Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Yes, you need a Will. Dying without a Will causes significant issues for your family and loved ones when they try to organise your estate. Everything will have to be probated, and this is much easier with a Will than without.

There are a number of reasons why you may feel that you don't need a Will. Here are some:

• "I don't really care who gets my stuff."
  If you do not have a Will, there is a legal formula that determines who receives what. It is highly unlikely to match your wishes for your estate. The courts will appoint somebody to take care of everything on your behalf, but this may not be the person that you would have chosen. The lack of direction often causes rifts between family members and loved ones who are experiencing the trauma of losing you. If you care about anybody while you are alive, you should also protect them from unnecessary anguish after you have gone by preparing a Will. The effort required to draft your Will is insignificant compared to the difficulties that dying without a Will presents to your survivors.
• "Everything will go to my spouse whether or not I write a Will."
  You are relying on the intestate laws to distribute your things. It is possible that everything will go to your spouse, but this is by no means certain, particularly if you have children. It is possible that your share of your home could go to your children instead of to your spouse. It's just not straightforward if you don't have a Will in place.
• "I have nothing to leave anybody."
  You are not writing your Will assuming that you will die today. Your Will is in place and updated throughout your life as you acquire or lose assets. You actually have no idea and no way or predicting what you will be worth when you die. Supposing you were hit by a bus today, and the bus driver was texting, your estate could sue the bus company and your estate could be worth millions of rands.

There is never a situation where is makes sense to not have a Will. But you must write a Will when you have the capacity to write it. There is no value in waiting, and often people leave it too late. Do not plan to write a Will when you are close to dying, as this strategy won't work.

There are broadly three approaches to making a Will:

1. You can go to a lawyer or professional Will writer. It is not very convenient and can be expensive, but you usually end up with a good quality Will.
2. At the other end of the spectrum, you can make a Will using a blank piece of paper or blank form kit. This is usually cheap or free, but often results in a Will that doesn't work when it goes through the probate process.
3. In the middle are online interactive services like the one at LegalWills.co.za. The end product is often word-for-word identical to one prepared by a lawyer, but at about one tenth the cost.

Yes, you can use our service to prepare a fully legal Will that will be accepted by probate courts in South Africa.

To make a completed document a legal Last Will and Testament (or Living Will), you should read it thoroughly. It must accurately describe your intentions and cover everything that you wish to be published in your Will. It must be printed and then signed in the presence of two adult witnesses who are not beneficiaries in the Will. You should gather your two witnesses together in a room and then declare to them that you are signing your Last Will and Testament. The two witnesses should in turn sign the document in the presence of you and the other witness. We also recommend that you and the two witnesses all initial each page after the document has been signed. Your witnesses must be adults and they cannot be a beneficiary (nor the spouse of a beneficiary). There is no requirement to have the document signed by a lawyer, or registered to be legal. Once it is signed and witnessed, it becomes a legal Last Will and Testament.

There is absolutely no legal requirement to use the services of a lawyer to prepare your Will.

The law requires that the Will is written on a piece of paper and then signed by you in the presence of two witnesses. Once it is signed and witnessed, it becomes a legal Last Will and Testament.

If you need legal advice, you should secure the services of a lawyer, but most people do not need legal advice to prepare a Will. Especially if they are using a service like the one at LegalWills.co.za.

Although it is legally possible to create a joint Will with one document serving two people, it is not supported at LegalWills.co.za.

Joint Wills used to be created with the intention of saving the time and expense involved in creating two separate Wills. Most lawyers practicing today, however, avoid creating joint Wills because of the awkwardness and difficulties that can arise in interpreting their terms, as it can leave the surviving partner bound by terms that make no sense once the first partner has passed away.

Using the service at LegalWills.co.za, we encourage each partner to prepare their own Will individually. You would name each other as your main beneficiary, and then have an alternate plan in case you were both involved in a common accident. This is called a Mirror Will and is supported through our service.

