A will is so much more than your final piece of paperwork; it is a roadmap for the people you love most. A way to spare them from unnecessary administrative and legal burdens after you pass away. Unfortunately, millions of South Africans don’t have wills – so many, in fact, that it is bordering on a national crisis. I believe we must reframe the will. Not only is it a piece of admin that many of us prefer not to think about. It is actually an act of love and a powerful instrument for building generational wealth.

Our 2025 Sanlam Legacy Wills Survey reveals a sobering reality – 66% of South Africans lack a will, a figure that has risen by 5% from 2024 to 2025. That’s millions of households left vulnerable to avoidable delays, conflict, and costs. And there’s an even wider impact: When deceased estates can’t be wrapped up, homes can’t be transferred, and funds cannot be accessed. In simple terms, money that should be paying for school fees, settling debts and taxes, or funding a start-up business ends up stuck in admin limbo. It becomes “dead capital” – assets that have no economic value because they cannot be leveraged or exchanged.

This paralysis also means property and savings are not efficiently passed down from one generation to the next. This flow of capital is critical for a healthy economy. But the problem runs deeper. Even when assets are eventually transferred, a lack of planning means inherited wealth is often immediately spent rather than reinvested into productive assets. This consumes capital that could have been used to build financial resilience.

A nation where the majority cannot efficiently protect and pass on what they have is a nation that cannot build lasting prosperity. The solution starts with helping our clients to see wills not as morbid documents, but as empowering acts of love and cornerstones of life plans – roadmaps to brighter futures.

The toll of a will-less nation on families

When someone dies, their bank accounts are frozen. While this happens whether there is a will or not, the difference in outcome for the family is profound. With a will, an executor is already named, and the process to unfreeze accounts and distribute assets can begin relatively quickly. Without a will, the family must navigate a slow, bureaucratic process to have an executor appointed, often leaving them without access to money for groceries, school fees, or healthcare for months.

Consider this real-life scenario. A husband, who was the sole provider for his wife who has a disability, passes away without a will. The money she desperately needs for her own care and daily expenses sits locked in his frozen bank accounts. It remains inaccessible until the courts appoint an executor and issue a Letter of Executorship, the official document required to manage a deceased estate. Obtaining one can take months.