Have you been through any of the following life changes recently? Divorce? Marriage? Lost a loved one? Had a baby? Bought or sold a house? Changed jobs? Retired? Changing circumstances may have negative effects on the outcome of your Will. In order to prevent unnecessary heartache caused by an outdated Will, you need to review your Will regularly to make sure that the legal, tax and practical implications are in line with your current situation and intentions. Our Will service includes: Drawing up your Will taking into account your unique circumstances and all relevant legislation, tax, and practical implications; Our Will service includes: Drawing up your Will taking into account your unique circumstances and all relevant legislation, tax, and practical implications; Drawing up your Will taking into account your unique circumstances and all relevant legislation, tax, and practical implications; Free safe keeping of your original Will to ensure the Will is readily available at the right time; Annual Will review to ensure your Will stays relevant to your changing circumstances; Access to our Online Will System. Contact us to assist you with the drafting or review of your...
The law requires all trustees to act independently and impartially. In most family trust setups the founder, trustees, and beneficiaries are all related to one another and act in more than one capacity (being a beneficiary and trustee). In a setup like this, it can be very difficult for the trustees to act independently and impartially. This can defeat the purpose of the establishment of the trust and can leave the trust open to an attack as a sham or an invalid trust. In order to reduce the risk of trust assets being regarded as your personal assets, and leaving them exposed to 3rd parties, it is crucial to appoint an independent trustee. Most Masters of the High Court now also require the appointment of an independent trustee in addition to the trustees who are beneficiaries of the trust. An independent trustee will be a person who is not related to the founder, trustees or beneficiaries, and who derives no benefit from the trust assets. The independent trustee plays a crucial role in ensuring better management and administration of the trust. The most important benefits of appointing an independent trustee are that it ensures the following: objectivity to how the trustees deal with trust assets; compliance with the provisions of the trust deed and statutory requirements; all trust beneficiaries are treated fairly; conducting proper trustee meetings; recording minutes of all meetings and major decisions by the trustees For any advice on trusts, please contact us – or...
WHEN THERE WAS A SECOND MARRIAGE Can the inheritance of children from the first marriage be protected? By Hein Klokow, Estate Specialist The question is sometimes asked: Can a spouse from a second marriage walk away with all the assets from your estate, even though you have bequeathed everything to your children from the first marriage? In the normal scheme of things, it might happen that a person (the testator) marries again after the death of his first wife. This might cast doubts in the minds of his children. They might wonder what might happen to all the assets that their late mother and testator worked so hard for all their lives. The testator might try to ease their minds by marrying out of community of property, without the right of accrual. He might even go further and make the children his only inheritors in his will. In some cases, it is also the second wife’s second marriage and she usually had already inherited assets from her late husband. The question, however, remains whether the children will remain his exclusive beneficiaries to the exclusion of his new spouse. The answer is No! The new spouse will be acting within her rights in terms of the Maintenance of Surviving Spouse Act if she instigates a claim for maintenance against the estate of the testator. Such a claim might liquidate the estate of the testator so that nothing remains for the other ‘would-be’ beneficiaries. The reason is that all the liabilities in the estate (including the maintenance claim) must be paid out first, and only then will the balance be paid...
The right thing to do? The purpose of the Accrual System is to create fairness between spouses, especially in the old traditional homes where the wife is running the household, allowing her husband to build up wealth and to support the family as a whole. This is accomplished by, on the dissolution of the marriage (by death of divorce), dividing the value of the assets obtained during the marriage in equal shares between them. This means that the husband and wife will share equally in the profits of their marriage. With a financial agreement this fair and equitable between spouses, nothing can go wrong, right? So what went wrong? Unfortunately, the same System that was implemented to create fairness (as seen above), can in some circumstances also have negative consequences that might not be fair to the remaining spouse, for instance where a spouse dies insolvent (assets are less than liabilities). Should your spouse die, leaving behind only liabilities, his estate will have a claim against you, being the surviving spouse, for half a share of your estate value due to the consequences of the accrual system. So in the midst of your grief and shock at the loss of your spouse, you may find that not only do you no longer have a source of income (spouses’ salary), but you will also have to pay in an amount of money to the executor to cover debts that you yourself had not incurred. It may mean that you will have to take out an additional bond on the property or incur further debt to cover estate liabilities. Soon your...
So many South Africans today are living together as man and wife without getting married and this occurrence almost doubles each year. The aim of this article is to look at the rights of a surviving partner at death. Currently in South Africa, there is no law regulating the rights of partners in a common law partnership. This means that you are not automatically seen as the spouse of your partner. The South African courts have on occasion come to the assistance of couples in the form of a universal partnership. This subject does not form part of our discussion today. Inheritance: In terms of the Intestate succession Act (rules applicable when a person dies without having a Will), a partner is not automatically entitled to an inheritance from his or her partner’s estate, no matter how long they have lived together. For a partner to inherit, such partner must be a nominated beneficiary in the last Will of the deceased partner. Estate Duty: For Estate Duty purposes, a permanent life partner who is a nominated beneficiary in the Will of the deceased partner is seen as a spouse and will qualify for the “spousal benefit exemption”. This means that no Estate Duty will be payable on the value of the inheritance received by the surviving partner. Claiming maintenance from the estate: In most cases a surviving partner who is not entitled to inherit from the estate of his or her deceased partner, would like to claim maintenance against the estate. This is normal as both parties contribute to the common household. With the one partner deceased, the financial...
