is to consider whether your current arrangements still reflect your circumstances and objectives. We also provide deceased estate administration assistance even where the deceased person’s Will was not originally drafted by us.
What should I bring to a Will review?
It is useful to have information about your existing Will, marital and family circumstances, dependants, significant assets and liabilities, property, businesses, investments, trusts, offshore assets, beneficiary arrangements, and the person you currently intend to nominate as executor. The objective is to give your fiduciary adviser enough context to consider the Will as part of your complete estate plan rather than as an isolated document.
This article provides general information and should not be regarded as personalised legal, tax, or financial advice. Estate-planning requirements depend on individual circumstances, and professional advice should be obtained where appropriate.
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