September is Wills Month, and the numbers show why it exists. Sanlam's 2026 Legacy survey, released on 1 September, found that only 28% of respondents have a valid will and 65% have no will at all. Of the people who had helped settle a relative's estate, only 22% called the process smooth.
This post covers what actually happens to your money when you die: the process, the taxes, the fees, what happens without a will, and the money your will cannot touch.
What an estate actually goes through
When someone dies, their assets and liabilities become a deceased estate, and it is administered under the supervision of the Master of the High Court. The estate is reported, an executor is appointed by way of Letters of Executorship, creditors are advertised for, a liquidation and distribution account is drawn up and lies open for inspection, tax is settled, and only then is anything distributed to beneficiaries.
This is why estates take time. Months at a minimum, often well over a year for anything complicated. During that period the estate's bank accounts are frozen, which is the practical problem families hit first: the household bills continue while the money is locked.
Estate duty: the rates and the abatement
Estate duty is levied under the Estate Duty Act. The rate is 20% on the first R30 million of the dutiable value of the estate, and 25% on anything above R30 million.
Before that applies, a section 4A abatement of R3.5 million is deducted. So an estate with a net value below R3.5 million pays no estate duty at all.
Property left to a surviving spouse is exempt from estate duty, which means many estates pay nothing on first death and the question only arises when the second spouse dies.
The abatement is also portable between spouses. Whatever portion the first spouse to die did not use rolls over to the survivor, so a couple can shelter up to R7 million in total. If the first spouse leaves everything to the survivor, the full R3.5 million carries across.
Estate duty is not the only tax involved. Death triggers a deemed disposal of your assets at market value for capital gains tax purposes, with a R440,000 exclusion in the year of death replacing the usual annual exclusion. The 2026 Budget raised that figure from R300,000 for deaths from 1 March 2026. Assets left to a spouse roll over rather than triggering the gain. For many people, particularly anyone holding a long-held property or share portfolio, the CGT bill can be larger than the estate duty one.
The costs that come off before anyone inherits
These are the numbers people rarely anticipate, and they are charged against the estate, not the beneficiaries personally.
- Executor's remuneration, capped under the Chief Master's directive at 3.5% plus VAT of the gross value of the estate, and 6% plus VAT on income earned by the estate after death. On a R4 million estate that is R140,000 plus VAT, before anything else.
- Master's fees, a government levy on a sliding scale, capped at R7,000.
- Conveyancing costs where property has to be transferred to an heir.
- Advertising, valuations, and the costs of winding up any business interest.
- Outstanding debt, including the balance of any bond, which must be settled before distribution.
The executor's fee is a published maximum rather than a fixed price, and it is negotiable, particularly where the appointed executor is an institution and the estate is straightforward. That conversation is much easier to have while drafting the will than afterwards.
What happens without a will
This is the part where the cost of doing nothing shows up, and it lands on the people you were trying to provide for. If you are still building the assets in question, saving toward a home is usually where an estate starts.
Dying intestate does not mean your family divides things by agreement. The Intestate Succession Act decides, according to a fixed formula based on who survives you: spouse, children, parents, siblings, in a set order and in set proportions. If you leave a spouse and children, the spouse inherits a child's share or R250,000, whichever is greater, and the children split the rest.
The formula takes no account of what you would have wanted, of a stepchild you never adopted, or of which child needs help most. An unmarried partner is in a weaker position than a spouse. Since the Constitutional Court's 2021 Bwanya judgment, a surviving partner in a permanent life partnership with reciprocal duties of support can inherit under the Act, but they have to prove that relationship, which is exactly the kind of dispute a will prevents.
It also makes the administration slower. With no nominated executor, the Master appoints one. With no guardian named for minor children, the court decides. And money inherited by a minor with no trust in place is typically paid into the Guardian's Fund, administered by the state, from which it is released to the child at majority.
