Deceased Estates in Cape Town

Cape Town

Address

Dullah Omar Building, 45 Castle Street, Cape Town

Phone

021 832 3000

Province

Western Cape

Verified 15 August 2026 against the Department of Justice. Phone before you travel - these details do change.

What tends to hold estates up in Cape Town

• The Cape Town office covers the Western Cape. Estates for people who lived in the Eastern Cape go to Makhanda, Gqeberha, Mthatha or Bhisho depending on the district, even where the family now lives in Cape Town.
• Where the deceased lived in a district outside the Master's own district, the liquidation and distribution account must also lie open for inspection at that district's magistrate's office. For a large province this is what lets an heir in a distant town inspect the account without travelling to Cape Town.
• Property in the City of Cape Town needs a rates clearance certificate before transfer, and the municipality typically requires several months of charges paid in advance as well as any arrears.
• Cape Town has a large concentration of fiduciary practitioners and trust companies. That is useful for choice, but the executor's fee is capped by the same statutory tariff wherever you are, so shop on service and negotiated rate rather than assuming a local premium is normal.

Finding an estate attorney in Cape Town

We do not publish a list of firms. We cannot verify a firm's current standing, its fees, or whether it still does estate work, and a stale directory is worse than none for somebody who has just lost a family member. What we can do is point you at the regulator's own register, which is authoritative and current.

• The Legal Practice Council runs a public practitioner search at lpc.org.za/members-of-the-public/search-practitioners. Use it to confirm that anyone you are considering is actually on the practising roll.
• The Law Society of South Africa has a Find a Legal Practitioner directory at lssa.org.za/find-a-legal-practitioner.
• Ask for the firm's current Fidelity Fund certificate. Any attorney practising for their own account and handling trust money must hold one. If there is no valid certificate, the Legal Practitioners Fidelity Fund cannot consider a claim, which is exactly the protection you are relying on.
• The Master's office itself will assist members of the public with the reporting process, at no charge. For a straightforward estate, particularly a small one, that may be all the help you need.

What to ask before you appoint anyone

1. What executor's fee will you charge, as a percentage? The statutory maximum is 3.5% of gross assets plus 6% of post-death income. It is a ceiling, not a price, and it is negotiable.
2. Is VAT charged on top of that?
3. What else will be charged separately - conveyancing, tax returns, an administration fee?
4. Who will actually handle the file, and what happens if that person leaves?
5. How often will beneficiaries be updated, and by whom?
6. Get all of it in writing before you commit.

Work out what the tariff comes to on this estate before you have that conversation: executor's fees calculator. And if the estate is under R250 000 gross, read small estates first - you very likely do not need to pay anyone a percentage at all.

Start here

Other cities