OAK Law Publishes Wills Week Checklist Highlighting the Gap Between Business Owners' Wills and Their Corporate Documentation

Pretoria law firm explains why a will drafted before a shareholding existed can create exactly the disputes it was meant to prevent.

PRETORIA, South Africa — OAK Law has published a practical guide for business owners ahead of National Wills Week, held every year in the third week of September. The article addresses a problem the firm sees regularly: directors and shareholders whose wills were drafted years ago, often from a generic template focused on personal assets, and which say little or nothing about company shares, or worse, say something that directly contradicts the shareholders agreement already governing those shares.

That contradiction stays invisible while the business owner is alive. It surfaces after death, at the precise moment when remaining shareholders need certainty and the deceased's family needs clarity. A will that bequeaths shares to a family member while a buy-and-sell agreement commits those same shares to the surviving shareholders does not cancel either document. It guarantees a dispute between the people the business owner most wanted to protect.

What the guide covers

The guide works through what a will should actually say about company shares beyond simply listing them as an asset, why share transfer restrictions in the Memorandum of Incorporation remain fully enforceable after death regardless of what the will instructs, how buy-and-sell arrangements interact with will provisions and where they commonly conflict, why executor nomination has a direct effect on how quickly a business interest is resolved, and what a business succession clause can do for the company in the period between death and estate finalisation.

One point the article raises that most business owners have not considered: an executor unfamiliar with corporate documentation, shareholders agreements, and buy-and-sell structures may take considerably longer to administer the estate, simply because they are starting from zero.

For the full breakdown, read Wills Week Checklist: What Every Business Owner Should Have in Their Will on the OAK Law website.

About OAK Law

OAK Law is a distinguished commercial law firm based in Pretoria, South Africa, offering a comprehensive range of legal services for businesses and entrepreneurs. The firm provides strategic legal counsel across corporate structuring, commercial agreements, wills and estate planning, executor and deceased estate services, company secretarial services, conveyancing and property law, and intellectual property.

Contact OAK Law Route 21 Corporate Park, 59 Regency Drive, Irene, Pretoria, 0174 012 345 3761 oaklaw.co.za