WHY YOUR WILL NEEDS TO BE IN YOUR TOP DRAWER
Remember the days when you had your ‘Last Will and Testament’ drawn up for free by a Life Insurance Company just after the birth of your first son/daughter? In an ecstatic state of caring emotion you phoned a broker and bought a hugely expensive policy…………..
But alas, life goes on…… you started your own business, secured a loan and ceded your policy, had more kids, got divorced, sold the business to pay maintenance, your daughter married her ghuru, your son shacked up with your ex-wife’s best friend and you are now a partner in the company that fired you when you started your own business 30 years ago…….. but your original pro-forma Will is still packed away in a box which you haven’t opened since that awful day when you moved out of the original family home.
Your circumstances have changed a lot in the past 30 years and so should your Will.
At TRADE & LEGAL we do not offer a ‘free’ Will. We consult with you, the client, and then advise you on the latest legislation affecting your eventual ‘Deceased Estate’, because it is a fact…. Nobody lives forever!
A Will is not a dusty, morbid document. It shows the testator to be an individual with vision and proper business sense.
Keep your Will in your top drawer and change it as your circumstances change. The costs are negligible if you consider that executors’ costs can, by law, shrink your estate by 3.99%, plus 6% + VAT on income accrued, not to mention Capital Gains Tax.
PS:
Chances are very good that the original insurance company or bank was nominated as the executor of your Estate.
DECEASED ESTATES
We have vast experience in the winding up and administration of Deceased Estates. We will assist you with the process of Reporting the Estate to the Master of the High Court, appointment of the Executor, advertising in the Government Gazette and the drafting of the First and Final Liquidation and Distribution Account.
Our rates are negotiable and we will assist you even in circumstances where the bank has renounced their executorship.
DO’S AND DON’TS
DO:
- If you are unsure or uncertain as to whether your current will truly reflects your wishes as to how your estate must devolve, do contact us.
- If you want to change the Executorship of your estate, do contact us.
- If your bank or Life Assurance Company is the Executor of your Estate, read your will and ascertain what percentage of the GROSS value of your estate they can claim in fees…. Then do contact us.
DON’TS:
- Do not ‘Do Nothing’.
- Do not download a ‘Free Will’ from the internet……. They are seriously flawed.
- Do not accept any offer from any bank or assurance company offering ‘Free Wills’ without reading the ‘terms and conditions’.
- Do not postpone your will update until ‘after the holiday’, ‘after the Comrades’ or ‘after the Argus’.