Beyond the Will: Why Your Wealth Needs a Strategy, Not Just a Document

For most families, estate planning begins and ends with one question: "Do I have a will?"

It's an understandable place to start. A will is the document most people have heard of, and it does an important job — it tells the court, in your own words, who should receive what when you're gone. But for families with significant wealth — a portfolio of properties, shares in an operating business, investments held across more than one jurisdiction, or simply more moving parts than a single page of instructions can capture — a will on its own answers only part of the question.

It tells the court what you wanted. It does very little to make sure it happens smoothly, quickly, or without cost to the people you were trying to protect.

What a will actually does — and doesn't do

A valid will under the Law of Succession Act gives your executor the authority to apply for a grant of probate, and it sets out how your estate should be distributed once that grant is issued. That's a meaningful function. Without a will, your estate is distributed under the rules of intestacy, and the people who administer it are not necessarily the people you would have chosen.

But a will does not:

• Avoid probate. Even with a clear, uncontested will, your estate still has to pass through the courts before anyone can access it. For a modest estate, that might take months. For an estate with multiple properties, business interests, or family members who disagree, it can take years.
• Protect assets while the estate is in administration. Between death and the grant of probate, bank accounts can be frozen, business decisions can stall, and property transactions can be paused — often for far longer than families expect.
• Prevent a dispute. A will can be challenged. Family members who feel inadequately provided for can bring a claim under the Act, and ambiguity in a will is often exactly what fuels that kind of challenge.
• Deal efficiently with a business. If a controlling shareholding sits in your personal estate, it typically cannot be transferred, voted, or restructured until the estate is administered — which can leave a company rudderless at exactly the moment it needs steady leadership.
• Reach everything you own. Assets held offshore, digital assets, and property in other jurisdictions often sit outside what a single Kenyan will can efficiently deal with.

None of this means a will is unnecessary — it remains a foundational document. It means a will is one part of a plan, not the whole plan.

What a strategy adds

A succession strategy takes the same goal — making sure your wealth reaches the people you intend, with the least friction possible — and builds a structure around it rather than relying on a single instruction left behind. In practice, that usually means layering some combination of the following:

A trust, for assets you want to keep outside the probate process entirely, managed according to terms you set now rather than terms interpreted by a court later. This is particularly relevant for business shareholdings, family property, or provision for beneficiaries who aren't ready to manage significant wealth outright — minor children, for example, or a beneficiary who will need support over decades rather than a lump sum.

Lifetime structuring, where certain assets are transferred, gifted, or restructured during your lifetime rather than left to pass through your estate at all. Done properly, this can reduce what falls into probate, reduce the scope for disputes, and let you see the plan working while you're still able to adjust it.

A business continuity plan, separate from your personal estate plan, that answers a different question: not "who inherits my shares" but "who runs this company on Monday morning if I'm not here." These are often documented through shareholder agreements, buy-sell provisions, and clear governance structures — and they matter regardless of how well the ownership question is resolved.

A letter of wishes, sitting alongside a trust or will, that gives your trustees or executor context — not just what to do, but why — which becomes especially valuable if family circumstances are complex or likely to be contested.

Each of these tools solves a problem a will alone cannot. Which combination makes sense depends entirely on what you hold, how it's structured today, and what you're trying to protect against — market timing, family disputes, tax exposure, or simply delay.

The cost of waiting

The families who end up in prolonged succession disputes are rarely the ones who planned too little on purpose. They're usually the ones who meant to revisit their will "once things settled down," or assumed that because they had a document, they had a plan. Succession law rewards clarity and structure put in place well in advance — not clarity assembled under pressure after the fact.

If your estate today would be described as a single will and not much else, that's a reasonable place to have started. It isn't the place to stop.

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This article provides general information and does not constitute legal advice specific to your circumstances. Every estate is different, and the right combination of tools depends on your particular assets, family structure, and objectives. To review your current structure and identify any gaps, book a consultation.

Wangu Kimure- Advocate of the High Court

0716912966

kellenkimure@gmail.com