Create a valid South African will in about 15 minutes.
Answer the questions below. The tool generates three documents: your Last Will & Testament, a Signing Instructions & Checklist page — because most wills fail on the signing, not the wording — and an Estate Information & Access Register so your executor can actually find everything. Nothing you type leaves your browser.
Answer the questions below. The tool generates three documents: your Last Will & Testament, a Signing Instructions & Checklist page — because most wills fail on the signing, not the wording — and an Estate Information & Access Register so your executor can actually find everything. Nothing you type leaves your browser.
Just looking? See finished examples first:
Recommended: have your completed will reviewed by a professional accountant or attorney before signing — especially if your estate includes a business, trust, foreign assets, or a complicated family situation. This tool covers the straightforward cases well; it can't exercise judgement for you.
1 Your details (the testator)
The person making the will. You must be 16 or older and able to understand what you're doing.
2 Executor
The person who winds up your estate with the Master of the High Court. Choose someone organised and trustworthy — your spouse, an adult child, or your accountant are common choices.
Exempt executor from providing security
Standard practice. Without this, the Master may require your executor to take out an expensive bond of security before they can act.
Give executor the power of assumption
Lets your executor appoint a co-executor or substitute (e.g. an attorney or accountant) to help — useful if the estate turns out more complex than expected.
3 Minor children & guardian
If you have children under 18, nominate who raises them if both parents die.
I have children under 18
A surviving parent normally remains guardian automatically. Your nomination applies if there is no surviving parent with guardianship.
4 Specific bequests (optional)
Specific items or amounts to specific people — a car to a son, R50 000 to a friend, the house to your daughter. These are paid out first, before the rest of the estate. If you just want everything to go to one or two people, skip this and use section 5.
5 The rest of your estate (residue)
Everything left over after specific bequests, debts, taxes and costs. This is the most important clause in the will — it must always be here, even if you made no specific bequests.
This is the double contingency that keeps your estate out of intestate succession no matter what happens. Don't skip it.
6 Minor beneficiaries & testamentary trust
If anyone inheriting from you could still be under 18 when you die, decide how their inheritance is held.
Create a testamentary trust for minor beneficiaries
Their inheritance is held and managed by a trustee you choose, until an age you choose. Without this, cash inheritances of minors go to the state-run Guardian's Fund — safe, but slow, rigid and a mission to deal with.
The trustee can use income and capital for the child's maintenance, education and wellbeing in the meantime — that's written into the clause.
7 Standard protections & wishes
Protection of benefits
Anything a beneficiary inherits is excluded from their marriage — in or out of community of property. Keeps your legacy out of a beneficiary's divorce. Standard, keep it on.
30-day survivorship clause
A beneficiary must survive you by 30 days to inherit. Prevents your estate paying into the estate of someone who died with you (e.g. in the same accident) and being taxed and administered twice.
Exclude collation
If you gave one child a big gift or loan during your life (a deposit on a house, say), collation would normally deduct it from their inheritance. Tick this if past gifts must be ignored and everyone inherits exactly what the will says.
8 Signing details
The date is left blank on the document — you fill it in by hand on the day you sign. That's deliberate.
Witness rules — this is where wills die: witnesses must be 14 or older, and a beneficiary (or the spouse of a beneficiary) must not witness the will — they don't invalidate the will, but they forfeit their inheritance. You and both witnesses must sign together, at the same time, in the same place. Full details on the signing instructions page this tool generates.
9 Estate Information & Access Register (optional but smart)
A separate document telling your executor where everything is. It does not form part of your will — your will becomes a public document at the Master's office, and a will can't be updated without re-signing. This register you update anytime, in pen. Anything you leave blank prints as ruled lines to complete by hand.
Never write actual passwords or PINs here. Write where to find them — e.g. "master password in the safe" or "PIN in sealed envelope with my attorney". This document will be handled by several people after your death.