Free Wills, Lasting Love: How National Wills Week Can Help You Protect the Animals You Care About
Free Wills, Lasting Love:
How National Wills Week Can Help You Protect the Animals You Care About
Every year, National Wills Week offers South Africans the chance to sit down with a qualified attorney and get one of life's most important documents sorted out. And it won’t cost a cent. It sounds too good to be true, but it’s as bona fide as you can get in a world where pretty much everything comes with a price tag.
From 14 to 18 September 2026, participating legal practitioners across the country will draft basic wills for free. If "I'll get around to it eventually" has been sitting on your to-do list, this is the week “eventually” arrives. Nobody loves admin but having a legal and up-to-date will affects more than just you.
Making a will means your assets go to the people (and causes) you choose. That right is called "freedom of testation," and it only works if the will itself is valid. This is why the LSSA (Law Society of South Africa) encourages people to have their wills drawn up by an attorney rather than a template dished up by a Google search.
Simply put, a will drafted without the right legal knowledge often doesn't hold up when it matters most. If you die without a valid will, then the Intestate Succession Act decides for you. While it's generally a fair system, it can also result in:
- Your assets going to people you wouldn't have chosen
- A lengthy process to appoint an executor, possibly someone unfamiliar to your family
- Unnecessary costs and delays
- Conflict among loved ones with no clear instructions to follow
A professionally drafted will solves all of this in one sitting. While you're at it, remember to include a mention for the ones who can't inherit unless you name them.
Wills Week is about people. But for many of us, "family" includes our four-legged members as well as the causes we've supported for years. Animals can't be named as beneficiaries directly, but the organisations working to protect animals like them can be.
And remember to consider your own pets as well. Very often, family and friends are left to figure out their future, so making provision for them now saves everyone a hard decision later.
Leaving a gift to TEARS Animal Rescue in your will costs you nothing today and can mean everything for an animal tomorrow. It's a way of extending the compassion you've lived by, long after you're gone.
What a legacy gift to TEARS actually does
A bequest, big or small, helps TEARS:
- Rescue more dogs and cats from neglect and abuse
- Provide veterinary treatment through the TEARS clinic
- Support pet feeding and sterilisation programmes in low-income communities
- Rehome animals until every enclosure is empty
This isn’t charity in the abstract. It's the same work you already care about, carried forward.
You don't need a large estate to leave a large impact. A single line in your will is enough to help TEARS keep doing this work for years to come.
If you'd like to leave something to TEARS, law firm STBB — a long-time TEARS supporter — will help with your planning and draft your will at no cost. This isn’t just for Wills Week, STBB is offering the service free of charge year-round. The only proviso is that you bequeath something to TEARS in your will.
Reach out to Marilyn Hoole (director@tears.org.za / 083 651 6343) or Caryn Avenant at STBB (CarynA@stbb.co.za) to get the ball rolling.
About TEARS Animal Rescue
TEARS (The Emma Animal Rescue Society) is a registered non-profit organisation based in Cape Town, South Africa, dedicated to the rescue, treating, rehabilitation, and rehoming of abandoned and abused animals.
Through medical assistance, humane education, rescue, rehabilitation and rehoming, TEARS works to end pet homelessness, neglect and abuse across the communities it serves, powered by individual and corporate support, and partnerships with fellow animal welfare organisations.
TEARS website: www.tears.org.za
TEARS Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/TEARSAnimalRescue/
TEARS Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/tearsanimalrescue/?hl=en.
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