Deceased Estate Administration

Save time and money through fast deceased estate administration and planning, handled for you.
Give us the burden of dealing with the master of the high court, SARS, banks and creditors on your behalf.
Receive objective, compassionate advice from people who know the system.
Get the emotional and mental room to breathe during this difficult time

The average estate takes 2 to 3 years to wind up.

We at Makasani & Associates do it in 6-9 months

Estate Planning

Estate planning, involves the strategic arrangement, management, securement, and disposition of a person’s estate to maximize benefits for the individual, their family, and other beneficiaries during their lifetime and after death.

Effective estate planning encompasses both measures implemented during the estate owner’s life and those activated upon their death. Engaging a skilled specialist is crucial to fully benefit from estate planning and to avoid common pitfalls.

Optimal estate planning involves the use of financial and legal structures, such as companies and trusts, to ensure wealth creation benefits heirs. It minimizes costs such as taxes and other expenses, simplifies the transfer of assets to heirs, and reduces complications and uncertainties for family members.

Trusts

Setting up a trust is a key component of estate planning, serving as a financial vehicle to protect assets from potential financial mishaps and ensure their use by beneficiaries.

we offer comprehensive trust services, including establishing new trusts, legal auditing of existing trusts, trust administration, and, in selected cases, serving as impartial trustees.

Our trust administration and management services encompass:

  • Asset and investment management
  • Relationship management between beneficiaries, co-trustees, and intermediaries
  • Compliance with relevant legislation, such as the Trust Property Control Act, Income Tax Act, and Exchange Control Regulations

Trusts provide a secure framework for asset protection and management, ensuring that beneficiaries are well-cared for and assets are safeguarded.

Wills & Testaments

A Will is a written document that outlines how a person’s assets are to be distributed after their death and communicates last instructions to various people and institutions.

Effective succession or estate planning is impossible without a valid Will. Ideally, a Will should be comprehensive yet simple, with clear and unambiguous references to assets and other matters. Any person aged 16 or older can make a Will, provided they understand the nature and effect of their actions. Regularly reviewing a Will ensures it always reflects one’s current circumstances.

Advantages of Having a Will & Testament

  • Avoid Intestate Succession: A Will prevents the application of laws related to intestate succession.
  • Choose Your Heirs: It allows the testator/testatrix to select their heirs.
  • Prescribe Inheritance Conditions: A Will lets you set conditions upon which an asset is to be inherited.
  • Appoint Executors and Trustees: You can designate Executors and Trustees to ensure the smooth transfer and administration of assets.
  • Protect Heir’s Inheritance: Apply safeguards to secure an heir’s inheritance.
  • Avoid Delays: A Will helps avoid lengthy delays in estate administration and asset transfer.

Objectives of a Will

  • Compliance: Ensure the Will complies with relevant legislation.
  • Equitable Distribution: Guarantee that the ultimate distribution of your estate is equitable, practical, and timely.
  • Avoid Conflicts: Eliminate potential conflicts of interest.
  • Minimize Estate Duties: Utilize effective estate planning techniques to minimize estate duties where possible.

A well-drafted Will is essential for efficient estate planning, ensuring your wishes are honored and your loved ones are protected.

Tax Advice

Navigating the complexities of fiduciary tax can be challenging, but Makasani & Associates is here to help. Our team provides expert guidance to ensure you comply with fiduciary tax requirements and take advantage of tax benefits related to your fiduciary constituents.

With our extensive expertise in fiduciary services and tax practices, we offer tailored advice on the correct procedures for managing tax-related matters for your estates, trusts, and wills.

Our Fiduciary Tax Services Include:

  • Estate Duty: Comprehensive advice on managing and minimizing estate duty.
  • Donations Tax: Strategies for understanding and benefiting from donations tax.
  • Capital Gains Tax: Efficient handling of capital gains tax to optimize your tax position.
  • Transfer Duty: Guidance on fulfilling transfer duty obligations and leveraging associated benefits.

Rely on Makasani & Associates for professional and precise tax advice, ensuring your fiduciary responsibilities are met with excellence and your tax liabilities are minimized.

15 steps to administering a deceased estate

The winding-up process can be lengthy, cumbersome, and bureaucratic. Being unprepared for the practical realities of death can make the winding up of a loved one’s estate even more traumatic. The winding-up process can be lengthy, cumbersome, and bureaucratic – worsened by load shedding as systems take time to reboot. Thankfully, all estates follow the same winding-up process, which means that there is a large amount of consistency when it comes to estate administration. Generally speaking, the winding up process follows this pattern:

Step 1: Reporting the death

In terms of the Births and Registration Act, a person’s death must be reported to the Department of Home Affairs, which will then issue a death certificate. In practice, the funeral parlour will report the death on your behalf and then provide you with the death certificate. However, it is important to ensure that you provide the correct details to Home Affairs, as any errors on the death certificate can cause unnecessary delays. The executor will not be able to register the estate with the Master’s Office without a correct death certificate.

