Appleton Managing Director, Lauren Hean, reminds us that your marital status affects your Will & your Estate
Warwick Wealth has selected Appleton to provide fiduciary services to its valued clients. This month, Appleton Managing Director, Lauren Hean, provides insights into the importance of documentation regarding current and previous marriages on death.
In South Africa when reporting a deceased estate to the Master of the High Court (“the Master”), documentation must be provided for your current marriage and each previous marriage.
For your present marriage, your marriage certificate and if applicable, your Antenuptial Contract is required to be lodged with the Master.
To get remarried, you only need to provide the final divorce decree from your previous marriage to prove you are legally single. However, on death, should you have been divorced, one or more times or widowed, documentation for each is required.
In the case of divorce, your divorce order and settlement agreement for all prior marriages is required and if widowed, a copy of the Will and Liquidation and Distribution Account from your predeceased spouse’s estate is required. The Master of the High Court insists on this and it can cause unnecessary delays if the documentation is not available.
Divorce orders and settlement agreements are crucial on death in South Africa to ensure that obligations like spousal and child maintenance continue and are legally binding on the deceased’s estate. These agreements legally bind the parties’ estates to the terms agreed upon in the divorce, providing a basis for a former spouse or dependent children to claim from the estate for maintenance.
Should you not have documentation from your predeceased spouse’s estate, it is helpful to have the information of the executor who dealt with the administration of the estate or file number and which Master’s office had oversight thereof.
We encourage our clients, when entrusting us with their Wills, to provide copies of these documents to be kept with their Wills so in the event of their death, the documentation is readily available. We always encourage that each of our clients prepares a life file, and these documents are noted as an important part of this file.
Should you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact Appleton or your Wealth Advisor for further assistance.
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