When two persons, usually spouses, join their estates together in their wills, it is called massing and this can have serious negative property implication if done incorrectly. The wording used by people when drafting their wills to mass their estates is often confusing, vague and ambiguous.

This is especially so where for example, two spouses, married in community of property, mass their estates in their joint will by using words such as "we hereby bequeath our joint estate as follows …." or where spouses who are married out of community of property and who are joint owners of say, the house they live in, use wording such as “we hereby bequeath our house to our son…” In all these instances it is important to establish whether massing in a will is intended or not as it can have important and expensive consequences in respect of especially fixed property.

Where spouses are joint owners of for instance a house and if they intentionally or unintentionally mass their estates, the effect of massing will be that both the first dying and the surviving spouse’s portions of the house will be disposed of upon the death of the first dying of the two of them.  Although the part bequeathed by the first dying spouse will be a bequest in terms of the will and be transfer duty free, the part of the surviving spouse however will be a disposal during his/her lifetime and therefore subject to transfer duty and in some instances even subject to  donations tax as well as capital gains tax.

These examples of incorrect massing are often the product of “do it yourself” wills or the so-called “user friendly internet wills” which in the short term may look like cost saving for the drafting of the will but can eventually result in very expensive taxes and duties unnecessary being payable.  Under these circumstances “do it yourself wills” can equally be as dangerous as “do it yourself brain surgery” and therefore professional help should rather be sought.