Wills and Trusts in South Africa: Why Expats Often Get This Wrong

South Africa does not automatically invalidate a will signed in the UK, but it also does not make it comprehensive on its own. A will has to work in each place your assets actually sit, and existing arrangements often carry gaps, such as a dormant bank account, an old pension nomination that was never updated, or two wills that unintentionally cancel each other out.

“Do I need a new will if I move to South Africa?” is one of those questions where the honest answer is probably, and you need to look at the old one too. That's less satisfying than a clean yes or no, but a lot more useful. South Africa doesn’t automatically invalidate a will you signed in the UK. What it does is add a second country, a second set of formalities and often a second executor into a picture that used to be simple.

The misconception underneath the question is that a will is a single document covering everything you own, everywhere. In practice it has to work in each place your assets actually sit, and the awkward cases are rarely the ones people worry about. Nobody gets caught out by the family home. They get caught out by a dormant UK bank account, an old pension with a nomination form nobody has updated in fifteen years, or two wills that quietly cancelled each other out.

What a South African will has to look like

South African law is fairly relaxed about who can inherit and fairly strict about how the document is executed. There are specific requirements around signing: you signing in the presence of witnesses, the witnesses signing in your presence, every page signed, and the witnesses being competent and not beneficiaries themselves. Get the formalities wrong and you can end up with a document that reflects your intentions perfectly and still has to be rescued by a court.

The other peculiarity worth knowing is the executor’s role. Deceased estates here are administered under the supervision of the Master of the High Court, and the executor deals with that process. Naming a family member abroad as sole executor is a common instinct and a frequently regretted one. Someone in another time zone, unfamiliar with the local process, usually ends up appointing a local agent anyway, at a cost, after a delay.

The bit that actually causes the trouble: assets in two countries

If you own things in more than one country, you have a choice between one will covering everything and separate wills for each jurisdiction. Both approaches work. Both are also routinely got wrong in the same way.

A single worldwide will is simpler to keep consistent but can be slow to administer, because the same document may have to be produced and accepted by authorities in more than one country before anything can be distributed. Separate wills run in parallel and are usually faster, but only if they are drafted together, by people who know the other one exists. The classic failure is a new South African will containing a standard clause revoking “all previous wills,” which does exactly that: it quietly kills the UK will covering the UK assets. I have seen this more than once, and it is always an accident.

Immovable property is the other reliable complication. Land and buildings generally fall under the law of the country they’re in, regardless of what your will says or where you live. Property abroad usually has to be dealt with on that country’s terms.

Nomination forms beat wills

This one surprises people. Certain assets don’t pass under your will at all. Retirement funds in South Africa are the clearest example: the distribution of a retirement fund benefit on death is governed by pension legislation and decided by the fund’s trustees, who must consider your dependants. Your nomination form is important evidence of your wishes, but it is not the last word, and your will doesn’t override the process.

Life policies, some offshore structures and UK pension death benefits have their own nomination mechanics too. If you moved countries, changed relationships or had children since you last filled one in, the forms are worth digging out. It’s a dull afternoon that occasionally matters more than the will itself.

Trusts: less exciting than they sound

Trusts get discussed as though they were a clever move most people are simply missing out on. That framing does a lot of damage.

A trust is a legal structure where assets are owned by trustees for the benefit of someone else. It genuinely solves certain problems: providing for a child with special needs, holding assets for minors, keeping a business or a farm intact across generations, or ring-fencing assets where there’s a real creditor or continuity concern.

What it doesn’t do is act as a general-purpose tax reduction device. South African trusts are taxed deliberately unattractively at the trust level, precisely to discourage that use. There are rules about how income and gains are attributed to beneficiaries or back to the founder, and anti-avoidance legislation aimed at assets sold to a trust on interest-free loan account. The details are technical and they change; this is firmly the territory of a tax adviser and a fiduciary specialist rather than a blog post.

A trust also has running costs, needs genuinely independent trustees who actually meet and make decisions, requires its own accounts and tax returns, and means giving up real control of the assets. Trusts that exist on paper while the founder carries on treating the assets as personal have been unwound by courts. If a structure is recommended to you and the reason offered is vague, ask what specific problem it solves that a properly drafted will doesn’t.

Where expats get caught out

The recurring ones are mundane. A will signed in one country and never reviewed after emigrating. Two wills, one of which revoked the other. An executor abroad with no local agent. Nomination forms naming an ex-spouse. Assets held jointly in a way that means something different here than it did at home. A trust set up years ago that nobody has administered properly since. None of these are exotic failures, and all of them are cheaper to fix while you’re alive.

Questions worth answering first

• When did you last read your will, rather than remembering roughly what it says?
• Does it revoke previous wills, and do you have one in another country that it would catch?
• Who is your executor, and where do they live?
• Are the nomination forms on your retirement funds and policies current?
• Do you own property abroad, and has anyone considered how it will actually be dealt with?
• Is your tax residency status settled, or assumed? It affects estate planning too.

Where this fits

Estate planning sits on top of everything else rather than beside it: it’s the question of what happens to the retirement annuities, tax-free savings and offshore holdings you’ve spent years building. The local investing page covers how those pieces fit together while you’re alive, and the British expat money checklist covers the wider admin of settling in South Africa.

Drafting wills and trust deeds is work for a qualified legal or fiduciary practitioner, and the tax side belongs with a tax adviser. A general conversation can help with the step before that: setting out what you hold and in which countries, so you know what to take to the right professionals. An introductory call is a no-obligation place to start.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a new will if I move to South Africa?

South Africa does not automatically invalidate a will you signed in the UK, but it does not make it comprehensive either. Your will has to work in each place your assets actually sit, and existing arrangements often carry gaps: a dormant bank account, an old pension nomination that was never updated, or two wills that unintentionally cancel each other out. Reviewing the old will alongside any new one is the useful step, rather than assuming one document covers everything.

What happens if I have separate wills for the UK and South Africa?

Separate wills can work well and are often faster to administer than one worldwide will, but only if they are drafted together by people who know the other one exists. The common failure is a new South African will containing a standard clause revoking all previous wills, which can unintentionally cancel a UK will covering UK assets. Coordinating the wording between the two avoids this.

Do trusts reduce tax in South Africa?

Not as a general rule. South African trusts are taxed deliberately unattractively at the trust level, and rules govern how income and gains are attributed to beneficiaries or back to the founder, alongside anti-avoidance legislation aimed at interest-free loan accounts. Trusts genuinely help with specific problems, such as providing for a child with special needs or holding assets for minors, but the tax detail is technical and changes, so it needs a tax adviser and a fiduciary specialist.

This article is for general information only and does not constitute financial, legal, tax or estate planning advice. Wills, trusts and estate duty rules are technical, change over time, and depend entirely on individual circumstances. Speak to a qualified legal practitioner and a tax adviser about your own position before acting. UK pensions and other UK-based assets are subject to UK regulatory requirements and any changes should only be made with regulated advice specific to your circumstances.