Owning property, investments or accounts outside South Africa raises a planning question, not an automatic instruction to sign a second will. A single will may cover more than one country, while separate coordinated wills may sometimes make administration easier. The appropriate arrangement depends on the assets, jurisdictions and people involved.
Hugh Raichlin Attorneys can assess the South African documents and help identify where advice from a suitably qualified professional in another jurisdiction is needed. This is not a claim that HRA is admitted to practise in every country where a client owns assets.
Map the assets before deciding how many wills you need
List what you own, how it is held and where relevant institutions or property are located. Distinguish personal ownership from company or trust ownership, and jointly held assets from sole ownership. An investment’s trading currency or the name of its online platform is not a complete explanation of its legal location.
Add your residence history, citizenships, family relationships and any marital-property agreement. These may matter, but nationality, ordinary residence, domicile and tax residence are not interchangeable labels. A cross-border assessment must ask the relevant question for each legal or tax issue.
Identify the actual administration problem
A foreign will may be considered where a local representative must be appointed, a property transfer requires local documents, or recognition and translation of another country’s papers would cause difficulty. Conversely, another document can introduce cost and inconsistency without solving a genuine problem.
Ask what the foreign lawyer or institution will require after death. Do not assume a South African appointment automatically grants authority elsewhere, or that a foreign appointment settles all South African reporting requirements. Obtain a coordinated plan rather than isolated answers from institutions that each see only one asset.
The revocation clause is a major coordination point
A new will often revokes earlier wills. If that clause is used without careful drafting, a document intended only for foreign property may undermine the existing South African plan. Both advisers must see the other will, including its scope and revocation language, before either new document is finalised.
Define which assets each instrument addresses and what happens to assets acquired later. Avoid gaps, overlapping gifts and conflicting executor powers. References to another will must remain workable if one document is later updated; simply adding a country name to a standard template is not adequate coordination.
Check the family and tax consequences separately
Some jurisdictions restrict testamentary freedom or recognise family claims that affect the intended gifts. The applicable rules and any available choices require advice on the particular facts. This edition does not repeat the original article’s illustrative foreign inheritance percentages as a rule for every family.
A second will is also not, by itself, a tax exemption or a way to change residence. Estate, inheritance and other taxes, reliefs and reporting obligations must be evaluated separately. Avoid transferring assets or changing ownership merely because a will-drafting discussion exposed a foreign connection.
Bring a coordinated briefing pack
- Every existing will and codicil, with dates, original-document locations and advisers’ details.
- An asset-and-liability schedule showing legal ownership and the countries involved.
- Marriage, partnership, divorce and family-support information relevant to the proposed gifts.
- Policy, pension, trust or company documents that may determine how particular benefits pass.
- Questions already raised by foreign lawyers, banks or registries, preserved in their own wording.
Review the arrangement as one plan
A marriage, divorce, relocation, new business interest or property purchase can affect more than one document. Arrange reviews of the whole plan and tell each adviser about changes made elsewhere. Keep clear instructions on where signed originals are held without distributing them unnecessarily.
Will two wills always make administration faster?
No. Properly coordinated documents may help, but unsuitable appointments or conflicting provisions can make the process harder. The reason for the second will should be explained in terms of the actual assets and administration requirements.
Can I sign a foreign template before the South African review?
That creates avoidable risk. Have its execution requirements, scope and revocation effect checked together with the existing documents first.
Start with the countries and documents, not a product choice
Tell HRA which countries and asset types are involved and whether you already have one or more wills. The initial discussion can identify the appropriate scope of advice and coordination before documents are drafted or sensitive financial schedules are submitted.