What Happens If I Don't Want a Bank as My Executor?

Plenty of South Africans discover — usually from a family member reading through paperwork after a death — that a bank or trust company was named as executor of an estate, without the deceased ever consciously choosing that. It happens more easily than you'd think, and it's not free.

How This Happens

Banks and trust companies have historically offered "free" will-drafting services, often through home loan or investment relationships — and the will they draft frequently names the bank's own trust division as executor by default. It's not necessarily deceptive, but it is a business arrangement: the bank isn't drafting your will for free out of goodwill, it's securing the executor's fee on your estate later.

What a Bank-Appointed Executor Costs

Professional executors — including bank trust divisions — are entitled to charge the statutory maximum fee: 3.5% of the gross estate value, plus VAT, and up to 6% (plus VAT) on income collected during administration. On a R2 million estate, that's upwards of R80,000 before your beneficiaries see anything. See our detailed breakdown in understanding executor fees before you sign anything.

You're Allowed to Choose Someone Else

There is no legal requirement to use a bank, a trust company, or any professional as your executor. Any competent adult — a spouse, an adult child, a trusted friend — can serve, and can serve without charging any fee at all if you or they choose.

How to Change It

Simply create a new, validly signed will naming the executor you actually want, including an alternate, and the security bond waiver clause (see our guide on the executor security bond and how to avoid it). A later valid will supersedes an earlier one — so a new will naming your chosen executor overrides whatever a bank previously drafted, provided it's properly signed and witnessed.

If you've genuinely lost track of which will is your most recent, or whether an old bank-drafted will is still technically your last valid one, that ambiguity itself is a reason to create a clear, dated, verifiable replacement now.

When a Professional Executor Does Make Sense

For very large, complex, or contentious estates, professional experience can be worth the fee. The point isn't that professional executors are bad — it's that the choice should be yours, made deliberately, not a default you never actively selected.

Choose Deliberately

urWill's will builder lets you name exactly who you want as executor — no default steering toward a bank, no fee unless you choose to pay one. Create your will online — free, and make sure the choice was actually yours.