Saying Goodbye is never easy, but it’s a challenge we will have to face one day. To make it easy for us and our loved ones, keeping a Life File is essential. When the time comes to say goodbye you won’t have to worry about burdening your loved ones with unnecessary questions and documentation.
Take the time to create your own life file and keep it save, we’ve assembled the essentials into one easy downloadable document for you to fill in and print / store in a digital vault.
A “Life File” is a compilation of over 40 essential documents that your loved ones will need to access in the event of your passing.
This file is designed to help you organise these crucial documents, ensuring that your family can easily find and understand everything necessary during a difficult time.
It also helps ensure that your final wishes are carried out as you intended. Key personal documents in the “My Life File” may include, but are not limited to:
• Copies of your Last Will and Testament
• Identity Document
• Marriage Certificate
• Motor Vehicle Registration Documents
• Antenuptial Contract
• Insurance Policy Contracts
• Details of your Medical Practitioner
A digital vault is a secure online space where you can store and manage your digital assets and account logins, with the option to share access with trusted individuals.
Your digital assets might include:
• Login information for online accounts (banking, investment, cryptocurrency, etc.)
• Social media and email accounts
• Digital files like photos, videos, music, and documents
• Frequent flyer miles and credit card points
By creating a roadmap of your online presence, you simplify things for your loved ones after you’re gone. It ensures they can easily locate and access your online accounts. With a digital vault, you have full control over who can access each of your accounts and when. Here are some FREE options for creating your own digital vault:
Click on any link below to learn more about each digital vault:
Appointing an Executor:
1. You do not have to appoint an institution or person drafting your Will, as the executor.
2. You can appoint more than one person to simultaneously act as executors.
3. You can nominate more than one person as the executor in case the nominated executor is not able or willing to take on the responsibility.
4. The maximum prescribed executor’s fee is 3.5% of the value of assets.
5. You are entitled to indicate a different fee in your Will. You just need to ensure that the nominated executor agrees to this, the fee should be
lower than the prescribed fee.
Where to keep your Will:
1. Your original signed Will must be kept safe by a trustworthy person or institution, as a copy of a Will is not deemed valid.
2. You can also entrust different trustworthy individuals with an original copy of your Will.
What to keep in mind when drafting your Will:
1. All persons (16 years and older) are competent to have a Will.
2. A Will must be in writing. It can be written by hand, typed or printed.
3. A person who wrote the Will in his/her own handwriting (and his/her spouse) may not be one of your beneficiaries or the executor in the Will.
4. The signature of the testator/testatrix must appear on every page of the Will, as well as at the end of the Will.
5. The signature of the testator/testatrix must be made in the presence of two or more competent witnesses.
6. Any person of 14 years and older is competent to act as a witness.
7. A witness and his/her spouse may not be one of your beneficiaries or the executor of the Will.
8. A witness must attest the last page of the Will in the presence of the testator/testatrix and of each other.
9. You must include all details of the assets you want to bequeath as well as the names and details of your beneficiaries.
10. Decide who should be the executor and indicate this in the Will.
11. Decide and indicate what should happen to the inheritance of a minor beneficiary (e.g, Must be paid into a trust, /Guardian’s Fund, etc)
12. If you are the sole guardian of a minor, indicate who should be appointed as the guardian of the child after your passing.
13. A beneficiary of a Will should not sign as a witness, because he/she will then be disqualified from receiving any benefit from that Will.
There are a few exceptions to this rule. If a court is satisfied that such a person or his/her spouse:
– did not unduly influence the testator/testatrix in the execution of his/her Will.
– where the Will concerned was witnessed and signed by at least two other competent witnesses who will not benefit from the Will, or
– where the witness or his/her spouse would be entitled to inherit from the testator/testatrix in terms of intestate succession if the
testator/testatrix died intestate, the person or his/her spouse will be allowed to benefit from the Will.
14. All persons of 14 years and older are competent to act as a witness to a Will, provided that at the time they witnessed the Will they were
not incompetent to give evidence in a court of law.