Answer the questions. Print three documents.
Plain questions, no legal language. Work down the page and stop whenever you like — you can save your answers and come back.
Your will
The legal document. Who inherits, who winds up your estate, who raises your children.
Signing instructions
How to sign it so it stays valid. Most wills fail here, not on the wording.
Notes for my family
The practical stuff a will can't cover — where things are, what you own, who to phone.
Not sure what you'll end up with? Have a look at a finished one 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
A will is valid or it isn't, and it is almost always the signing that decides which. Read these three rules before you go any further.
Three rules. Break one and it costs someone their inheritance.
- Everyone signs together, in the same room, at the same time. You and both witnesses, all present, each watching the others sign. Not one after another. Not "I'll drop it off tomorrow". This single mistake voids more South African wills than every drafting error combined.
- A witness must never inherit — and nor may their husband or wife. A witness who benefits forfeits every cent of it. The will still stands; they simply get nothing. Use neighbours, colleagues or friends — never the people you are leaving things to.
- You sign every page. Both witnesses sign the last page. Witnesses must be 14 or older and able to give evidence in court. Use the same pen throughout, and never write on the will after it is signed.
The full step-by-step, with a checklist to work through on the day, prints as your signing instructions page.
Neither witness is a beneficiary of this will, and neither is married to a beneficiary.
This is the single most common reason a South African will fails. A witness who inherits — or whose husband or wife inherits — forfeits it. The will stays valid; they just get nothing.
Reminder: the date is left blank on purpose — you fill it in by hand on the day, in front of your witnesses.
9 Notes for my family (optional, but the part families thank you for)
The things nobody thinks to write down until it's too late — the safe combination, the laptop password, the policy nobody knew about, which debit orders to stop. This is not part of your will and nobody signs it. Keep it with your will, or tell someone where it is. Change it as often as you like — unlike a will, it costs nothing to update.
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.