Wills and Estate Planning

Article courtesy of Law Dot News | Wills & Estate Planning Don’t Just Leave Your Loved Ones Assets – Leave Them a Legacy! “A Legacy Letter is a way for you to share your values, life lessons, cherished memories, hopes for your family’s future, and anything else that is really important to you.” Wills and Estate Planning is key toRead more

“Death is not the end. There remains the litigation over the estate.” (Ambrose Bierce) Your will (“Last Will and Testament”) will always be the keystone of your estate planning, and a recent High Court decision sounds yet another warning to beware the “do your own will” concept. By not having his will drawn by a professional, a father inadvertently caused

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“Census data of 2016 reveals that approximately 3.2 million South Africans cohabit outside of marriage and that this number is increasing steadily.” (Extract from judgment below) What happens if your life partner dies without leaving you anything in their will (“Last Will and Testament”)? Do you have the same protections as married spouses do? A lot of the media coverage

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“Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago” (Warren Buffett) Whilst the first and most important step in your estate planning is always to have in place a professionally drawn and regularly updated will (“Last Will and Testament”), there is another aspect which demands your urgent attention, particularly now… What will your family

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Article courtesy of Law Dot News | Wills & Estate Planning Estate Planning and Wills: A Check List to Protect Your Family “Don’t fear death, plan for it” (Anon) Amazingly, here we are in the middle of a deadly pandemic yet still some 70% – 80% of working South Africans are said to have no will in place. That’s crazyRead more

“No matter how much you’ve been warned, Death always comes without knocking” (Margaret Atwood) No one wants to contemplate their own passing, but the reality is that sooner or later it is inevitable, and particularly in these dangerous times we need always to be prepared. The loss of a loved one is always distressing. It can however be compounded by

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Article courtesy of Law Dot News Life Partners – You Still Need a Will and a Cohabitation Agreement! A recent High Court decision has been widely viewed as an important victory for the rights of unmarried opposite-sex life partners. Until now, if one such partner died intestate (without making a will), the other could not inherit on the same basisRead more

“Death knocks at all doors alike” (John Dunton 1692) Sooner or later we must leave our families to face life without us, and of course these are particularly dangerous times for us all.  Make sure that your own affairs are in order now –  A valid will is the only sure way to protect your loved ones after you are gone.  If

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Article courtesy of Law Dot News Electronic Signatures in Property and Other Transactions “To sign a document means to authenticate that which stands for or is intended to represent the name of the person who is to authenticate” (quoted in the case below) We all know that verbal agreements, although fully binding for most types of transaction, are a recipeRead more

Article courtesy of Law Dot News In Times of Great Change, Make Sure Your Will is Updated! “Death always comes without knocking” (Margaret Atwood) Particularly in these times of pandemic, deadly infections and uncertainty, no one can ever say with any confidence that we will still be alive tomorrow, or next month, or next year. Now more than ever havingRead more