My Wife and I are planning on buying our first house. We found a property that has a main house and 3 apartments with existing tenants. I've spoken to the tentants and they wish to stay on.

Currently the rental income is double what the house mortage would be so I want to use the excess to improve upon the property, TLC things like repainting the house, installing seperate geysers for tentants, ect.

The two main concerns I have and need advise on is the following:

The houseplans are outdated and the owner doesn't want to update them. He just wants to get rid of the house as part of a divorce and split it with his ex-wife. All property costs are up to date. House has been paid in full and the property tax is up to date. I am just worried about the house plans. The owner brought the house price down a notch to compensate for this. I just want to know if this will affect the bank application in any way

My Second question is in regards to how I should go about the house. This is our first house, but the additional income from the rental income, while nice to pay for the mortage and insurance. It will bump my wife and I into a much higher tax bracket. Is there a way to mitigate this? I was thinking to put the house in a trust, but I am worried the cost of a trust will be much higher than what I am saving. Another solution that was suggested to me was to put the house in a bussiness name. Not sure if this is viable or not, so would just like some advise in this regards.

​

I am currently at the final stages of completing my late mother's estate and I am the executor of her estate. The only thing holding us back is ABSA. All creditors and outstanding debts have been paid. Basically the only thing left is getting bank documents from ABSA and having the monies from her various accounts transferred in the estate account.

We started this process in January of 2025. Despite messages and calls from both the attorneys and myself, nothing has really changed.

Has anyone had a similar experience and if so how did you go about it?

Hi everyone. I have a few hundred Naspers shares and have held them for a very long time. Unfortunately. I have now been diagnosed with a terminal health condition. My question is: Do I sell them all and  move the cash to my spouse or do I transfer them to her?

I have looked at the transfer option and quite frankly I don’t have the energy for the paperwork that will be involved.

Any thoughts? Many thanks. 

Hi folks, hope you are all doing good.

I just want to know what happens to one's TFSA in the event that they pass away.

Is it possible to to have beneficiaries for one's TFSA?

Hi all,

I will be a first-time home seller in ZA the home will be sold as part of my mother's estate.

I would like any advice, tips and resources to put myself in as much of an educated position as possible.

I am especially looking for advice on tactics lawyers and real estate agents use to maximise their profits or to otherwise dupe novice sellers. Basically I want to avoid falling victim to any skullduggery.

TIA

Not sure if this is the right place to ask. Please let me know if it must be removed.

With making out the last will and testament, is it better to go with a lawyer or someone like Sanlam Legacy (estate preservation) ? The Masters of the court took 23 months to give an LOE for someone in our family so I'm aware from that side it takes long. But the process that has to be handled by an executor, who is the better option to handle the rest?

Ok so the general consensus is the big banks are disasters when appointed as deceased estate executors with major delays, poor service, little feedback and generally a terrible experience.

My moms estate is reasonably large and while I read many good reviews of small attorney firms offering great estate execturoship, I simply can't risk fraud or businesses continuity failing over the long term. Neither of the kids want to be an executor during such a difficult time if she had to pass.

So I really would just love to entrust this responsibility to a large, reputable and well known financial or law firm that will actually do their job efficiently and effectively.

Does anyone have any positive personal experiences with the bigger players offering estate planning and execution? I can't find any real feedback on any of them:

Discovery wills and trust

Momentum Trust

Sanlam Trust

Werksmans

Cliff Decker Hofmeyer

Investec Estate planning

Webber Wentzel

Bowmans

Hi all. My father recently passed away without a will. This means my brother and I are the heirs.

We say the lawyers yesterday and when we asked them about the possibility of 2 co-executors instead of one, he said the act/law doesn't allow that.

1. Is that true and if so can I get suggestions on whether it'll be smart to the set up terms of engagement between myself and my brother should one of us be an executor.

Hello .

to cut a long story short , the house was registered under my fathers name who has now passed in 24' and now the proprety is a deceased estate.

My mother is who executor and is in the willl , is the person is next to herit the property howerver , conveyancers are charging about R70k for property transfer.

Should we bite the bullet and do the transfer on a R2 million vaulation home or do we set up an estate and pay whatever costs to set up and run an estate since it's just me and my brother that are left.

Is 3.5 percent of the total property amount + Vat normal for property transfer?

The estate maybe has ~R30k of debt with the bank but we have liquidity for now.

So I’m at that life stage where a will is particularly important… I’ve been trying to find the best company to manage it, but the fees seem criminal to me (taking a % of my retirement money so my wife can get the rest seems… like the FSCA should step in).

Is there anyone who could guide me on the options and any recommendations?

