Estate planning
How wealth transfers, and what happens to a family that has not decided.
Estate planning is the work of deciding, in advance and in writing, what happens to everything a family owns. It is not primarily about tax. In Nigeria it is about certainty: which law applies, who is authorised to act, how quickly the family can reach money, and whether the arrangement will hold when it is tested.
Three frameworks operate at the same time
Nigerian succession runs on three parallel systems: statutory law, customary law, and Islamic law. Which governs a particular estate depends on the form of the marriage, the religion of the deceased, ethnic origin, domicile, and the type and location of each asset. One family’s estate can touch more than one framework at once, and the outcomes under each differ materially.
That is why estate planning for a Nigerian family cannot be handled by template, and why the first step is establishing which framework reaches which asset rather than drafting anything.
Without a will, the law decides and the family waits
Where there is no valid will, the estate is distributed under rules rather than intentions, and the assets are frozen until the court grants letters of administration. That process regularly runs for many months and sometimes considerably longer. School fees fall due during it. Business obligations continue. Secured liabilities still have to be serviced. Families holding substantial wealth can find themselves unable to reach any of it.
A validly executed will removes most of that. It does not remove the wait for probate, which is why the second half of the plan matters as much as the first.
The plan needs liquidity that does not sit inside the estate
Every competent Nigerian estate plan answers one question early: where does the family get money in the first six months. The usual answers are a modest reserve held outside the estate, life cover written so that the proceeds pass directly to named beneficiaries rather than into the frozen estate, and clarity agreed in advance about who is authorised to act for the business.
Custom reaches assets that documents assume are free
Certain assets are not fully at the testator’s disposal. Under Bini customary law the Igiogbe, the house in which the deceased lived, passes to the eldest surviving son, and a will purporting to give it elsewhere has repeatedly been set aside. Yoruba customary distribution uses Idi-igi, dividing per branch of the family, or Ori-ojori, dividing per child, and the choice between them is not always the testator’s. Islamic inheritance allocates fixed shares to defined heirs.
Nigeria: the documents are usually out of date
Two problems recur. The first is a will written years earlier that no longer matches what the family holds: property bought since, a company restructured, an offshore account opened, a marriage or a birth. The second is a will drafted in one country covering assets in another. A UK will does not automatically govern Lagos property, and a Nigerian will may not reach a US brokerage account. Families with assets on both sides of a border usually need documents in each jurisdiction, drafted together so that they do not contradict one another.
WealthHat is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. What the firm does is establish what the estate actually contains, identify where the plan is incomplete, and work alongside the family’s lawyer so that what is drafted reflects the whole financial picture.