On the event of the demise of an individual, the deceased estate must be administered and wound up. An estate in excess of R250 000.00 will require a formal winding up process which is a laborious, time-consuming and costly exercise.

iProtect has extensive experience in estate planning in order to avoid the inevitable administration, legal and tax ramifications of your passing

The solution is counter intuitive but effective. You must own nothing, ZERO, which is contrary to what we are traditionally taught. This will become evident as we canvas the issues that arise from one’s passing.

The first major issue to consider is the freezing of one’s estate on your death. In essence any dependants or loved ones are unable to access any cash or assets until the estate has been wound up. This exercise can take approximately a year or longer. The thought of your heirs not having access for that period of time is dastardly.

Solution, if you have no assets there is nothing to freeze. Enter iProtect structures to hold your assets instead of you and avoid this.

The next major challenge is how your children will benefit from your estate. In our law persons under the age of 18 cannot directly inherit and this can be a severe blow to how your children are to be maintained. Another concern is children who are over 18 but not financially mature or responsible. They may well squander your hard earned assets.

Enter iProtect structures to hold your assets instead of you and ensure assets or benefits flow to your loved ones in a managed fashion. We now look at the tax and financial ramifications, being capital gains taxes, executor’s fees and estate duties. On your demise, any assets that have appreciated since 2001 to the date of your death will attract tax at a maximum rate of 18%.

Enter iProtect structures that ensure you own ZERO, 18% of zero makes sense. As stated above, your estate must be administered and an Executor is legally entitled to levy a fee of 3.5% (plus VAT if they are a vendor, being 4.025%). This fee is on the gross value of your estate. Yes, the gross value, not the net value! Further, the Executor can raise a fee of 6% on income earned by the deceased estate.

Enter iProtect structures to ensure you own nothing, thus avoiding these costs. iProtect have pioneered a 0% executor’s fee if you nominate us to administer your estate. Either way, zero executor’s fees must be the desired result. Lastly, and to rub salt in the proverbial wound, your estate will be liable for estate duty of 20% if your estate exceeds R3.5 million and 25% of any net estate in excess of R30 million.

Enter iProtect structures to ensure you own nothing thereby avoiding these harsh duties. In our experience between 20-45% of an estate can be consumed by capital gains taxes, executor’s fees and duties and in many instances assets must be sold to pay these fees, taxes and duties. We all want all of our hard-earned efforts to flow to our chosen ones instead of parting with a major portion of their wealth.

The fact is we are mortal and not taking action will result in major consequences. We have the solutions.