There is no advantage to having one document, but there are many disadvantages. You need not pay the full amount twice, however. After your first order, you will receive a reference code for a 40% discount on your second purchase, so the second document will cost R299. (The first one is R499.)

Our answer is different depending on what you are comparing us to.

The service at LegalWills.co.za is significantly better than a blank form Will kit that you can buy on Amazon or WHSmiths. These blank kits do not check for errors, allow you to do things you are legally not allowed to do, and rarely cover backup scenarios. They are actually the most difficult way to prepare a well drafted Will.

We provide the same quality documents as an estate planning lawyer – often word-for-word identical, because we use the same software that they use. We've just adapted it to make it easier to understand, and given you direct access to it. Therefore, you can create a lawyer grade Will, but from the comfort of your own home at less than a tenth of the price.

When compared to other online services, we have honest, up-front pricing that is better than any equivalent service. We also believe that we have the highest quality service online today. We have been in business for over 24 years, and never once has one of our Wills had an issue going through the probate process. We also offer best-in-class phone and email support if you get stuck.

Some other highlights:

• Help text every step of the way.   Every page of our service has additional help text to answer your questions. If you get stuck, send us an email and we can help.
  
  
• Create your Will from anywhere at any time.   Our service works on any computer, phone or tablet. Which means you can create or update your Will in the middle of the night in Timbuktu if you need to.
  
  
• Unlimited updates.   If you write your Will with a lawyer, it could be out of date by the time you get home. You don't face that issue with LegalWills.co.za. If your circumstances change, simply login to your account, update your document, and sign your new Will. There is no charge for updates as long as you maintain a membership.
  
  
• Professional reviews by a lawyer.   Our service works for the vast majority of situations, but on occasion people have unusual circumstances and need the reassurance of a legal professional's eye. We offer this as an option.
  
  
• Our other services.   We don't just do Will writing. We offer a complete portfolio of services that will help you to plan your estate. We have the LifeLocker® executor tool, that allows you to document all of your personal details and assets, and MyVault™ that lets you upload important files. Together with our Keyholder® mechanism, you can be assured that the right information gets into the right hands at the right time (and not before).
  
  
• Privacy and security.   We do not store any information as plain text. We do not store Wills in our database. All of your information is encrypted on our servers. Nobody can access it except you and your designated Keyholders® at the appropriate time. Furthermore, we do not share, trade or sell any of your data with third parties whatsoever.
  
  

"I used your service to write a Will for my dear wife Christine who passed away this year. The Will was easy to fill out and very straightforward. I never had one problem arise because of the Will."
--- Keith Sutton   Read more testimonials

For an informative and eye-opening comparison of the MyWill™ service to do-it-yourself legal will kits, read about it here.

To make a Will at LegalWills.co.za, you simply go to the home page and click on "Start Your Will".

Step through the series of 9 sections, answering questions along the way. We offer help on making a Will at each point through the service.

You then create an account for yourself so that you can update your Last Will and Testament when circumstances change.

To make a Last Will and Testament a legal document, you must print it and sign it in the presence of two witnesses who are not beneficiaries in the Will.

Once it is signed and witnessed, it becomes a legal Last Will and Testament. There is no requirement to register your document, or have it signed by a lawyer.

Although the MyWill™ question-and-answer wizard is applicable for most cases, we do know of certain situations where we would recommend that you seek the advice of a legal professional.  In particular:

• If you are a resident of Northern Ireland or Scotland.
• If you are involved in a matrimonial dispute, or wish to disinherit your spouse or children.
• If you have a history of mental illness, or the question of your mental capacity may be raised in objection to the statements in the Will.
• If you own personal property or real estate in multiple countries.
• If you are under 18.
• If you have complicated business investments (e.g. you are part owner of property or businesses where ownership may be challenged).
• If you have a large, complex estate and feel that you would benefit from some advice on tax reduction.
• If you need to provide for long term medical care for a dependent or a child with special needs.
• If you think that somebody may challenge your Will in court.

