Executor Duties in South Africa: The Full List of What You Are Signing Up For

What the job is

An executor collects the deceased's assets, pays the debts, deals with SARS, accounts to the Master for every cent, and distributes what is left to the people legally entitled to it. The order matters: creditors before heirs, always.

It is an office with duties owed to the estate, the creditors and the beneficiaries, and an executor who gets it wrong can be held personally liable. That is the part people do not realise when they agree to it at a funeral.

The sequence, with the deadlines that are real

1. Report the estate to the Master within 14 days of death and accept the appointment (form J190).
2. Once Letters are issued, open a bank account in the name of the estate. Section 28 requires this once you hold more than R1,000 in estate cash, unless the Master directs otherwise.
3. Advertise for creditors under section 29, in the Government Gazette and in a newspaper circulating where the deceased lived, allowing them at least 30 days to lodge claims.
4. Take control of the assets. Secure property, insure it, close accounts, collect what is owed to the estate, and value what needs valuing.
5. Deal with SARS: register the estate, file the deceased's returns up to date of death, and deal with the estate's own returns and any capital gains arising on the deemed disposal at death.
6. Pay the debts and administration costs out of estate funds. Do not pay heirs first.
7. Lodge the liquidation and distribution account with the Master, after the creditors' period has closed and within six months of Letters being granted, or such longer period as the Master allows (section 35(1)).
8. Answer the Master's queries on the account until it is passed.
9. Advertise the account to lie open for inspection for at least 21 days, in the Gazette and a local newspaper (section 35(5)).
10. If there is no objection, distribute in accordance with the account, transfer any immovable property, pay any estate duty, and lodge proof with the Master.

Where executors get personally caught

• Distributing before the creditors' period closes. A creditor who lodges in time and finds the money gone can look to the executor personally.
• Paying heirs before SARS. The estate's tax liability ranks ahead of any inheritance, and SARS is not sympathetic to an executor who gave the money away.
• Mixing estate money with personal money. This is what the estate bank account requirement exists to prevent, and a commingled account is very hard to defend later.
• Distributing an insolvent estate as if it were solvent. If liabilities exceed assets, section 34 applies and the estate is dealt with under the Insolvency Act ranking, not by the will.
• Selling an estate asset below value without the beneficiaries' informed agreement or the Master's consent.
• Ignoring a maintenance claim by a surviving spouse under the Maintenance of Surviving Spouses Act 27 of 1990. That claim ranks with a dependent child's maintenance claim and ahead of heirs and legatees.

You can be executor without doing the work

This is the option most people do not know about. An executor can appoint an agent, typically an attorney or a fiduciary practitioner, to do the administration under a power of attorney while the executor stays the appointed executor and keeps oversight of the file.

The practical effect is that the family keeps control of decisions and the professional does the paperwork. The fee is negotiated with the agent rather than assumed at the full tariff, which is often where the saving is.

What the executor may charge

The prescribed tariff is 3.5% of the gross value of assets in the estate plus 6% of income accrued and collected after the date of death, plus VAT where the executor is a registered VAT vendor. A family member acting as executor is entitled to the same tariff, though many waive it.

That tariff is a maximum, not a fixed price. Work out what it comes to on your estate before you agree to anything: /tools/deceased-estates/executor-fees-calculator

Frequently asked questions

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