Estate Planning for High-Net-Worth Individuals in South Africa: A Specialist’s Guide

By Roy Bregman, admitted attorney since 1974 · Bregman Moodley Attorneys Inc

For South Africans with significant wealth — whether in property, business interests, investments, or a combination — estate planning is not a single document. It is an ongoing, multidisciplinary strategy that must be revisited as your circumstances evolve. The stakes are high: without proper planning, a substantial proportion of a large estate may pass to SARS rather than to your family.

Having administered some of Johannesburg’s most complex deceased estates — multi-million rand portfolios encompassing commercial property, private business interests, trusts, and offshore assets — I want to share the framework that guides our approach to estate planning for high-net-worth clients.

The Three Pillars of a High-Net-Worth Estate Plan

Pillar 1: Asset Protection During Your Lifetime

The first question is not what happens when you die, but how your assets are held right now. Assets held in your personal name are exposed to creditors, litigation risk, and estate duty. Assets held in a properly structured discretionary living trust are, in general, protected. The trust owns the assets — not you — so they do not form part of your deceased estate and do not attract executor’s fees or estate duty.

Trust planning requires specialist legal and tax advice. A trust that is not properly structured — or that is treated as an alter ego by SARS — will be disregarded. We work with specialist trust practitioners to ensure structures are legally sound and SARS-compliant.

Pillar 2: Succession Planning — Who Gets What, When, and How

For complex estates, a will is the end of the succession document, not the beginning. The real work lies in deciding how the estate is structured before death: which assets go into trust, which go directly to heirs, and how business succession is managed. Specific questions that require bespoke structuring include:

• How does your business interest pass — to family members who run it, or to a co-shareholder under a buy-and-sell agreement?
• Do you have children from multiple marriages, and how do you provide for competing claims fairly?
• Do your heirs have the financial maturity to inherit a large estate outright, or does a testamentary trust provide better protection?
• Are there offshore assets — property, bank accounts, foreign pension rights — that require separate succession instruments in each jurisdiction?

Pillar 3: Estate Liquidity — Can Your Estate Pay Its Own Costs?

This is the pillar most often neglected. Estate duty, executor’s fees, CGT on death, and transfer costs can consume a significant portion of an estate. If those funds are not available in liquid form, your executor may be forced to sell assets — potentially at unfavourable prices, on a fixed timeline, without the ability to wait for better market conditions. A commercial property portfolio or a business interest cannot be easily liquidated in a hurry.

Life insurance — properly structured and held outside the dutiable estate where possible — provides the liquidity your estate needs without distressing asset sales. We model your estate’s likely liquidity position and identify gaps that need to be addressed during your lifetime.

Offshore Assets: An Increasingly Common Complexity

Many South Africans have acquired property in the United Kingdom, Portugal, Mauritius, or elsewhere. A South African will does not govern foreign property — each jurisdiction has its own succession law, and many require a local will or a grant of probate in that country. Failure to plan for this can mean that offshore assets are administered separately, at additional cost, with potential succession outcomes that differ from your South African will. We advise on the interface between South African estate law and foreign jurisdictions and co-ordinate with local advisors abroad where necessary.

Business Succession: The Most Complex Challenge

For business owners, the estate planning question is inseparable from the business succession question. Who will run the business after your death? How is the value of your business interest realised for your estate? A buy-and-sell agreement — typically funded by life assurance policies held cross-wise between business partners — allows a surviving partner to buy out the deceased partner’s estate at a pre-agreed value, funded by insurance proceeds. Without such an arrangement, the executor of your estate may find themselves as an involuntary joint business owner alongside your former partners — a situation that serves no one well.

When Should You Review Your Estate Plan?

At minimum, every three years, and whenever any of the following occur: a material change in asset values, a change in SARS rates or legislation, a marriage or divorce, a change in the composition of your business or trust, the birth or death of a beneficiary, or the acquisition of offshore assets. Estate planning is not a one-time event.