I need to draft a will. How do I know which legal service I need?

Key takeaways

• Separate document drafting from full estate planning, executor appointment and estate administration.
• Treat ownership, matrimonial property, trusts, companies, policies and retirement interests as separate control questions.
• Escalate capacity, influence, disability or unusual-signing concerns before the signing appointment.
• Ask whether tax, financial, family-law, trust, business or foreign-law work is included or referred out.
• Record the drafting fee, revision allowance, signing support, original storage and later review arrangements independently.

How to use this guide

Start with a one-page task map: who the testator is, current family and marriage position, significant assets and liabilities, intended beneficiaries, proposed executor, any minor or dependant, and the facts that are uncertain. A suitable provider should be able to explain which questions are inside the drafting mandate, which require another adviser, and what the finished deliverable will be.

1. Classify the task before choosing the provider

Write down the result you want. Is the task a first will, a replacement, a codicil, a review after a life event, coordinated planning for spouses, a testamentary trust, a business-succession plan or advice about assets in more than one country? These tasks may use the same word—will—but do not require the same scope.

Also distinguish planning during life from administration after death. A will can nominate an executor and give testamentary instructions. The Master later issues the authority under which a deceased estate is administered. Drafting a will is not an application for letters of executorship, and an estate administrator cannot rewrite a deceased person's instructions.

2. When focused will drafting may be enough

A focused drafting service may suit a competent adult whose family and asset position is known, who can give independent instructions, who has no unusual signing constraint, and whose intended gifts can be expressed clearly. The drafter should still confirm identity, relationships, ownership, liabilities, beneficiaries, substitutes, residue, executor choices and original-storage arrangements.

“Simple” should describe verified facts, not an assumption. A home used by the family may be jointly owned or subject to a matrimonial-property system. An investment may have a nomination. A business interest may be governed by an agreement. Ask the provider to flag anything the will cannot control on its own.

3. When estate-planning advice is the real service

Use broader estate-planning advice where the likely estate may lack cash to settle debt, costs or taxes; where specific gifts could fail because ownership or value may change; where minor beneficiaries or dependants need structured provision; or where several instruments must work together.

This lane should produce more than clauses. It should test the ownership schedule, likely estate liabilities, liquidity, beneficiary plan, fiduciary appointments and arrangements outside the will. The adviser should state which calculations are preliminary and which require a tax or financial professional.

4. When another legal discipline must be coordinated

Family-law or matrimonial-property input may be needed after marriage, divorce, a settlement, maintenance arrangement or disputed parental-responsibility issue. A notary may be relevant to an antenuptial contract, but that role should not be confused with ordinary witnessing of a will.

Trust or commercial advice may be required where assets sit in a trust or company, the testator has a loan account, partners depend on a buy-and-sell arrangement, or business continuity matters. A will cannot dispose of property the testator does not own or silently amend a trust deed, company record or shareholder agreement.

5. When tax, financial or cross-border help matters

Material estate-duty exposure, capital-gains consequences at death, donations, retirement benefits, insurance, debt and liquidity can justify coordinated tax and financial advice. Ask for assumptions and calculations in writing. Do not accept a promise that one clause makes tax disappear.

Foreign residence, citizenship, property, bank accounts, beneficiaries or an existing foreign will call for cross-border succession advice. The provider should identify which country's rules, signing requirements, forced-heirship concepts, taxes or probate processes might apply and whether coordinated wills are safer than one global document.

6. Capacity, influence and signing support

The Wills Act deals with testamentary competency and execution. Tell the provider before drafting if the person is seriously ill, on medication that may affect cognition, under pressure from relatives, unable to read the proposed language, unable to sign normally, or likely to sign in a hospital or another constrained setting.

The correct service may require an independent instruction meeting, translation or accessibility support, a Commissioner of Oaths for an alternative signature route, or appropriate contemporaneous capacity evidence. Family members should not answer for the testator or dictate the distribution merely because they arranged the appointment.

7. Questions that reveal the real scope

Ask each provider:

1. Who will take the testator's instructions and who will draft or review the document?
2. Which ownership, family and beneficiary facts will be verified?
3. Are trust, business, tax, financial, foreign-asset or matrimonial-property questions included?
4. How many revisions and meetings are covered?
5. Will the provider supervise signing and check the witness arrangement?
6. Who keeps the original, how can it be retrieved and what happens if the firm closes?
7. Is executor nomination tied to the drafting service, and what later remuneration may apply?
8. What event should trigger another review?

The answer should define boundaries. A referral for a specialist issue is a sign of proper classification, not necessarily a failure of service.

8. Decide from the proposed deliverable

For a focused matter, the deliverable may be a reviewed will, a controlled signing session and a custody record. For a complex matter, it may also include an estate overview, open-issue list, tax or liquidity model, beneficiary-nomination review, trust or business coordination, and written referrals.

Compare providers on the work product, independence and unresolved risks—not only the first quoted price. Keep drafting and executor decisions separate so the person understands what is being agreed now and what could be charged after death.

This is general South African information. The right professional scope depends on the testator's capacity, family, ownership, obligations and cross-border facts.

Additional FAQ

When should will drafting include tax or business-succession advice?

Consider coordinated specialist work where the estate includes a business, trust loan, foreign asset, large liquidity gap or material tax consequence. A basic drafting mandate should not be treated as confirming valuations, tax outcomes or a workable succession transaction.

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