Estate planning mistakes to avoid

“Estate planning can be complex, and any mistakes can have far-reaching consequences for those you leave behind. If you’re in the process of developing or updating your estate plan, here are some common errors to be aware of and to avoid:

1. Not understanding your matrimonial property regime:?When setting out to develop your estate plan, one of the first factors to take into consideration is the nature of your matrimonial property regime.
2. Providing incorrectly for your minor children:?If you intend to leave a financial legacy for your minor children, keep in mind that children under the age of 18 have no contractual capacity and are incapable of inheriting. If you bequeath cash directly to your minor children, these funds will likely be administered by the state-owned Guardian’s Fund until your children reach the age of majority.
3. Dealing with insurance policies and retirement funds in your will:?Remember, the proceeds of your life insurance policies where you have nominated beneficiaries, as well as your retirement benefits, are assets that fall outside of your deceased estate and, to avoid confusion, it is advisable to make no mention of them in your will.
4. Getting a beneficiary to witness your will:?A common mistake made by those drafting their will is to get their beneficiaries – often a spouse or adult child – to witness their will, which amounts to a fundamental estate planning error.
5. Not updating your will after your divorce:?Divorce can be an enormously traumatic process and it’s only understandable for a person to forget to update their will after the divorce order has been granted.
6. Not dating your will:?Although dating your will is not a requirement for validity, the consequences of not dating your will can be detrimental to your overall estate plan.
7. Getting your beneficiary nomination wrong:?Correctly nominating your beneficiaries in your life policies is important to give full effect to your estate plan, especially where you intend to use life policies to create liquidity in your estate.
8. Not providing for the bequests made in your will:?Before making financial bequests in your will, it is important to understand how the laws of succession operate.
9. Leaving fixed property to multiple heirs:?Bequeathing immovable property to multiple heirs may seem like a good idea, but the practical implications are often far from ideal.
10. Having conflicting wording in your codicil:?If, for whatever reason, you intend to add a codicil to your existing will, be very careful that the wording of your intentions in the codicil is fully aligned with the intentions set out in your will.
11. Not providing for the residue of your estate:?Failure to include what is known as a ‘left-overs clause’ can negatively affect your estate planning.
12. Not keeping your tax affairs up-to-date:?One of your executor’s first jobs is to report your deceased estate to Sars [NAMRA], keeping in mind that the taxman has the first claim to your estate.
13. Not having a will for your foreign assets:?Whether or not you require an offshore will is dependent on several factors, including the type of asset, in which jurisdiction it is held and its value…”?