Estate Planning in Uncertain Times

Estate Planning in Uncertain Times: Ensuring Your Legacy with Duvenage Attorneys

South Africans are living extremely financially stressful lives, making us feel as if planning for the future is pointless. We often think that all we can really do is survive today and live for today.

Most people know that it is important to have a will in place. However, having a will is just one aspect of having a complete estate plan, which will settle your affairs upon your death. Without such a plan, long-lasting and costly consequences may impact your loved ones.

Estate planning considers each individual - the stage in their life, their familial responsibilities, and their wealth base. Comprehensive estate planning is broader than merely drafting a will, as it involves not only planning for your death but also planning for your lifetime. This includes financial planning, health planning, matrimonial property regime planning, income tax planning, and general retirement planning.

Importantly, estate planning is not a one-time event but must be regularly updated, revisited, and amended to suit the changing circumstances in your life.

In difficult economic times, it often happens that many deceased estates do not have the liquidity required to settle the estate’s liabilities, which can burden your dependents who need to fend for themselves in the event of your untimely passing.

Estate liquidity upon your death is an essential and critical element of estate planning. Your estate must make sufficient provision for the payment of various taxes, costs, obligations, and expenses payable when you pass away. A cash shortfall in your estate can have a tremendous negative impact on the amount of cash or assets ultimately available to be distributed to your beneficiaries.

Proper estate planning by experienced experts in the fields of finance, taxes, marriage regimes and their legal consequences, and deceased estate administration is critical to provide certainty when things are most uncertain-upon your passing.

These experts will ensure that your children are protected and cared for, your finances and assets are correctly structured, secured, or protected, and provision is made for the payment of taxes, obligations, and expenses of your estate. This ensures liquidity in your estate to meet its financial obligations, allowing for the distribution of your assets in accordance with your wishes as expressed in your will.

Regardless of your financial position or age, estate planning and the regular review of your will are as vital to protecting and looking after your loved ones after your death as caring for them today while you are still alive.

Therefore, contact our professional team of legal experts at Duvenage Attorneys to assist you, together with your financial adviser, in putting a proper estate plan in place for the benefit of your family and dependents upon your death.