Just a young guy trying to understand the basics of trusts in RSA such as how they're set up, costs, tax implications, how one would go about setting one up and if its even worth it to go through said trouble in setting it up.

I've heard they're used for asset protection (especially when it comes to parents passing down their paid off properties to their children, such as myself) and protecting business assets but don't really get how they work in Rsa and whether if its the same process as other countries...

If anyone has experience with trusts or professional knowledge (or any financial advice regarding them too), I'd reallly appreciate your responses🙏

Hi all we’re a U.S.-based family on Green Card (dual SA/Irish citizens) planning to invest ~R2.5M (cash) to purchase a home in South Africa for my retired parents to live in. We'd also like to use the home ourselves occasionally when visiting SA. We have never been SA Tax Resident and have not spent more than 3-4 weeks/year in SA for the last 20+ years so want to avoid adding SARS or Tax complications. Initially we looked at setting up an SA Trust to shield us but the more research I did the more this looked like way more effort than it was worth. I then was looking at U.S Revocable trust which has some initial setup costs but also adds some complexity to the SA property purchase.

Our goals are:"

• We fund the purchase and maintenance.
• The home is legally owned by us and/or our kids - not gifted to our parents.
• My parents can live in it rent-free for life.
• Avoid triggering:
  • South African donations tax
  • SA estate duty (inheritance tax)
  • Having to do any SARS returns :P

Questions

• Has anyone here purchased foreign real estate via a U.S. trust?
• Are there simpler alternatives that still avoid donations/estate tax?
• Any recommendations on trust platforms or advisors that support this use case?
• What are ongoing compliance/reporting burdens for holding SA property in a U.S. trust?
• How do you handle maintenance/expense payments over time while keeping the structure tax-neutral, do you just send funds to non-resident SA account and pay from there?

I have a tendency to overthink things so this may be way simpler than I think and would love to hear from anyone who’s gone through something similar. Appreciate any advice, war stories, or “here’s what we wish we did differently” wisdom.

TIA!

Hi everyone. I had a long chat with my dad today and he kinda dropped a bomb on us. A good one, but one that makes stuff complicated.

My dad's business really sky-rocketed after my brother and I (34, 31) left school. He wants to help us with our home loans and car loans and stuff by giving us our inheritance early, because he is getting old and doesn't want us to pay a crap load of tax when he dies. He gifted us R50k each this year, because, according to his tax guy, that's the only way to actually give us money tax-free, but he says it's going to take too long to give us everything he has saved up for us if he gifts us "just" R50k a year (which I told him is a lot of money, I don't need more than that)

He wants to start a trust now where me, my brother, my mom, and my dad are trustees, along with a neutral 3rd party law firm that manages it and can handle disputes and whatnot. I know very little about trusts, but from what I've heard from talking to friends and some work colleagues, is that it is always messy. I also don't understand how any of the people in the trust benefit from this? Won't I have to pay personal income tax if I'm withdrawing money from the trust?

I don't want to put my house or car into the trust's name, because that also feels weird. My wife also agrees that mixing family with shared money sounds like drama waiting to happen, which is why I'm asking this sub for advice.

My dad's main concern is that he wants to help us with our current finances before he passes away in like 10 or 15 years, but he wants to do it in a way that is taxed as little as possible.

Both my brother and I have decent jobs, and we are both comfortably paying off our home loans, but it would be great if I could get like a R2 mil injection now to close off the home loan, even if it's not strictly needed.

Any advice would be great, thanks.

A & B are married in COP.

They own a house.

They have two sons, both over the age of 21.

Are there any tax or other financial benefits to them putting the property into a trust now while they are still both alive and owning the property?

Please help. A legal firm was appointed as the executor in my late father's estate. It has been over a year and they have not obtained a certificate of balance for the ABSA Foreign Currency Investment account. Apparently they have to have this for the L&D account and masters office. The Partner from the legal firm has been into the ABSA branch but has been sent in circles. I don't feel the legal firm has done enough considering the remuneration they will receive. However, they are not obligated to act with speed and ABSA is useless. Has anyone had to obtain a certificate of balance at date of death for an ABSA Foreign Currency Investment Account and do you have any contacts I can reach out to for help. The legal firm is dragging their feet earning off the interest on the money they hold.

Let's say that my siblings and I all live outside of SA and want to facilitate buying a house for our parents to live in. This would require bank lending for bond as we don't have enough cash to buy a house.

I thought that maybe a living trust would work, with funds being transferred by the siblings from overseas and the parents being the named beneficiaries of the trust. Would use a company like Investec or Old Mutual to act as the local trustee resident in SA.

Parents could then rent out their existing property for income or to contribute to the new bond repayments.

What other options should I consider?

