ONLINE WILL GENERATORS

Drawing up your will doesn’t have to be a complicated business. Most insurance and legal companies have an online will generator that allows you to get a legal will drafted in a flash – you simply input all the relevant information and answer questions about your beneficiaries and executor, and state how you’d like your assets to be distributed.

“While this document can be digitised for record-keeping purposes, the executor will require an originally signed will when winding up the estate,” says Cherise Erasmus of financial planning practice Crue Invest.

These are some things you may want to discuss with your children:

⬛ Who you’ve chosen as the executor of your estate. This is the person who will be responsible for the administration of the estate, which involves dividing the assets among the beneficiaries and settling debts.

You can choose a family member, such as an adult child, as an executor, or it can be your lawyer or financial advisor.

You are under no obligation to disclose anything that’s in your will, but if you want to you can inform your loved ones if you’ve set up a trust as part of your will.

A trust puts your assets under the control of a trustee who can act in your place for your beneficiaries once you’ve passed away – this is usually to ensure financial security for your loved ones, such as a testamentary trust set up for minor children.

If you have minor children your will should state who you choose as their guardians, and you should ideally have discussed this with them.