Estates rarely split families over money. They split them over ambiguity — a title deed in one name, a bank account with no nominee, a business with two people who each believed they had been promised it. Kenyan law has a complete answer for what happens when someone dies without instructions, and that answer almost never matches what the family assumed.
This is a working checklist, not a legal opinion. It sets out what to write down, what to nominate, what to register and in which order, so that the people you leave behind spend their energy on grieving rather than on a queue at the registry. It also marks the points where a qualified advocate is genuinely necessary, because a home-made document that fails on a technicality is worse than no document at all.
Probate takes months while the filing costs land immediately, which is why more families now run a small parallel income; on I am Beezy, every article or video you open adds to a balance you can withdraw locally.
Why do so many Kenyan estates end up in court?
Because the default rules apply the moment there is no valid will, and the default rules are not what most families expect. Understanding what the law does in your silence is the fastest way to see why silence is expensive.
Intestacy is a decision, just not yours
Succession in Kenya is governed by the Law of Succession Act, Chapter 160, with procedure set out in the Probate and Administration Rules. If there is no valid will, the estate is distributed under the intestacy provisions of that Act rather than according to family understanding or the wishes the deceased expressed verbally. A promise made at a family gathering carries no weight in a probate file. Writing nothing down does not leave the decision open — it hands the decision to a statute drafted decades before your circumstances existed.
What families actually fight over
In practice the disputes cluster around three things: land whose title never moved after a previous death, a business with no succession clause, and second families whose existence was known but never documented. None of the three is a legal puzzle. All three are records problems that were solvable while everyone was alive.
The cost is time before it is money
An estate in dispute is an estate that is frozen. Rent stops being collected, businesses lose customers, school fees fall on whoever can pay them this term. That is the real bill, and it is paid by the people least able to carry it. A dispute also tends to outlive the reason for it: once a matter is filed, the family calendar reorganises itself around hearing dates, and relationships that survived the death rarely survive three years of adjournments. The point of this checklist is not to be legally clever. It is to remove the ambiguity that a dispute needs in order to start.
What to put in writing before anything else
The first pass takes one evening and costs nothing. You are building a map, not a legal instrument. The legal instrument comes second and is far easier to draft once the map exists.
The asset register
List every account, policy, title, business interest, plot, vehicle and outstanding debt, with the institution's name and the reference number, and note where the original document physically sits. Debts belong on this list too: an estate settles its liabilities before it distributes anything, so a hidden loan is a hidden reduction in what everyone receives.
The will, and why witnesses matter
A will has formal requirements under the Law of Succession Act, and the most common failure is not what it says but how it was signed and witnessed. This is the point to use an advocate. A short, properly executed will beats a long, self-drafted one that a court declines to admit. Name an executor who is willing, competent and likely to outlive you, and name an alternate.
Where the copies live
One original with the advocate, one set of certified copies with the executor, one index at home listing what exists and where. Do not lock the only copy in a safe deposit box that requires a grant to open — that is a circular problem families discover at the worst moment.
| Item | Where the original belongs | Who needs to know it exists |
|---|---|---|
| Will | With the drafting advocate, with a signed receipt | Executor and at least one other adult in the family |
| Land title deeds | Safe storage, with certified copies in the index | Executor; co-owners; anyone in occupation |
| Bank and SACCO records | Held by the institution | Executor, plus the named nominee on each account |
| NSSF and pension scheme records | Held by the scheme administrator | The nominated beneficiaries themselves |
| Insurance policies | With the insurer; schedule at home | Executor and the named policy beneficiaries |
| Business ownership documents | Company records and the advocate | Co-directors, co-owners, executor |
How do you name beneficiaries on accounts and pensions?
This is the highest-value hour in the entire checklist, because a correctly completed nomination form can move a benefit without waiting for the estate to be settled. It is also the step most often skipped, since it involves paperwork with several separate institutions.
Retirement savings
Kenya's statutory retirement scheme is the National Social Security Fund, established under the National Social Security Fund Act, Chapter 258, and occupational schemes are supervised by the Retirement Benefits Authority. Each scheme keeps its own beneficiary nomination. Ask your employer's human resources office for the form on the same day you read this, and confirm what the scheme currently holds rather than what you remember submitting.
