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We meet with a number of clients annually to sign off their annual financial statements and taxes. In this meeting we usually ask, “Have you got a Will?” Mr and Mrs Client then often look at each other and turn to us saying, “Do we need one? We’re both still young.”
Mr and Mrs Client listen to us tell them how important it is to have a Will in order to deal with the unfortunate untimely death of one partner before the other. Given the green-light, we advise them about good, effective Estate planning and discuss the tax consequences and related laws that must be considered in order to arrive at their Last Will and Testament. After tying up a few loose ends, the Will is signed with the client having peace of mind that, should an untimely death occur, their personal Estate will be dealt with according to their wishes. At this stage, all is good on paper.
Many practical aspects are, however, overlooked by spouses before death. This creates issues for the surviving spouse after the sad passing of their loved one. When the phone rings, and an anxious, grieving surviving Mrs Client asks if we can figure out how to open the safe or do we know anything about a Mr Yang phoning from Japan, only to discover later that there are investments the deceased owned that no one knew about. Or we hear questions such as:
“So my late husband had this trust, how does it work?”
“Where did this money come from?”
“What do I need to do?”
“I’m receiving final demands for accounts abroad that my late wife incurred whilst on business that I had no idea about...”
Dealing with the death of a loved one is stressful enough without being overwhelmed with administrative functions that surviving spouses have no idea about dealing with, due to ill communication.
There was once a generation that left everything to the man. Truth be told, most woman outlive their husbands and have a traumatic experience dealing with all the necessary admin after death.
Though we, as professionals, carry out the functions as set out in the Administration of Estates Act 66 of 1965 Section 26, we are also at times required to act beyond the call of duty for a client. But how do we deal with practicalities faced subsequent to the death of the first dying spouse that the Act does not give guidance on? We simply do.
Like taxes, death is guaranteed but many people avoid talking about the latter. How does one fill the gap to make the transition easier? As professionals we can assist in this area by providing an independent approach to dealing with post death events.
Questions that should be asked by you as the future executor and also between the spouses themselves include:
- Who is the family financial adviser?
- Where are important documents such as title deeds, agreements, etc., kept?
- Who to contact to retrieve them?
- Where to find keys/passwords to access these items?
Some practical steps that can be taken by each spouse include:
- List of debit order or contractual payments, such as Cell phone contracts, DSTV and even the newspaper delivery service, in instances where an account isn’t always sent.
- Ensuring the surviving spouse has sufficient funds set aside to help with day to day expenses for at least 3 months whilst the Estate is registered and Estate banking account opened.
- Medical aid contacts to ensure the medical expenses have been submitted if the doctors are not aware or in case the death occurs away from home. Also to consider is the transfer of medical aid to cover the surviving family after death.
- Pension Fund Administrator’s contact details to have the pension benefits transferred.
- Even the issue of whether to cremate or bury the deceased, if not covered in the Will, should be documented along with steps to take at death.
Applying simple steps that are practical will allow the surviving spouse a lighter load. At the same time, the Executor will be given enough information for the registration of the Estate with the Master and to act in a quicker and more efficient manner by being able to contact all the parties concerned, rather than having any nasty surprises during the winding up process that could cause unnecessary delays and stress.
