IS YOUR ESTATE IN ORDER?
The Covid-19 pandemic has been part of our lives for well over a year now and, despite staunch efforts in many countries (South Africa is not among them) to vaccinate as many citizens as possible as quickly as possible, it seems there is still no end in sight, with horrific surges in Brazil and India, among other regions. As I write, the equity markets are frothing at mind-boggling valuations, which makes me very nervous. The markets could come to Earth suddenly with an extremely hard bump if it dawns on investors that, no, we’re not going to turn the corner very soon. In fact, if a far nastier variant of this disease evolves, which causes serious disease and death in younger people and proves resistant to the current round of vaccines, a scenario I believe is highly probable, we could be much worse off than we were when people first started dying on the streets of Wuhan.
So, without being unduly morbid, now may be a good time to update your will or, if you haven’t got one, to draw one up. It’s a more complicated process than many believe, especially if you have children. Before drawing up your will, you need to make some serious decisions: Who will be the executor of your estate? Who will look after your children if you and your spouse are not there to do so? Who will be the trustees if you decide on a testamentary trust for your kids?
And then the process must follow legal protocols: it must be signed by you and two witnesses, who must sign in your presence. And the witnesses can’t be beneficiaries of your estate.
Find out more in our cover story by Roz Wrottesley, on page 8.
As always, there’s a wealth (excuse the pun) of information in our quarterly edition – on investing, insurance, financial planning, emigration and tax, among other things. We also introduce a new “regular” feature: the Ombud Case File, which highlights interesting cases (of which there are many) to come from the offices of our insurance and financial advice ombuds as well as the Pension Funds Adjudicator.
Enjoy delving in!
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