Sorry if it is a dumb question. Let's say there is a scenario where a parent passes away and they have a house with a home loan that is still being paid off.

What happens then?

Does the bank try to take the house? Is there any pertinent changes in the conditions of the contract? Can the children take over the loan payment?

What are the steps the children need to take when this eventually happens?

This might be a nice problem at have, but I'm not sure what to do... Basically I have a company within a trust type structure in place. I'm fortunate enough that my father owns a property that we wants to transfer into my trust structure while he is still around. The property (approx. 3mil) is being tenanted 22k-ish p/m and is servicing a 400k bond - all through is personal accounts.

He does not want to deal with the management, etc.. so the thinking is to transfer it into the company/trust structure and keep the bond on his name as it currently is (Old interest rate). He will then just have some kind of "drawings" paid out by the company each month to cover the money the was getting directly in any case. So financially nothing major changes for him.

My caveman thinking:

Pros: Some level of protection + no need for future transfers down the line + possible tax advantages for running against expenses + Leverage in the company structure for more investments down the line

Cons: Transfer costs... (Which anyway needs to be paid if I inherit it later I guess).. just not sure if it's just better to sell the property and buy a new one instead to reduce costs, or if the bond can remain in his name then, as there is a policy for it to be paid out if something happens to him (So seemingly no point moving it or paying it off as a long term benefit)

Curious to know what the best move would be here and what makes most financial sense...

Good Day,

I’m going to give a very simple example to clarify my query.

A + B marries in community of property. They buy one immovable property and they are BOTH listed as the owners of said property in the title deed.

Let’s assume no other assets, liquidity and movable property exist, with bonds paid in full and cancelled. And no heirs.

The value of said property total 6mil.

Person A dies, and person B is the surving spouse. Person A in will gives their 50% share to person C. Estate is registered and L&D is drawn up.

Is the 3.5% executor fee calculated on the entire 6 mil or only on persons As 50% share (3 mil)?

Keep in mind person B is the rightful owner of 3mil ALREADY by title deet.

If you say the 6mil please justify, not because that’s how it happened or you expiernced it but legal facts.

Because if person B is now charged on their 3mil too, while alive, you mean to tell me it will be charged again when they are deceased later again and person C too?

Is this not also fraud from the executors, recording a total value 12mil in their books at the end of the day, at least for this specific case?

Please clarify…

How do I go about creating a revocable trust

I’m based in Cape Town so any recommendations would be appreciated

Hi all,

I recently bought a house with my partner which we are splitting payments on. I now want to ensure that should something happen to me, she's at least not homeless and my portion of bond payments can continue / pay her the equivalent lump sum.

I'm wondering if anyone has recommendations for the best possible provider and plan for such a policy. I want to keep costs down and only care about ensuring she isn't homeless or forced to sell in a worst case scenario.

Thank you!

I am a South African woman in her early 30s. I've started at a well paying job 4 months ago and trying to be financially savy. Please help.

A bit of Background. I come from a small family, some of which have questionable character i.e I don't trust them with money. After the passing of my mother, they've done many things that have spelt out the extent of our "family bond." I am yet to have children and I want to lay the foundation that won't allow history to repeat itself with my offspring.

In the upcoming months I'm looking into buying property which will cost min R5mil. I also understand that I need to get life cover match my property value.

What I want: 1 open a fund (please suggest) 2 have the beneficiary of the life insurance be the fund 3 put the property in the name of the fund 4 put clauses in place that the property cannot be sold until my youngest is 30 years old (maybe more clauses).

Please suggest what I can put into place to meet my needs.

Hello,

I was wondering what's the best way to transfer ownership of a house and minimize expenses. The house is worth about R5m, fully paid off.

We were considering these 3 scenarios: 1. My mom adds me as a co-owner to the title, if possible. Then she eventually removes herself from co-owning the title. 2. My mom formalizes a trust document to pass the title of the house to me as inheritance after her death, and try to minimize transfer fees that way 3. My mom gifts the house to me.

How much in transfer costs should I expect to pay, and what's the best option out of these 3? The house is in Wynberg.

Should I let my will be set up by my bank, lawyer or broker? What are the pros and cons of these options?

Apartment costs : <800k (no trans duty)
Cash or bond : Bond

I have signed OTP a few week ago and I have received FICA documents request from both parties (Bank and Transfer Attorneys). Additionally, I have received invoice from the Bank Registration Attorney which was apprx 25k which I will be paying within 3 days I guess.

My question is around the other costs (Transfer attorneys) they have shared their request for FICA documents request which is great! I would like to understand when can i expect them to send their invoice and how long do I have to pay for the transfer costs.

Thank you in advance for your comments