One way or another, most people stand to gain from an inheritance sometime in the future. We don’t necessarily know when, but sad as it is sounds we do need to know what to do at that time.

The most complex of all scenarios – a South African resident who is “temporarily” abroad is left an inheritance. Not to confuse matters – but living abroad for 20 years and not financially emigrated is defined as “temporarily abroad”.

What now?

Option 1: we place your emigration on record with the Reserve Bank, open a blocked account in your name to deposit and protect your inheritance. When your emigration is completed we transfer your inheritance to your overseas bank account. Subject to any other assets you may hold in South Africa your emigration can be concluded within 12 weeks.

Option 2: dependent on the inheritance value, we make use of your R4million foreign investment allowance (FIA) and /or R1million discretionary allowance (DA) to transfer your inheritance funds offshore. The DA route asks for an active SARS income tax number without tax clearance, while using the FIA demands tax clearance and for the beneficiary’s tax affairs to be up to date.

Both options are time consuming, and subject to knowing ones way around estates, banks and international funds transfer. That’s what we do! The shortest distance between you and your inheritance is to talk to us.