JOHANNESBURG - Standard Bank is urging unmarried couples who live together to protect their partners legally or risk leaving them with nothing if one dies.
Speaking to eNCA amid National Wills Week which runs until Sunday, the bank’s executive head of Insurance & Fiduciary Shaka Zwane, laid bare how the South African law does not automatically recognise cohabiting partners as spouses unlike those who are married.
Referencing the South Africa’s Intestate Succession Act which only recognises married couples, Zwane says,
If one partner dies without a will, the surviving partner has no legal claim.
He’s warned that this gap leaves many vulnerable.
According the 2022 census data, about eight in every 100 couples choose to live together before marriage, yet cohabitation agreements remain rare, Zwane noted.
“In South Africa cohabitation agreements are not popular. We just simply move in together, live a couple of years together, buy property, assets and even vehicles together. At the end of the day should one of pass away you are at risk and not protected,” he says.
Zwane says it is important for couples to draft both a cohabiting agreement and a will.
While they are different they equally play a important role in the lives of couples married or not.
Purpose of the Will and Cohabiting Agreement:
Cohabitation agreement:
- Governs the relationship during the course of it and while the partners are still alive.
- It can contain treatment of children in the relationship if any, and if there are assets, how would they be treated?
- If both partners are working and earning income or if only one partner is working, what are their contributions in the relationship?
- At the same time, it states clearly what is to happen once there is a dissolution.
Will
- Will kicks in upon death, wherein your partner can be stated as a beneficiary which important.