Nigeria: Wills/ Intestacy/ Estate Planning

A landmark Nigerian succession case examines whether a long-separated statutory wife retains inheritance rights over a deceased husband's estate when challenged by a woman claiming customary marriage. The High Court's decision clarifies the critical distinction between social reality and legal status in determining spousal rights under Nigerian matrimonial law.

A will is a legal document that states how a person wants their property and affairs handled after death. In Nigeria, a will is only effective if the legal formalities are properly followed. At a practical level, the safest approach is to ensure the will is in writing, made by a person with capacity, signed by the testator, and attested by at least two competent witnesses at the time of execution.

In Nigeria, intestacy is far more common than most people realise. When a person dies without a valid will, it means they died “intestate”; and their estate does not automatically pass to any family member. Instead, it is distributed according to statutes, customary laws of succession, and rules that differ depending on the deceased’s ethnicity or where the deceased lived, their culture or religion.

It often starts with a shock. A family opens a Will and finds that the estate has been shared in an unexpected way—one child receives nothing, a neighbour benefits significantly, or the executors are people the family did not expect.

Upon the death of a person, the management and administration of all their assets do not just hang in abeyance.

Trust is the most valuable invention of equity, particularly in the way it creates a vehicle by which the management of a property could be reposed in an entity different from the entity for which the enjoyment of the property is meant.

Across the globe, inheritance is the primary pathway to land ownership, with customs and traditional norms heavily influencing inheritance rights across different regions.

Estate planning is the structure of management of assets by families and is usually extremely time-consuming. A well-done estate planning process involves many conversations amongst family members...

Letters of Administration (LoA) are critical legal documents in estate management, especially in cases where a person dies intestate (without a valid will).