Following your loved one’s death, you will need to locate their will. If you do not know the location of the will, it is advisable to contact your loved one’s bank, attorney, financial advisor or investment house. Besides being an important document in terms of the distribution of your loved one’s assets, it also provides details of who your loved one has nominated as executor of their estate. Once you’ve established who the executor is, you will need to notify that person of the death.

The executor’s first job is to notify the Master of your loved one’s death by submitting a J94 death notice. It is important to note that all documents required for the winding up of a person’s estate are available on the Department of Justice’s website. The death notice needs to be completed by the deceased’s surviving spouse, nearest blood relative, or the person who identified the deceased and should be submitted within 14 days of death. If the deceased was living in South Africa, their estate must be reported to the Master whose jurisdiction the deceased was living in 12 months prior to their death. If the deceased was not residing in South Africa at the time of their death but held assets in this country, then their death can be reported to any Master’s Office, provided that it is only reported to one.

The next function of the executor is to arrange a preliminary meeting with the deceased’s loved ones, with the primary purpose of this meeting being to check the will, establish who the beneficiaries are, and prepare a rough inventory of the deceased’s assets and liabilities. In preparing for this preliminary meeting, it will help to make copies of the deceased’s bank account details, title deeds, insurance policies, and birth and marriage certificates.

Up until this stage, the executor is still the nominated executor in terms of the will, and to have this position formalised, they will need to apply to the Master of the High Court to be appointed as executor. To do this, the Master must first ensure that the will is valid and that the executor can be appointed. Where the value of the estate is greater than R250 000, and if the Master is satisfied that the will is valid, the Master will issue Letters of Executorship to confirm the executor’s mandate. Where the value of the deceased estate is less than R250 000, the Master can dispense with the need for an executor and give directions as to how the estate should be wound up. If the will is found to be invalid, then the deceased’s estate must be wound up in terms of the laws of intestate succession. In such an instance, the Master will appoint an Executor Dative to the deceased estate.

If the estate has cash of more than R1 000, the executor is required to open a bank account in the name of the deceased and deposit all monies into that account.

The executor is also required to report the deceased estate to Sars and to ensure that all tax liabilities are brought up to date. In doing so, they are required to submit tax returns and pay any capital gains tax that is owed.

In order to wind up the estate, the executor will need a number of documents. Other than the death notice and death certificate, the executor will require the deceased’s ID document, certified copies of the ID documents of all heirs who stand to inherit, the original signed will, marriage certificates, ante-nuptial contracts, birth certificate, divorce orders, and maintenance agreements. If the deceased has heirs who reside overseas, obtaining certified copies of their ID documents can cause delays in the process.

The executor is then required to advertise the deceased estate so that any potential creditors can register their claims. To do this, the executor will need to place a Section 29 advert in the local newspaper and government gazette in the area where the deceased resided prior to their death. Generally speaking, if you contact your local newspaper, they will send you the relevant forms to complete and will forward the advert to be published in the government gazette. Once the advert is published, creditors have 30 days in which to lodge claims against the estate.

After the expiration of this 30-day period, the executor must prepare a liquidation and distribution account, also known as the L&D account, which is a complete list of all the assets and liabilities of the deceased estate. It must also include the names of the beneficiaries, what their respective inheritance is in terms of the will, as well as the income and expenditure incurred by the deceased estate. The Master requires that the executor files the L&D account within six months of the date of death although they can request an extension if necessary.

Once finalised, the executor must lodge the L&D account with the Master, where it must lie for 15 days to allow for queries. The executor is required to respond to any queries that the Master has on the accounts and, once satisfied, the Master will give permission for the L&D account to be advertised.

The executor is then required to place a Section 35 advert in the local newspaper and government gazette announcing that the L&D account will lie open for inspection at the Magistrate’s Court for a period of 21 days. If no objections are received, the Magistrate will issue a certificate of no objection which, once lodged with the Master’s Office, will mean that the executor can distribute the estate.

Before distributing assets to the beneficiaries, the executor must obtain a release from the receiver of revenue confirming that all outstanding taxes have been paid.

All liabilities in the estate must be paid before the estate can be distributed amongst its heirs, including any amount owing to Sars in respect of estate duty, and any amounts owing to the estate’s creditors. The executor is entitled to charge a prescribed fee of no more than 3.5% of the gross value of the estate, excluding Vat. The executor is also entitled to a fee of 6% of any income, such as dividends, rent or interest, that they collect on behalf of the deceased estate.

Once all liabilities have been settled, the executor can distribute the assets either by transferring them into the name of the heirs, or by realising the property and paying out the proceeds in terms of the will. They must ensure that fixed property is transferred into the names of the nominated beneficiaries, keeping in mind that no transfer duty is payable on inherited property, although the conveyancing fees will be paid by the estate. Once the heirs have received their inheritance, they are required to sign an acquittance as verification of receipt.

At this point, the executor can apply to the Master for a discharge from all responsibilities as the executor and, if satisfied, the Master will issue a filing slip and discharge certificate.

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