Making estate planning simple and affordable

In South Africa, 70% of people die without a valid will, 90% have not budgeted for the cost of winding up their estate, and over half of estates face cash shortfalls. The result? Families left battling legal delays, financial strain and unnecessary stress at a time when they should be focused on grieving. Steve Piper, Head of Underwritten Intermediary Sales at Hollard Life Solutions, believes the root of the problem is simple: a lack of awareness.

“We have and continue to educate people about car insurance, life cover and investments, but not about the importance of estate planning and the financial impact of dying,” he says. “It’s expensive to die and very few people realise just how much.”

Here’s what can quickly eat into what is left behind:

• Executor’s fees – up to 3.5% (plus VAT) of the estate value
• Conveyancing fees – to transfer property to heirs
• Taxes – estate duty, capital gains tax and income tax on final returns
• Legal costs – drafting and lodging documents, correspondence and court fees
• Debt settlement – any outstanding loans, credit cards or mortgages must be paid first.

These costs are deducted before beneficiaries receive anything. Planning for them in advance ensures loved ones aren’t left with a financial shortfall.

Piper has seen first-hand how poorly planned estates can drain value from what’s left behind. “I hear horror stories where the execution of an estate takes up most of the money,” he says. Even worse, around half the population dies intestate – without a will. That’s a recipe for costly delays, legal disputes and in many cases, lost benefits. “People die and nobody knows they even have a policy,” Piper notes. “Billions of rands sit unclaimed because there wasn’t a will with a named beneficiary.”

The new digital will solution

While traditional will-writing has often been a slow, paper-heavy process tied closely to executor fees, Hollard Life is taking a different approach – one that blends convenience, legal robustness and ongoing support for clients and advisers. Hollard’s new offering, Hollard Estate Solutions, is fully digital and free to clients.

As Piper puts it: “We’ve created a solution that’s foolproof, supportive and designed to make both clients’ and advisers’ lives easier. And in a market where wills are often seen as a chore, that’s a real game-changer.” Using a fully digital process with date stamps, audit trails and electronic signatures, the Fintech platform allows clients and advisers to complete wills quickly and securely. Once signed, Hollard even arranges safe couriering of the original document to wherever it needs to be stored – for example at an adviser’s office or the client’s home safe – at no extra cost.

For advisers, the benefits go beyond client goodwill. Hollard’s built-in risk calculator handles complex estate planning calculations instantly – factoring in tax implications, estate size and liabilities – saving advisers hours of manual work and ensuring clients get an accurate, actionable picture of their financial future.

Fee structures and processes

The only additional fee is a minimal once-off if the will is updated in the future – a cost designed to keep the process sustainable while discouraging unnecessary frequent changes.

Beyond convenience, Hollard has built in proactive service triggers. “Our system notifies the adviser a year after the will is created,” says Piper. “It’s a reminder to check in – have they had another child, changed jobs, got divorced, inherited money? A will should reflect life changes.”

The process is adviser-led, and advisers can capture client details face-to-face via an online portal, or send them a secure link to complete at their convenience. Contracted Hollard financial advisers access the tool via the Hollard LifeZone portal and can create a will for any client, new or existing. And because the latest signed will legally overrides all previous versions, it doesn’t matter what arrangements the client had in place before – this one becomes the valid document.

For added peace of mind, Hollard has outsourced the legal drafting and estate administration to a specialist firm with over 40 years’ experience. “When that day comes, the estate will be wrapped up by experts,” says Piper. “We’re not suddenly trying to evolve into fiduciary specialists – we leave that to the professionals.”

Importantly, there’s no requirement to purchase additional products. “If this service helps us grow adviser relationships and market share, it’s worth offering wills as a value add to our advisor base.”

Launched just over a month ago, the platform has already seen favourable responses from advisers and policyholders.

Adviser benefits and flexibility

An additional point to note is that Hollard allows advisers to share a reasonable portion of the executor fees if the client has a Hollard Life policy and appoints them as part executor; this may be an existing Hollard policy or a new Hollard policy. Even if the client’s life policy is with another insurer, advisers can still share in up to a quarter of the executor fees. And crucially, there’s no requirement to place a life policy with Hollard to use the free will service.

Piper believes this model – transparent, adviser-friendly and digitally streamlined – will help tackle the education and execution gap around estate planning. It’s not reinventing the wheel, he insists, it’s just making the process simpler, more accessible and more likely to happen before it’s too late. And in a country where dying without a plan can cost heirs a sizable portion of what’s rightfully theirs, that’s a change worth making.