The law

The Act that decides what happens to an estate when a person dies without a valid will. It sets out how the estate is divided among a surviving spouse, children, parents and dependants, who may administer it, and what protections exist for those left behind.

This is the Act most families meet at the worst possible moment, and usually for the first time. Much of the distress that follows a death comes not from the Act being unfair but from nobody having read it in advance.

Made under section 47 of the Act above, these Rules govern the practical machinery: the registry, how an application for letters of administration is made, how objections are dealt with, and how a grant is issued.

If you are reading the 1989 Act on its own, you are missing how the process now actually runs.

The counterpart to the Intestate Succession Act. It governs how a will is made and what makes it valid, how an estate is administered where a will exists, and the duties of executors.

The formal requirements matter more than people expect. A will that fails on execution is not a partially effective will — it is no will at all, and the estate falls to be distributed as an intestacy.

The procedural rules for proving a will and obtaining a grant of probate, made alongside the intestacy rules above.

The foundation of land holding in Zambia. All land vests in the President; what a person holds is a leasehold interest, usually for up to ninety-nine years. The Act also recognises customary tenure, provides for conversion from customary holding to leasehold, and establishes the Lands Tribunal.

Understanding that you hold a leasehold interest rather than absolute ownership changes how you think about everything that follows — including what you are able to pass on, and on what terms.

The Act behind the certificate of title. It governs registration of interests in land, what the register records, and the effect of registration.

It is the reason a search of the register is the first thing done in any transaction, and the reason an unregistered interest can be so difficult to enforce against a person who registered theirs.

Governs divorce and, importantly for these purposes, the settlement of property between spouses.

Property acquired during a marriage but registered in one name alone is among the most common situations I encounter, and this Act is often where its consequences are eventually worked out.

Governs the incorporation, governance, records and winding up of companies.

Relevant here because a family business is an asset like any other, and because what happens to it on the death of a founder depends far more on how it was structured and recorded than on anything written in a will.

Something missing that ought to be here? Write to [email protected].