In any of the above situations and in other more complex situations (the above is not an exhaustive list), we would recommend that you seek the advice of an estate planning lawyer.

You must sign the Will in the presence of two witnesses. These people cannot be beneficiaries or have anything to gain from the contents of the Will (the spouse of a beneficiary is a poor choice).

Your witnesses must be adults and of sound mind. Friends, neighbours and co-workers are all acceptable witnesses. They do not need to read the document and they are not approving it. They are simply witnessing the signing process.

There is no requirement to have the document signed by a lawyer or any person of professional standing to make it a legal document.

To download and print your Will you should:

• Go to the homepage at LegalWills.co.za.
• Click on "Log in" at the top of the page.
• Enter your User ID and the Password you used when setting up your account. If you cannot remember this, please let us know and we will re-set it for you.
• Once you are at your member home page, scroll down and click on MyWill™.
• To make changes to your Will, click on "Create or Modify your Will".
• To print your Will, click on "Download and Print your Will (PDF file)".
• Click on "Download: small line spacing".
• Save the document to your computer and open it with Adobe Acrobat Reader.
• From within Adobe Acrobat Reader, select File > Print.

Although our service was developed by a team of lawyers, LegalWills.co.za is not a law firm. We are not writing your Will for you, but we are giving you the tools to prepare your own Will. We do not offer legal advice for specific situations.

Yes, you can. Simply download our free Information Collection Worksheet.

You can use this to gather information to complete the service on somebody else's behalf. You would then need to print the document and have the person sign it in the presence of two witnesses. As long as they are capable of understanding their Will, you can use our service to prepare a Will on their behalf.

Strictly speaking, we are not writing your Will – you are. We are just giving you the tools to prepare your Will. The Society of Will Writers provides insurance for its members, but we have our own (in fact our coverage is significantly superior to that offered by the society). Our service was developed by estate planning lawyers but we are not offering estate planning advice as part of our standard services.

There are no other payments required to prepare your legal Will. You can have a legal Will in your hands for R499 with nothing else to pay, ever.

What other options are there?
If you wish, you can have your Will reviewed by one of our lawyers for R999. Most people do not need this, and would not benefit from it, but if you have selected an option such as "None of the above. Let me describe in detail how to distribute my estate.", then you may want to consider this.

Your Will must first be printed, and then signed in the presence of two witnesses. If you do not have access to a printer, we can print it for you and mail it out. The cost for this is R99, but again, most people do not need this option.

We also offer other services like MyLifeLocker™ and a Living Will. They are not required, but they may be useful to you depending on your situation.

What about document storage?
We do not store physical documents, but we allow you to maintain an account with us if you want to update your document in the future.

The Will service costs R499. With this payment, you are able to prepare your Will. It also gives you one year of unlimited updates to the document. You are able to print the document as often as you wish during that first year. You can download it as a PDF or Word file, but to make your document a legal Will, it must first be printed, and then signed in the presence of two witnesses. The online version is there for your convenience only.

If you choose not to maintain an account with us after the first year, your initial payment is all you will ever pay. We do not keep credit card details on file and cannot automatically charge beyond this initial payment.

If you wish, you can choose to store your documents online for longer than a year, which will make it easier to make updates in the future to reflect any changes in your personal or financial situation (rather than returning to a lawyer each time). This is of course optional, but it does make the process of maintaining your document more convenient. R119 will give you one additional year of updates, or you can purchase multiple years: 5 years at R299, 10 years at R399, 25 years at R799 (R32 per year).

Every time you make an update to your Will, it must first be printed, and then signed in the presence of two witnesses again. If you choose not to maintain an account with us, you will always have your printed, signed document. If you don't need to make changes to that document, it will last you for the rest of your life, whether or not you have an account with us.

