Discovery Wills and Trust Ecosystem Qorus-NTT DATA Innovation in Insurance Awards 2026

The Discovery Wills and Trust Ecosystem developed by Discovery Life in partnership with Discovery Wills and Trust Services and Discovery Bank redefines estate planning.

In South Africa, more than 85% of individuals do not have a valid Will. At death, families face frozen bank accounts, executor fees of up to 3.5% of the value of the estate + VAT, estate duty of up to 25%, and administrative delays that can last months. Estate planning is traditionally reactive, manual, emotionally avoided, and disconnected from financial protection.

Discovery’s innovation addresses this systemic societal gap by:

• Digitising the Will drafting and onboarding journey

• Embedding fiduciary services directly into a financial services ecosystem

• Indemnifying estate administration costs

• Providing immediate liquidity within 48 hours of death

• Incentivising proactive estate planning through behavioural rewards

• Positioning financial advisers at the centre of the journey

Ultimately creating a new estate planning operating model ensuring improved client and dependent outcomes, as well as improved financial adviser relationships and ongoing financial planning.

The full model is underpinned by the integration and success of various innovations outlined below:

From Legal Document to Living Ecosystem

Traditionally, a Will is a static legal instrument. Discovery has transformed it into a dynamic financial planning ecosystem that integrates:

• Digital Will drafting (including bespoke and offshore structures)

• Digital access points to the journey via adviser referrals as well as through the Discovery Bank app.

• Secure storage

• Executor and trustee nomination

• Estate administration

• The estate cost insurance products (fee indemnity + liquidity benefits)

• Enhanced CRM platform integration

• Bank app engagement, introducing estate planning to the most highly engaged segment of the Discovery customer base

• Behavioural rewards via Vitality Money, Discovery’s financial wellness behavioural change programme.

No other provider in the South African market integrates legal services, fiduciary administration, insurance risk protection, digital onboarding, banking engagement and behavioural incentives into a single coordinated ecosystem.

Behavioural Science Applied to Estate Planning

Discovery extends its globally recognised Shared-value model into estate planning. Clients are rewarded for drafting and storing a Will, turning avoidance of a difficult conversation into action. The rewards come in the form of both return of premiums where there is a linked insurance product, as well as through improvement of Bank status levels, resulting in greater rewards from retail partners and increased savings and decreased credit interest rates.

This represents a fundamental behavioural shift:

• Estate planning becomes proactive and positively managed.

• Financial responsibility is rewarded.

• Healthy financial behaviours are embedded into everyday digital engagement.

The model demonstrates how behavioural economics can be applied beyond health insurance and into financial and legacy planning.

Structural Innovation in Risk Protection

The enhanced Discovery Estate Preserver, providing estate cost protection, introduces:

• Fee Indemnity Benefits covering executor, conveyancing (property transfer) and testamentary trust fees.

• Immediate Liquidity Benefits paid within 48 hours, ensuring clients’ families have sufficient liquidity during a difficult period.

• Contribution Protector benefits, funding the family’s health and other policies to maintain financial protection during estate administration.

• Optional estate duty planning on second death.

By indemnifying fiduciary costs directly linked to the nominated executor structure, Discovery tightly aligns service and protection resulting in integration optimising client-value.

Adviser-Centric Platform Design

Recognising the key role of a trusted partner in financial planning and especially legacy planning, Discovery’s estate planning ecosystem was intentionally designed around financial advisers as partners to clients and the business alike.

Advisers can:

• Fully onboard clients digitally via Adviser 360.

• Refer clients to testamentary specialists.

• Receive new protection opportunities identified during the Will drafting process.

• Access estate planning calculators and digital lead dashboards.

This turns estate planning from a compliance conversation into a revenue-generating, client-deepening engagement platform.

Impact

Societal Impact:

• Addresses a national Will gap affecting the majority of adults.

• Reduces financial shocks at death.

• Improves liquidity outcomes for grieving families.

• Reduces conflict risk through professional estate structuring.

• Encourages disciplined financial behaviour.

This moves estate planning from an elite legal service to an accessible, digitally enabled financial health solution.

Clients benefit from:

• Seamless digital onboarding.

• Optical Character Recognition (OCR) verified Will execution.

• Mobile access to estate documents.

• Immediate liquidity when bank accounts are frozen.

• Reduced out-of-pocket fiduciary costs.

• Financial rewards for responsible planning.

This transforms one of life’s most stressful events into a managed, predictable financial process.

For financial advisers, the ecosystem creates:

• New income streams.

• Stronger client relationships and retention.

• Cross-line opportunity identification.

• Higher engagement through integrated insights.

• Estate planning becomes a catalyst for holistic financial advice.

For Discovery, the initiative:

• Deepens ecosystem integration across Life, Bank, Health and Invest.

• Strengthens brand positioning as a shared-value innovator.

• Enhances digital platform engagement across both adviser and client channels.

• Expands fiduciary revenue streams.

• Increases persistency through multi-product integration.

Universality and Global Scalability

The Discovery Wills and Trust Ecosystem is highly transferable across international markets because it addresses universal estate planning challenges:

• Low Will penetration.

• Estate administration costs.

• Delays in executor appointment.

• Frozen assets at death.

• Emotional avoidance of planning.

• Fragmentation between legal and financial services.

While estate regulations differ across jurisdictions, the model’s architecture is globally adaptable:

• Digital Will onboarding and storage.

• Integrated fiduciary services.

• Cost indemnification structures.

• Immediate liquidity protection.

• Behavioural reward mechanisms.

• Adviser-led engagement.

• Cross-platform financial integration.

Discovery’s shared-value behavioural reward layer presents a valuable opportunity within existing partner markets, given the complexity associated with establishing such a presence.