A valid will avoids all of that. Under the Wills Act it must be in writing and signed by you at the end, with every earlier page signed too, in the presence of two competent witnesses aged 14 or older. The witnesses sign in your presence and each other's. Do not use a beneficiary or a beneficiary's spouse as a witness, because they can be disqualified from inheriting.
If you missed the free wills drafted during National Wills Week (14 to 18 September 2026), many banks and financial advisers draft a basic will at no charge if they are named as executor. Read the executor fee terms before you sign.
The practical gap nobody plans for
Because the estate's accounts are frozen, there is usually a period where the surviving household has assets on paper and no access to cash. Life cover paid directly to a nominated beneficiary sits outside the estate and pays out relatively quickly, which is precisely why it is used to cover this gap.
The other piece is simpler and costs nothing: your executor has to be able to find your assets. A retirement annuity nobody knew about, a share portfolio on a platform nobody can name, a policy with an old insurer. The Minister of Finance put unclaimed financial assets at more than R88 billion in the 2026 Budget Speech, and a large share of that comes from retirement funds. Much of it is unclaimed because nobody left a list.
The money your will does not control
Two significant pots usually fall outside your estate entirely, which means your will has nothing to say about them.
Retirement fund benefits are the bigger surprise. A death benefit from a pension fund, provident fund or retirement annuity does not fall into your estate and is not distributed according to your will. Under section 37C of the Pension Funds Act, the fund's trustees must identify everyone who was financially dependent on you and allocate the benefit equitably between them, using their own discretion. Your beneficiary nomination form guides them but does not bind them, and the executor of your estate has no authority over the money at all. Trustees can and do allocate away from a nominated beneficiary toward an actual dependant.
Life policies with a nominated beneficiary generally pay directly to that person, outside the estate. That is usually the intention, because it is fast and it avoids executor's fees, but it also means an out-of-date nomination form can pay an ex-spouse regardless of what your will says.
Outside the estate does not mean outside estate duty. A life policy on your life counts as deemed property under the Estate Duty Act, so the payout still counts toward the R3.5 million abatement even though it never passes through the executor's hands. The main exception is a payout to your surviving spouse, which is deductible. Retirement fund death benefits, by contrast, are excluded from estate duty and are taxed under the retirement lump sum tables instead.
The practical instruction is simple: review your beneficiary nominations whenever your circumstances change, and do not assume that updating your will has updated anything else.
Quick answers
How much can I leave before estate duty applies?
The abatement is R3.5 million, so an estate with a net value below that pays no estate duty. Above it, the rate is 20% up to R30 million of dutiable value and 25% beyond. Any abatement the first spouse to die did not use rolls over, so a married couple can shelter up to R7 million.
Does my unmarried partner inherit if I die without a will?
Possibly, but not automatically. Since 2021 a surviving partner in a permanent life partnership with reciprocal duties of support can inherit like a spouse, but they must prove that relationship. A will that names them removes the doubt.
Does my spouse pay estate duty on what I leave them?
No. Bequests to a surviving spouse are exempt, and assets rolling to a spouse do not trigger capital gains tax at that point. The liability is generally deferred to the second death.
Can I write my own will?
You can, and a handwritten or self-drafted will is valid if it meets the signing and witnessing requirements. The risk is not validity, it is ambiguity: unclear wording produces disputes that cost the estate far more than professional drafting would have.
Leave a list, not a treasure hunt
The single most useful estate-planning task that requires no lawyer is writing down what you own and where it is held. Policy numbers, the platform holding your shares, which fund administers your retirement annuity, which bank holds the bond.
Budget Hub's investments hub is a reasonable place to keep that inventory current, because it lists holdings by type, from market-linked assets like ETFs to statement-based products like a retirement annuity or pension, and flags anything you have not updated in a long time. It is not a substitute for a will and it is not legal advice. It is the list that makes the will possible to execute, which is a different and frequently missing thing. On the cover side of the same planning, medical aid versus a hospital plan covers the other product families tend to get wrong.