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A will reflects the testator’s wishes at the moment it was signed, but it cannot always anticipate what will actually work best for the people left behind. A testator might leave the family home and a share portfolio to two different children in roughly equal value, only for one child to have no interest in...
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Many South African families assume that once a loved one has passed away, their tax affairs simply come to an end along with everything else. In reality, the South African Revenue Service remains one of the most important parties an executor has to deal with, and an estate cannot be finalised or distributed to beneficiaries...
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Losing a loved one is hard enough without watching their estate sit unresolved for months, or even years, longer than it should. South African deceased estate administration is governed primarily by the Administration of Estates Act 66 of 1965, and while the Act sets out a clear process, almost every delay families experience in practice...
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Most South Africans believe their will controls what happens to everything they own when they die. For life insurance policies and retirement fund savings, this is often not true at all. These assets are frequently governed by a separate, far less visible document: the beneficiary nomination form completed when the policy or fund membership began,...
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Most people assume that if they die without a will, their closest relatives will simply inherit everything. In the vast majority of cases, that’s true. South African law has a clear order of succession for anyone who dies intestate (without a valid will), and it covers spouses, children, parents, siblings and increasingly distant relatives before...
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Most South Africans now hold at least part of their wealth in a form that cannot be touched, photographed, or found by simply searching a home. Online banking profiles, cryptocurrency wallets, cloud storage accounts, digital businesses, and social media pages all form part of a person’s digital footprint, and increasingly, part of their estate. Yet...
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South African families look different today than they did a generation ago. Second marriages, stepchildren, half-siblings and children from more than one relationship are now the norm rather than the exception. Yet most wills in South Africa are still drafted as if every family consists of one marriage and one set of children. That mismatch...
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Most South Africans choose between a sectional title unit and a freehold property based on price, security, and lifestyle. Almost no one chooses based on how each ownership type will affect their estate one day. That is a mistake, because sectional title and freehold properties are treated differently when an owner dies, and the difference...
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When a joint bank account holder dies, the surviving holder often assumes the account is now simply theirs. It has both their names on it, they have always been able to draw on it freely, and there is no reason to think anything changes. In practice, that assumption causes real financial strain at exactly the...
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A maintenance order feels permanent while it is being paid every month. It has a court’s authority behind it, a case number, and a payer who has (hopefully) been reliably meeting it for years. So when that paying parent dies, the recipient is often left with an urgent and confusing question: does the maintenance simply...
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