Estate Planning: Expert Advice on How to Manage your Estate and Will

Описание: Make the whole estate planning process painless and cost efficient. Get expert advice and answers to your estate planning questions from an accredited financial adviser, visit: https://www.oldmutual.co.za/personal/... or call 0860 60 60 60.

What exactly are estate duties and how are they calculated? When are these duties payable and what is the current rate?

In this short, informative video, Shakira Bodasing, a Senior Legal Advisor at Old Mutual, answers these questions and unpacks some of the legalese and complex jargon surrounding estate planning. Watch it to gain an understanding of the key elements of estate planning.

When you prepare your Last Will and Testament, and as you plan how you want your estate to be structured and distributed among your dependents after your death, you will need answers to many legal questions, particularly on the issue of estate duties.

Estate duty is the tax payable upon the death of South African taxpayer. Bodasing stresses the importance of understanding what they include and how they are calculated.

WHAT YOUR ESTATE INCLUDES
At death, your estate can be subject to Estate Duty. Your estate will include all your moveable property such as vehicles, furniture, jewellery, savings and investments, and immoveable property such as your Primary Residence or homes both inside and outside South Africa. It also includes “property that is deemed to be property”.

“Property that is deemed to be property” refers to benefits that are triggered by your death, such as life insurance policies on your life.

VALUE OF AN ACCREDITED FINANCIAL ADVISER
A qualified accredited Financial Adviser in consultation with their Client Facing Legal Advisor can help you establish your Estate Duty liability (in other words, what you owe SARS in taxes on your estate) and draw up a tax efficient estate plan with you. To do this, they will consult with you and ask you to disclose your full financial portfolio, including all your assets and liabilities, and benefits such as your life insurance.

REVIEW OF YOUR LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT
Your Financial Adviser will also analyse and review your Last Will and Testament. Your Will plays an important role in your estate planning, guiding the actual estate plan, explains Bodasing.

“The estate plan ensures that your family will be adequately taken care of, from a financial point of view, when you are no longer around,” she says.

Bodasing also points out that your beneficiary nominations can have an impact on the estate duties payable, which makes it vitally important to regularly check and update the wishes and instructions you outline in your Last Will and Testament.

ESTATE DUTY RATES
Current (2022) Estate Duty rates are levied on the dutiable value of the estate at a rate of 20% on the first R30 million, and 25% on the dutiable value of the estate above R30 million.