What to do with your South African unit trusts?

We’ve spoken a great deal about transferring money across borders. Finglobal.com has always taken pride in providing our customers with informative, cost-efficient and forthcoming advice. We want you to make the right decisions when it comes to your money and choose a financial path which is suited to your personal circumstances.

Truth be told, however, there are certain types of financial products which don’t offer you a world of options as a South African emigrant, and one of these is a unit trust.

What is a unit trust?

Unit trust funds are investment funds where individuals can pool their resources with other investors. This means their cash is combined to improve their returns. Unit trust funds are comprised of equal shares of units which each have a price called Net Asset Value (NAV). The fund is managed by a fund manager who grows the overall value of the unit trust fund through investing the fund assets through buying stock, bonds or a combination. These stocks and bonds are called holdings and the total fund holdings are called a portfolio.

What can South African emigrants do with their unit trusts?

There really is not much you can do with your unit trusts as a South African living abroad. In fact, your choices are limited to transferring the legal ownership of your unit trust. Once you’ve transferred ownership, the new owner will receive the investment proceeds of your the trust.

How does it work?

finglobal.com can assist you with transferring the legal ownership of your unit trust investment. Most clients choose to transfer ownership to their parents or children left in South Africa.

In order to do this we will simply need the details of your investment as well as those of the fund manager and new owner you would like to appoint.

Why should I take this route?

Changing the ownership of your unit trust will ensure that the new owner benefits from your investment. As you can’t transfer your proceeds offshore, it simply makes sense to transfer your benefits to a family member still left on South African shores.

Let finglobal.com help you out

If you have questions regarding your unit trusts or other policies, why not contact us for a free consultation. Simply leave your details and we’ll call you back.