What happens if I don't maintain an account, and then in a few years I need to update it?
If your account has not been touched in years, and it is inactive, we reserve the right to remove the account. You will receive an email notification that your account might be removed. However, in practice, we have never actually removed any accounts in our over 24 years of operation.

So, in all likelihood, you will be able to simply login to your account and pay R119 to reactivate it. This will give you one year of unlimited updates from the date of payment. (You will not have to pay for your inactive years.)

When you write your Will with a lawyer, you are paying for their training, so that if you needed custom clauses written for unique situations, they would probably be able to do this for you. However, most Wills do not require unique new clauses to be written, and the vast majority of Wills are a compilation of known legal "precedents".

Most lawyers use Will writing software to prepare Wills, and we use that exact same software, but give you direct access to it. You should really be asking why a lawyer charges R2,000 for about an hour's work.

If you have unusual circumstances, such as a child with special needs, then you may need legal advice. But for the vast majority, you would be paying premium rates for legal advice that you don't need.

With the Will payment of R499, you are able to prepare your Will, and it also gives you one year of unlimited updates to the document. You are able to print the document as often as you wish during that first year. You can download it as a PDF or Word file, but to make your document a legal Will, it must first be printed, and then signed in the presence of two witnesses. The online version is there for your convenience only. You store your printed copy somewhere safe in a place that is known and accessible to your Executor.

If you choose not to maintain an account with us after the first year, your initial payment is all you will ever pay. We do not keep credit card details on file and cannot automatically charge beyond this initial payment.

You can, if you wish, choose to store your documents online for longer than a year, which will make it easier to make updates in the future to reflect any changes in your personal or financial situation (rather than returning to a lawyer each time). This is of course optional, but it does make the process of maintaining your document more convenient. R119 will give you one additional year of updates, or you can purchase multiple years: 5 years at R299, 10 years at R399, 25 years at R799 (a little over R31 per year).

Every time you make an update to your Will, it must first be printed, and then signed in the presence of two witnesses again. If you choose not to maintain an account with us, you will always have your printed, signed document. If you don't need to make changes to that document, it will last you for the rest of your life, whether or not you have an account with us.

Once you have completed your order, you will receive a reference code that you can use for obtaining a 40% discount off your second order. You can find this either in your confirmation email or from a link at the top of your member home page.

Make a note of this code, then logout of your account. Create a new account for your spouse/partner, and when you step through the payment process, enter the reference code.

You should login to your account by clicking on "Member Login" at the top of the home page at LegalWills.co.za. Once you have logged in, either click on the "Extend My Membership" quick link located at the top of your member home page. Alternatively, you can click on Upgrades and scroll down to the membership extension options. From here you can step through the payment process.

We have designed our service to meet the needs of nearly everybody. But sometimes people have a situation that we cannot address in our service. We accept that on occasion our service may not be appropriate.

We have a full 30 day, no questions asked, money back guarantee. Simply email or phone us and we will process a full refund without a quibble.

We do not store any of your information as plain text. There are no "Wills" stored in our database. All data is encrypted and can only be accessed by yourself, or your designated Keyholders® using your unique User ID and Password. The documents are generated in real-time when you click the button to compile the Will.

Note, however, that there are two circumstances under which your documents are made available to the team at LegalWills.co.za. If you choose to have your Will reviewed by one of our legal professionals, or if you select to have your documents printed and posted to you, then the software will automatically decrypt these documents as part of the your instructions to have these services performed.

The service at LegalWills.co.za uses state-of-the-art digital encryption and security technologies to protect your privacy and security.

All data passing back and forth uses 256-bit "SSL encryption". This is the most advanced level of encryption available today, and it means that any information sent from your computer is scrambled in a way which makes it completely unintelligible if intercepted.

When you are on a secure section within the website, a padlock will appear on most web browsers. This is your assurance that the encryption is in place and that you are communicating across a secure link.

