MyExpatWill™

If you live in the same country as all of your assets, then you should use the MyWill™ service. If you have assets in another country, or if you have assets in many different countries, then you should use the MyExpatWill™ service. Particularly if you have assets in the UK, Canada or US.

Everybody needs a Will. It doesn't matter how large or small your estate may be. It doesn't matter how simple your plans are for the distribution of your estate. You need a Will.

If you are living outside of South Africa, but have assets in Canada, the US, or the UK, you need an Expat Will. If you now live in South Africa but also have assets in another country where you have already written another Will, then the MyExpatWill™ service will also work for you.

You should not postpone the preparation of your Will for a more suitable time. Our lives change all the time. We travel to different countries, our family situation changes, and our assets change. You should prepare your Expat Will and then update it whenever your circumstances change.

We have designed our service to cover most situations and over the years we have expanded the reach of our service to cover the vast majority of circumstances. However, there are certain times when our service may not work for you. These include:

• If you are planning to disinherit your spouse or children.
• If you feel that your Will may be challenged on the basis of your mental capacity.
• If you are under the age of 18.
• If you have complicated business investments or a complex estate and feel that you would benefit from some advice on estate planning and tax reduction.
• If you need to provide for long term medical care for a dependent like a child with special needs.
• If you think that somebody may challenge your Expatriate Will in court or you have any other doubts about your situation.

If any of these circumstances apply to you, or you have any other doubts, please email us and we can provide some clarification. You may be better served by an estate planning lawyer.

Assets in each country will have to go through the probate process within that country (or the equivalent). A probate court in South Africa will only accept a Will written under South Africa laws.

Your Executor would have to be granted the authority by the probate courts to act as your estate administrator and gather up your assets. They can only do this if your Will is probated, and the Will must be written under local laws. Sometimes banks require that a Will be probated again under the laws of their local jurisdiction. This process can be very lengthy and expensive.

We recommend that you prepare a Will for each country in which you hold assets, and name an Executor who is best placed to handle each group of assets.

The Uniform International Wills Act was developed in the 1970's to address the difficulties in preparing Wills when an estate was distributed across different countries. But the law was not adopted by every country, and the guidelines included in the law were vague.

Trying to prepare an "International Will" is risky, and your Will is probably not going to be well written for each local jurisdiction. We recommend that you prepare a separate Will for each country in which you hold assets.

Our service allows you to prepare a Will to cover assets in the UK, in Canada and in the US. It also gives you one year of unlimited updates to your document, so you do not have to complete your Will in one sitting. Our full price list is available on our Products & Prices page.

The MyExpatWill™ service can be used to prepare a fully legal Last Will and Testament that complies with the laws of England and Wales, Canada (except Québec) and the US (except Louisiana).

To make your document a legally accepted Last Will and Testament, you must download and print it, and then sign it in the presence of two adult witnesses. The witnesses cannot be beneficiaries in the Will, nor can they be the spouse of a beneficiary. They should not be in a position to gain anything from the contents of the Will. You should gather your two witnesses in a room, and then each of you will sign the document in turn in each other's presence.

An online version of your document is stored within your account, but this is for your convenience only. It simplifies the process of updating your Will and ensures that your document always reflects your current circumstances. Every time you make an update, you must download and print the document, and then sign the new version in the presence of two witnesses.

Only printed and originally signed documents are accepted by probate courts. Photocopied, scanned, uploaded or digitally signed versions of your document are not legally acceptable.

More details on the process to be followed for creating a legal document are included in the help text of the MyExpatWill™ service. If these instructions are followed, then your Expatriate Will is a legally binding document.

There are many reasons why you may need to update your Will. Most people know that a change in their own personal or financial circumstances would at least prompt a review of their Will. But also if there is a change in circumstance for anybody named in your Will. For example, if your alternate Executor is taken ill, or your chosen guardian moves away, or one of your beneficiaries receives a windfall, or a charity becomes an important influence in your life.

If you get married, your Will is automatically cancelled. If you have a new child, you should name a guardian for that child and set up a trust. If you get divorced, any mention of your ex spouse is ignored in the Will. You should definitely review and update your Will for any significant life events like these.

At LegalWills.co.za, you can create a membership, and this allows you to make unlimited updates to all of the documents in your account. You can manage your membership year-by-year, or as a multi-year purchase for 5 years, 10 years, 25 years or lifetime.

It is important to review your Expatriate Will every few years and after any new financial or personal events, such as a significant business arrangement, a wedding, the birth of a child, a divorce or if you move outside of your state, province or country.

You can choose to have a 1-year, 10-year, 25-year or Life membership at LegalWills.co.za, during which time you can make as many updates or amendments to your Expatriate Will as you wish at no extra charge.  More details regarding the membership packages available can be found when making your purchase.

You are not required to complete your documents all in one sitting, so you can get started today, and continue to work on your Expat Will over the course of several weeks or months. There are certainly some questions that may need extra thought and even consultation with family and loved ones. It is possible to step through the service in as little as 20 minutes, but for some people it can take much longer.

Although it is legally possible to create a joint Will with one document serving two people, it is not supported at LegalWills.co.za through our Expat Will service.

Joint Wills used to be created with the intention of saving time and expense involved in creating two separate Wills. Most lawyers practicing today, however, avoid creating joint Wills because of the awkwardness and difficulties that can arise in interpreting their terms, as it can leave the surviving partner bound by terms that make no sense once the first partner has passed away.

Using the service at LegalWills.co.za, we encourage each partner to prepare their own Will individually. You would name each other as your main beneficiary, and then have an alternate plan in case you were both involved in a common accident. This is called a Mirror Will and is supported through our service.

There is no advantage to having one document and many disadvantages. You need not pay the full amount twice, however. After your first order, you will receive a reference code for a 40% discount on your second purchase, so the second document will cost R299. (The first one is R499.)

When you step through the Expat Will service, every page has help available in a "Common Questions" section. In addition, most data fields have context-specific help that pops up with more information.

If you get stuck at all, or have any further questions about the use of the service, please contact us at [email protected].