Bank accounts, SACCOs and insurance
Banks and SACCOs each run their own nomination process, and there is no national register that updates them together. If you changed marital status, had a child, or lost a nominated relative, every institution needs a fresh form. Insurance policies name beneficiaries in the policy schedule itself, which is why the schedule belongs in your index.
Mobile money and digital balances
Mobile wallets are registered to an individual and to a SIM, and a balance sitting in a wallet is not automatically visible to an executor. Mobile money is the dominant payment method in Kenya, with 94.2 million registered accounts recorded by the Central Bank of Kenya in June 2026. A household that keeps working capital in a wallet should therefore treat that wallet as a listed asset, with a written note on how to reach the operator's bereavement process.
Paying for succession paperwork with I am Beezy
Drafting, certifying, gazetting and travelling to registries all cost money, and they cost it before any inheritance arrives. Families that plan for that expense do not have to choose between doing the paperwork properly and paying this term's fees.
How the earnings work
I am Beezy pays per viewing session: you open videos, articles and advertisements, and the balance builds as you go. Active users report the equivalent of 5 to 15 EUR a day; at the Central Bank of Kenya reference rate of 1 EUR = 149.21 KES on 4 August 2026, that lands in the region of KSh 750 to KSh 2,240 a day, credited to a local mobile wallet.
Setting aside a paperwork fund
Ring-fence what this earns into a separate account and label it. A named fund gets spent on what it is named for; an unnamed balance gets absorbed into the month. That single administrative habit is what turns intention into a completed file.
The court stage, in the order it happens
Even a perfectly prepared estate goes through a formal process. Knowing the sequence means nobody panics at the notice stage or misreads a delay as an objection.
Probate or letters of administration
Where there is a valid will naming an executor, the application is for a grant of probate. Where there is no will, or no willing executor, the application is for letters of administration under the Law of Succession Act. The Probate and Administration Rules also provide for the Public Trustee, and a grant to one person alone is restricted except in the specific cases those rules set out.
Notice, and the objection window
Applications are advertised and other people entitled in the same degree must be notified before a grant issues. This is deliberate: it gives anyone with a claim a defined moment to raise it, rather than years later. A family that has already agreed the position in writing passes through this stage quietly.
Confirmation, then distribution
A grant is not the end. It is confirmed after a statutory period, and only then can the estate be distributed and titles transferred. Plan for the whole sequence, not the first filing, and never promise a beneficiary a date you cannot control.
Who pays for the estate while it waits
Between death and distribution, somebody keeps paying school fees, rates, insurance premiums and loan instalments, and none of those obligations pause because a file is open. Agree in advance, in writing, who carries which cost and how they are reimbursed from the estate once it is distributed. Families that skip this step create a second dispute inside the first one, because the relative who paid for everything for two years expects recognition and the others remember the arrangement differently. Keep receipts, keep a running ledger, and share it with everyone entitled rather than producing it at the end.
| Situation | Route | What makes it slow |
|---|---|---|
| Valid will, willing executor | Grant of probate | Missing original will; an executor who has died or declined |
| No will | Letters of administration | Disagreement over who applies; undisclosed dependants |
| Land involved | Grant, then transfer of title | A title that never moved after a previous death in the family |
| Business interest involved | Grant, then transfer under the company records | No succession clause; co-owners with competing claims |
Working the checklist in the right order
What to do this month
Build the asset register tonight. Collect the beneficiary nomination forms from your employer, your bank, your SACCO and your insurer this week, and complete them. Book an advocate for the will once the register is done, so the drafting session is short and accurate. Tell your executor where the index lives, and review the whole file once a year and after any birth, marriage, separation or property purchase.
What to stop doing
Stop relying on verbal promises, stop leaving titles in a dead relative's name, and stop treating the will as a task for later life. Estates are not settled by good intentions. And to build the small reserve that pays for the drafting and the filings without touching the household budget, open a free account on I am Beezy and route the first shillings straight into the paperwork fund.
