By: Michelle Human: Legal Marketing Consultant at Liberty Life A special trust forms a vital part of any estate plan. Special trusts are used to take care of people who are not able to manage their own finances. These trusts are therefore the ideal vehicle for disabled or mentally handicapped people who are unlikely to [...]
Tag Archives | estate planning
I’m leaving you the apple but eat it slowly – a look at usufructs
By Tanya Jacobs, Estate Planning Specialist, Glacier by Sanlam Estate duty – the satirical culmination of the age old adage of death and taxes. Many have attempted to circumvent payment of this tax through complex and creative structures, such as splitting property between a trust and the surviving spouse. Some of these structures often [...]
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Leaving on a jet plane – offshore guardians
By Tanya Jacobs, Estate Planning Specialist, Glacier by Sanlam The increasingly important matter of offshore guardians with respect to minor children has become a more common subject within the South African context. With this in mind, South Africans find themselves in the position of having to familiarise themselves with different exchange control rules and [...]
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The role of special trusts in financial planning
By: Geraldine Macpherson, Legal Marketing Specialist at Liberty Life (pictured) A special trust is a trust created solely for the benefit of a person who suffers from a mental illness (as defined in The Mental Health Act), or, a person who suffers from any serious physical disability. This is known as a Type A [...]
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Nine points to consider when drawing up your Will
FISA believes that every South African should have a will. If you die without a will, the law of intestate succession is applied to the distributable portion of your estate. Why this may not be satisfactory has been well documented. The issue is not so much whether you should have a will but rather [...]
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Welcome development from Master’s Office
The Chief Master of the High Court has announced that fiduciary practitioners and the public will be able to track trust and estate administration matters online. Speaking at a meeting of the Fiduciary Institute of South Africa (FISA) in Johannesburg, Chief Master Adv Lester Basson said: “Masters’ Offices spend too much time drawing [...]
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Protect your family against frozen bank accounts
Most South Africans are unaware that in the event of death, bank accounts belonging to the deceased are often frozen until the financial affairs of the estate are settled. For the surviving family, who are already dealing with a traumatic loss, this can prove to be especially difficult. According to Chris de [...]
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New ruling to force full disclosure from estate executors
A recent new directive, issued by the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, will force full disclosure on an estates earnings – and stops any unscrupulous executors from earning more than their due! Madelein Marais, a fiduciary services expert at Private Client Holdings (PCH) explains that the Chief Masters Directive 4 of 2011 states [...]
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Do you truly have control over your estate?
When the Maintenance of Surviving Spouse’s Act slipped into law in 1990 it attracted scant attention and the full implications of the legislation were not realised. The provision that a surviving spouse was allowed to claim maintenance from the estate of the deceased spouse was seen as a necessary protection (usually for a wife) whose [...]
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Tax Guide 2012
Latest Issue - 30 April 2012
In This Issue:
- Local and offshore ETFs
- Why stock selection is key
- Medical Survey - the cost of healthcare
- New player in life insurance market
Newsletters
Newsletter 17 May 2012: Lump sum versus debit order, 3 essentials for a confident investor
In today’s newsletter we look at investing with a lump sum or regular contributions – how do they stack up against each other? We also share three investment tips to cope with uncertainty. Being right about muddle-through hasn’t made investing any easier Most predicted that politically and often economically the year 2012 would be a [...]
