Johannesburg - From September 6 to 10, lawyers all over the country will do the unthinkable.
They'll do something for nothing.
Members of the Law Society of the Northern Provinces, the Cape Law Society, the Law Society of the Free State, the KwaZulu-Natal Law Society, the Black Lawyers' Association and the National Association of Democratic Lawyers will draft a basic will for any client, free of charge.
The Law Society of SA is encouraging all attorneys' firms to take part in the initiative, in an effort to encourage the public who would not normally make use of the services of an attorney, or who may hesitate to consult an attorney for fear of high fees, to consult an attorney to draft a will. (But they won't amend an existing will.)
If you pass away without a will you will die intestate. This means that all your assets will be sold and converted to cash.
If you have minor children, the cash will be controlled not by your family but by the Guardian's Fund (a state-appointed body).
This means that the caretaker of the children will have to go to the fund regularly, cap in hand, to get money, says Roy Bregman of Johannesburg-based Bregmans
Attorneys, who will also draw up free wills next week.
Worse - if both parents are dead, a court decides who will take care of your children.
The court will also decide who will inherit your assets according to the intestate law- and no one outside your family tree (apart from your spouse) will be considered.
Infighting and delays Apart from the fact that your assets - including a much-loved family home or family business, for example - will have to be sold off and your heirs will be determined not by you but rather in terms of the Intestate Succession Act, dying without a will creates unnecessary delays and complications that you never intended.
Your family won't be able to access funds for a long time, because all the bureaucratic rules need to be adhered to.
Infighting in families is also common when a person dies without a will, says Bregman. Without clear instructions, children often battle it out over what should happen with a property.
Bregman says it is important to review your will whenever you experience a life event such as a birth, death, marriage or divorce.
For example, if you divorce and remarry but don't change your will, your ex-spouse stands to inherit your assets.
Getting expert input can also avoid other problems.
Some of the most common problems with wills, which renders a will technically invalid, is when it hasn't been signed on every page.
Also, if you don't state in a will that the executor does not have to put up security, it can cause long delays, says Bregman. By law executors have to do this unless you state otherwise, usually in the form of a security bond taken out with a short-term insurer.
Many people who appoint professional executors to manage their will also do not check the cost involved.
An executor's fee is 3.5% (plus VAT) of the total estate. Big trust companies usually won't allow any room for negotiation, although an attorney or accountant should be open to lowering the rate, says Bregman.
- Fin24.com