Our Services

Our Services

June 26, 2018

Are you confused by or unhappy with your family trust?




Are you someone:
  •  who has had an estate plan done, but who knows or suspects that somehow it is incomplete or lacking?
  • who has purchased a boiler-plate estate plan from a living trust company rather than engaging the professional services of a specialist?
  • who has not yet begun to plan for themselves and their families but would like to do so?
If you have had an estate planning done, but are uncomfortable with that planning, our firm will enable you to review what you have done. We will show you whether or not it is in your best interests to make additions or changes in your planning, so that you can fine-tune your plan.

If you have not yet accomplished any planning, we will show you - from the very beginning - the right way to effectively and efficiently complete your estate plan.
We will assist you to implement a modern living-trust-centered estate plan, from beginning to end. We will provide you with step-by-step advice, that has helped many clients over our forty-plus years of practice experience.

We endeavour to utilize the best workable estate planning strategies and practicalities. We explain how you can formulate your estate planning goals, and how to work profitably from the beginning all the way through to the successful completion of your estate planning documentation.

We explain what estate planning is, and what you should expect to accomplish. We determine what a living trust-centered estate plan should look like, so you can clearly see a picture of your objectives.

We determine the process of precisely what you should and should not do, to make your estate planning process effective and pleasant. It encompasses professional planning secrets and empowers you.

We also advise how to take best advantage of the planning talents, of your accountant, financial planner and stock broker. We share with you those planning matters that each of your advisers is good at and enjoys accomplishing, and those tasks which he or she is not so good at and would rather delegate.

We will explain to you the legal language of your plan, and how could we actively participate in making sure that your assets would be placed safely into the protection of your living trust. We would assist you in how to determine the funding of your trust and how you and your accountants, financial advisers and stock brokers, should complete various aspects of your trust funding.

We would warn you of hidden planning dangers, while stepping you through the procedures for getting your assets into the protection of your trust. Our documentation makes your trust endure particularly following your disability or death. We share them in the hope that your estate planning efforts will succeed because of proper follow-through.

Our practice endeavours to prompt action. It gives you many options every step of the way and empowers you to make the right choices at the right time, to maximize your and your family’s emotional and financial successes. It is based on the simple philosophy that knowledge should be with action.


June 24, 2018

What happens if a usufructuary dies and she rented out the house during her lifetime?




What rights does the owner have to sell the house? What rights does the tenant enjoy?
Here’s an example of a simple usufruct:

I bequeath to my son, Joe Bloggs, my house at 67 Henry Road, Norwood, Johannesburg, and all the contents therein, subject to a life usufruct therein in favour of my wife, Jane Bloggs.

So, the will enables Jane (the usufructuary) to use the Norwood property (the usufructuary property) belonging to her son, Joe (the bare dominium owner) and to enjoy the fruits (fructus) thereof, for her lifetime.

The usufruct ends on Jane’s death, when the usufructuary property vests in Joe.
These are some of Jane’s and Joe’s rights and obligations:
·         Jane’s estate is obliged to restore the property to Joe on her death in the same condition as that in which she received it, fair wear and tear excepted;
·         Jane was responsible for the maintenance of the property, but not to improve it;
·         Jane could not mortgage the property subject to the usufruct;
·         Unless both Jane and Joe agree, the property subject to a usufruct cannot be sold by the usufructuary or by the bare dominium owner without leave of the court;
·         Unless the will provides otherwise, Jane had to pay rates and taxes;
·         If the property is subject to a mortgage bond, Jane was not responsible for payment of the interest, unless the will has so specified, or there were insufficient funds in the estate to do so;
·         Jane had the right to let the property which is subject to a usufruct and collect the rental (the fruits and profits which may be derived from the property subject to the usufruct), but the lease can only be valid for the period of the usufruct.
Accordingly, on Jane’s death, the lease comes to an end and Joe can sell the property.