Validity

Your will is one of the most important documents on which you would ever have to place your signature. After all, it represents your last wishes on earth and is the document that determines how your assets should be dealt with after your death.

A watershed ruling in the Court of Appeal found that an unsigned document (will) that a deceased had drafted by a lawyer, bank, trust company or other third party such as a financial adviser, will in future not be accepted by the court as a will.

That means that a will cannot be executed if unsigned – even if everyone knows that it is a just reflection of the deceased's last wishes and requests. In such a case, the estate will be executed in terms of the deceased's last legal, signed will, or intestate.

The court's decision is based on the argument that wills have for centuries been drafted with the express intention of stopping fraud and disputes after the death of the testator. The requirement that the testator himself should draft the document, guarantees a degree of authenticity.

This proves a personal action by the testator, from which his intentions can clearly be seen. If the requirements stipulated that any person could draft the will, the chances of fraud and false claims are so much bigger – which the testator cannot refute after his death.

If the deceased drafted his will himself shortly before his death, the court could have found differently and used its "condonation authority" to declare the will valid.

The above mentioned Appeal Court decision is very important for people drafting wills. An error in a person's will may inflict irreparable financial damage to your next-of-kin, not to mention the potential for court cases. To make sure your last wishes on earth are respected, make sure your will is technically correct AND properly signed.