Blog

Notes on
digital legacy.

Practical writing on digital estate planning, Legacy Binders and zero-knowledge encryption. Some of it is how we build Vaultneur, the rest is how to get your own affairs in order.

A parent and a teenager sitting by a window, the adult holding an ID booklet and a folded letter

The child's inheritance needs a file

The Master's September list names Guardian's Fund money unclaimed for one to three years. A missing file is how a child's claim sits there.

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A woman standing at a lounge window in late afternoon light, holding an old staff card and a folded payslip

The fund you left behind still has your name

Treasury is still working from a 2022 estimate of R88 billion in unclaimed retirement, insurance and bank money. The trail usually dies with the paperwork.

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A laptop with a chat window, a printed draft and a signed will in a plain envelope on a kitchen table

The chatbot is not your will

South Africa pulled its draft AI policy after fake citations. A will still needs wet ink, two witnesses and a file the family can find without guessing.

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A signed paper will in a plain envelope, a notebook of account names and a phone on a kitchen table in late afternoon light

The will you started still has to come home

Discovery says six in ten drafted wills never return for storage, and 18% of those that do carry signing errors. Keep the original findable.

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A woman kneeling beside an open suitcase on a bed, sliding a plain folder in among folded clothes

You can leave the country. The file still has to travel.

FinGlobal says keep your cessation papers together if you come home. SARS wants the same pile when you leave. Put it in a Migration Digital Binder.

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A signed South African will, a ring binder of household papers and a phone on a kitchen table in late afternoon light

The will is signed. Where does the file live?

National Wills Week gets a will onto paper. Capital Legacy’s readiness index shows why families still stall: the documents that make the will work are missing.

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A printed will, South African passport, blank card and phone laid out on a wooden kitchen table

Don't put your crypto keys in your will

Once a South African will is lodged with the Master, anyone can inspect it. Seed phrases and logins do not belong there. Here is the safer split.

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Hands beside a phone and a closed document folder on a warmly lit kitchen table

How safe is your private data on ChatGPT?

Understand how ChatGPT handles private information, what its privacy settings change, and what to leave out when working with sensitive documents.

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A handwritten letter beside a family photograph and a document folder on a wooden kitchen table

Funeral wishes: the questions you don't want your family to guess at

Make funeral wishes easier to find, organise essential documents and help the people you love understand what to do when they need that guidance most.

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Hands being fingerprinted onto a SAPS form at a police station counter

Start Your Australian Visa Paperwork at the South African End

The documents that delay South Africans emigrating to Australia are the ones issued back home. Here's the order to do them in, and what expires while you wait.

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A hand posting a letter into a red street post box

The keyboard problem

You can now add documents to your Vaultneur vault from your computer. Here's how a browser can put a file in without ever being able to read it.

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An older woman and her adult daughter sitting at a kitchen table with a document folder open between them

Where Should You Keep Your Will in South Africa?

The original signed will has to be findable, or the law may assume you destroyed it. A plain look at home safes, bank vaults and attorney safe custody.

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A woman at a kitchen table at night, laptop open, a folder of paper documents beside her

Is Google Drive Safe for Important Documents? What It Protects and What It Doesn't

Google Drive encrypts your files, but Google holds the keys. Here's what that actually means for your ID documents, title deeds and medical records.

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A South African passport, unabridged certificates and a phone with a document app on a kitchen table beside a packed moving box

Documents You Need to Emigrate from South Africa: The Complete 2026 Checklist

The documents needed to emigrate from South Africa in 2026: DHA certificates, police clearance, tax residency, apostilles, medical and pets, with current fees.

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A small workshop at opening time, roller shutter half raised, keys still hanging in the lock

The Entrepreneur Legacy Binder: what your business needs when you're not there

Most small businesses run on things only the founder knows. An Entrepreneur Legacy Binder writes them down and keeps them encrypted until they're needed.

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A kitchen table covered in passports, folders and a phone, with half-packed boxes behind it

The paperwork problem nobody warns you about when you emigrate

Emigrating means proving who you are, over and over, to people who have never met you. Here's how to get your documents in order before you fly.

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A kitchen table in daylight with a shoebox of family documents partly unpacked and a phone beside it

What a Digital Legacy Binder is, and why your family needs one

A Digital Legacy Binder is one encrypted place for the documents your family will need if you're not there to find them. Here's what goes in it, and why.

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