Your surviving spouse will inherit your whole estate. If you have multiple spouses, they will share equally in your estate.  Spouses include persons married i.t.o. the Marriages Act, the Civil Union Act and also monogamous and polygamous Hindu, Muslim or Customary Law marriages.

Example:

Thabo passes away intestate, leaving an estate of R1,000,000. He was married to two wives. His wives share equally in his estate and each inherit R500,000.

Your children will inherit your whole estate in equal shares. If one of your children predeceased you leaving descendants of his/her own, your predeceased child’s portion will be shared equally among his/her own descendants. Descendants include children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and further descendants. This includes adopted descendants and those born out of wedlock.

Example:

Jack passes away intestate, leaving an estate of R1,000,000. He had a son and a daughter. His daughter died 2 years prior, leaving 2 children of her own. His son will inherit R500,000. His predeceased daughter’s R500,000 will devolve upon her children, who will each receive R250,000.

Your spouse(s) will receive R250,000 or a child’s share, whichever is greater. The remainder will be shared equally between your children. A child’s share is your estate divided by the sum of your stirpes (the number of living children and predeceased children survived by descendants) plus one for each surviving spouse.

Example:

John passes away intestate, leaving an estate of R1,000,000. He had a wife and 4 children. In John’s estate, a child’s share would be R200,000:

The estate value (R1,000,000) divided by

the amount of  stirpes or number of children (4)

plus one for each spouse (1)

=R1,000,000 / (4+1)

=R200,000

The calculated child’s share (R200,000) is less than R250,000 and therefore his wife will receive the bigger amount of R250,000. The remaining R750,000 will devolve equally upon his children, who will each receive R187,500.

Your parents will inherit equally.

Example:

John passes away intestate, leaving an estate of R1,000,000. He has no descendants or surviving spouse, but is survived by both parents. His parents will each inherit R500,000.

The surviving parent will inherit one half share and the descendants will share the remaining half of the predeceased parent.

Example:

Jack passes away intestate, leaving an estate of R1,000,000. He has no descendants or surviving spouse, but is survived by his father. His mother is predeceased but his parents had 3 children, Jack (the deceased) and two siblings.  His father will receive one half share being R500,000. The remaining half, which should have gone to his mother, is now divided equally among her descendants. His siblings will each receive R250,000.

The surviving parent will inherit your whole estate.

Your predeceased father’s half share will devolve equally upon HIS descendants and your predeceased mother’s half share will devolve equally upon HER descendants. This makes provision for half-blood siblings.

Example:

Jack passes away intestate, leaving an estate of R1,000,000. He has no descendants, no surviving spouse and no parent. He has sisters and a half blood brother, from his father’s side. His predeceased mother’s R500,000 will devolve upon her 2 remaining children (the 2 sisters), who will each receive R250,000. His predeceased father’s share of R500,000 will devolve upon his 3 children, who will each receive R166,666.

If you have no surviving spouse, no descendants, no parents and no descendants from parents. Your relatives in the nearest degree will inherit everything equally, not per stipes but per capita (per head).

Example:

Jack passes away intestate, leaving an estate of R1,000,000. He has no descendants, no surviving spouse, no parent and no descendants from parents. He has however 3 grandparents still living, two from his mother’s side and one from his father’s side.  His predeceased mother’s share of R500,000 will not be divided among her parents, because inheritance will now devolve per capita (per head). Because he has 3 grandparents, all equally close to him in degree, they share equally. Each will inherit R333,333.

Your estate will be paid over to the Master’s Guardian’s Fund and if it is unclaimed for 30 years, it will be forfeited to the state.

Please contact us for any other queries you may have.