Why Every Adult Should Have an Estate Plan

By Bukola Seun-Oloruntuga | Managing Partner, Morecraft Law · November 2026 · 7 min read

When people hear the words “estate planning,” they tend to think of old age and considerable wealth. I believe that is one of the main reasons so many people postpone it.

If you are young, there seems to be plenty of time. If you do not consider yourself wealthy, you assume you have too little to plan for. If you are in good health, death and incapacity feel too remote to need attention today.

But estate planning is not reserved for a particular age or level of wealth. If you are an adult with people who depend on you, property you own, money in an account, investments, a pension, insurance or a business interest, or if you would simply want someone you trust to make decisions for you when you cannot, then there are questions worth considering. That is what estate planning is about: making deliberate decisions while you can still make them.

You Probably Have an Estate Already

The word “estate” can make the subject sound grander than it is. In law, your estate is simply what you own and the rights you hold, together with your liabilities. It is not confined to large houses or substantial investment portfolios.

Depending on your circumstances, it may include land and buildings, money in bank accounts, shares and investments, a retirement savings account, life insurance, business interests and personal possessions. Some of these will pass under a Will. Others are governed by how they are owned, by beneficiary nominations, by contract or by other legal rules. That distinction matters, because you cannot plan effectively around assets you have not properly identified.

Estate planning should therefore begin with an honest inventory of what you have, how you hold it and what arrangements already apply to it.

A Will Is Important, but Estate Planning Is Bigger Than a Will

For many people, a Will is the first estate-planning document that comes to mind, and rightly so. A Will records how your property is to be distributed on your death and appoints executors to administer your estate. In Nigeria, the formalities for a valid Will are prescribed by state law, such as the Wills Law of Lagos State, and a Will that does not meet them risks being invalid. Executors will ordinarily need a grant of probate from the High Court before banks, registries and other third parties will deal with them. Where there is no valid Will, the court issues letters of administration instead, and the estate passes according to the law that applies to the deceased, which, depending on the circumstances, may include customary law or Islamic law.

The outcome under those laws is not always what the deceased would have chosen, and customary laws are not fixed. In Ukeje v Ukeje (2014) 11 NWLR (pt. 1418) 384, for example, the Supreme Court held that a customary law denying a daughter a share in her late father’s estate was discriminatory and unconstitutional. The point for present purposes is that leaving the result to default rules means leaving it to chance.

Even so, having a Will and having an estate plan are not the same thing. A Will does not answer every question about every asset. How an asset is held may determine what happens to it. For instance, jointly held property may pass by survivorship; retirement savings and insurance policies often carry beneficiary nominations that operate independently of a Will, and business interests may be subject to company documents or shareholder agreements. Trusts may be relevant in some circumstances, and family circumstances and applicable law may limit what can be done.

This is why I prefer to begin an estate-planning conversation with questions rather than documents. Before deciding what document you need, understand what you are trying to achieve.

Estate Planning Is Also About Your Lifetime

A Will deals principally with what happens after death. But what happens if you are alive and unable to manage your affairs? An illness or accident may leave a person temporarily or permanently unable to deal with financial, personal or business matters. Who would need to act? Would that person have legal authority to do so? Would your family know what you wanted? If you own a business, who will make the decisions that cannot wait for your recovery?

Many people assume that a general power of attorney answers these questions. It often does not. Planning for incapacity therefore requires arrangements designed for the purpose, and what is suitable depends on your circumstances and the law of the state concerned.

These are not pleasant questions, but avoiding them does not make the possibility disappear. A thoughtful estate plan considers incapacity as well as death.

Your Family Should Not Have to Guess

One of the greatest practical benefits of estate planning is clarity. Without a plan, the people closest to you may be left to work out what you owned, where important documents are kept, what obligations exist and what you would have wanted. Family members may sincerely believe you told them different things. One may know of a property that another does not. A spouse may not know where investment records are kept. Adult children may hold very different assumptions about how a family business should be handled.

In practice, many family disputes over a deceased person’s property arise less from ill will than from uncertainty. Conversations have their place, but important legal and financial arrangements should not depend on memory alone.

The purpose is not to control every event after you are gone. It is to reduce avoidable uncertainty.

Estate Planning Changes as Life Changes

An estate plan should not be prepared once and forgotten. You may marry, have children, or see a marriage end. Someone named in an existing arrangement may die. You may acquire or sell property, start a business, invest outside Nigeria, where foreign law may govern the assets concerned, or take on new family responsibilities. Your intentions may change too. A plan that made sense ten years ago may no longer reflect your family, your assets or your priorities.

Existing arrangements should therefore be reviewed periodically, and particularly after significant changes in your personal, family or financial circumstances. A Will somewhere in a drawer is not the same as knowing that your estate plan still works for the life you have today.

Business Owners Have Another Layer to Consider

If you own a business, your personal affairs and the future of the business are closely connected. Your shares or other ownership interests form part of your estate, but ownership is only part of the question. Who runs the business if you cannot? What happens to your interest when you die? Are there other shareholders whose rights must be respected? Should the person who inherits an economic interest in the business also be the person who manages it?

Your personal documents must also be consistent with the company’s memorandum and articles of association and any shareholders’ agreement. A Will operates subject to those documents, and private companies commonly restrict the transfer of shares. These questions explain why estate planning and succession planning so often meet because passing an ownership interest to someone and preparing that person to run a business are two very different things.

Your Circumstances Matter More Than Someone Else’s Solution

People sometimes approach estate planning by asking what someone else has done. Should I set up a trust? Should I transfer my property to my children now? Should I put my assets into a company? Those can be useful questions, but there is no universal structure that is right for everyone. A trust may suit one family and be unnecessary for another. A particular ownership structure may solve one problem while creating complications elsewhere.

The starting point should be your own circumstances. What do you own, and how is it owned? Who depends on you? What responsibilities do you carry? What arrangements already exist? What are you trying to achieve, and what concerns you most? Only then does it make sense to consider the legal tools that may help.

Do Not Wait for the Perfect Time

There will always be a reason to postpone, such as you are too young, the children are still small, the business is still growing, you have not yet bought the second property, or you are waiting for an investment to mature. The difficulty with waiting for the perfect time is that life rarely gives notice of when a plan will be needed.

Estate planning does not require you to predict everything that will happen. It requires sensible arrangements based on the circumstances you have now, and a willingness to review them when those circumstances change.

Begin with the Right Questions

You do not need to arrive at a consultation knowing whether you need a Will, a trust or some other arrangement. Deciding on the document before understanding the problem puts the process the wrong way round. Start instead with the questions. What do I own, and how do I own it? Who depends on me? What would happen if I could not manage my affairs? What would happen to my assets when I die? Are my business interests properly accounted for? Do my existing arrangements still reflect my circumstances and intentions?

These questions are relevant long before anyone thinks of themselves as old or wealthy. Estate planning is ultimately an exercise in making decisions, and the best time to make them is while they are still yours to make.

This article is intended to provide general information and does not constitute legal advice. Legal advice should be obtained for your particular circumstances.