Furthermore, our database uses an industry standard high security streaming-encryption algorithm known as "RSA" to encrypt all of your information before it is stored online.

Yes. We do not store your credit card information. It is just not a part of our database.

We cannot automatically charge you for anything and nobody can access your credit card information from our system. We don't have it.

When you enter your credit card information on our site, we use SSL encryption to protect it. SSL encrypts your credit card number, name, address, and telephone number before they travel over the Internet, and this information is never stored.

This makes doing business with us as secure as purchasing by telephone or handing your credit card to somebody in a shop.

At LegalWills.co.za, we perform daily backups on each of our servers. Your data is never at risk if one of our servers runs into a problem.

Furthermore, physical protection of our primary systems includes:

• Fire detection and fire suppression systems with dry pipe pre-action sprinkler systems
• N + 1 redundant power supplies, providing dual power feeds and backup batteries, water coolant systems and generators
• N + 1 redundant climate control, providing primary and backup chiller units, cooling towers, and water storage
• Local network operations center (NOC) for monitoring all data center operations
• 24x7 monitoring and support of network connection and server availability
• 24x7 uniformed guard service with interior and exterior closed-circuit television surveillance
• Electronic access at all data center entrances, including biometric hand scanners
• Electronic key management systems and individually keyed cabinets

As you can see, we take the security and privacy of all of our member information very seriously.

When you create your account you can opt-in or opt-out of receiving emails from us. We very rarely send emails, and at most you may receive an invitation to provide feedback on our services. We do not send any emails promoting third party products or services.

We absolutely do not share personal information about you or your designated Keyholders® with any other organisation. We have no affiliate companies, partners or interests in any other organisations. You will not receive any other mailings based on a membership at this website. Furthermore, we will not resell, trade, lease or rent to third parties any personally identifiable information about you or about any of your designated Keyholders®.

Services such as MyFuneral™, MyLifeLocker™, MyVault™, and MyMessages™ do not create legal documents and make no assumptions about your country of residence. 

We have worked extensively with lawyers in South Africa to ensure that the legal documents created by the MyWill™, MyExpatWill™ and MyLivingWill™ services are up to date with the laws in South Africa.

LegalWills.co.za has been in business since 2001. In Internet terms we have been around for a very, very long time.

Furthermore, we have funds set aside to pay for server hosting for decades into the future. If for some reason LegalWills.co.za stopped accepting new members, we would still be able to honour the MyMessages™, MyLifeLocker™ and MyVault™ functionality beyond the lives of our youngest members.

Even if LegalWills.co.za closed its doors permanently, the product of all of our services can be printed, including your legal documents. Your printed Will would last you for the rest of your life, whether or not LegalWills.co.za was still around. Our pricing structure still makes the creation of these documents very cost effective for all of our members, with no dependency on the LegalWills.co.za website.

But LegalWills.co.za has every intention of being here to stay!

Scroll down to the bottom of your member home page and there is a link to delete your entire membership. If you click on this, your profile and all associated data will be removed from our system permanently. If you cannot find the link, just email or phone us and we can remove your account for you.

No, we do not offer blank form Will kits, and in general we do not recommend them.

They used to be popular before the emergence of online interactive services like the one at LegalWills.co.za, but they led to a number of problems. Most blank form Will kits allow you to create a document that will not work through the probate process.

Our service guides you through the process of preparing a Will and the final document is professional grade. We also allow you to make updates whenever you need to.

We strongly recommend that you do not use a blank form Will kit.

This can happen occasionally when the system has lost track of whether you are logged in or logged out. It occurs most commonly when multiple tabs are open in your web browser, or if you are working on more than one account at a time.

To fix it, you must logout of all of your accounts. If this doesn't work, restart your browser. If you are still experiencing an issue with this, please contact us.

Simply send us an email at [email protected].  We will try to answer any questions that you have. We usually respond within the hour.