wealth Archives

I often get asked “If assets are owned by my company, are they protected from my creditors?”. The answer is usually no. Why? If you own the shares in the company, then the shares are assets in your name which can be attacked by your creditors. If they get your shares, they get the assets. So no protection there. If, on the other hand, you own shares in two companies, the creditors of the one company cannot attack the assets of the other company simply because you’re the shareholder of both. The “Limited” in (Pty) Ltd means that the shareholder’s…

I had a 4 1/2 hour meeting with a guy who had about R50m investments and was worried that taxes on death would wipe out the investment income that he hoped would support his wife and daughters upon his death. He had received all sorts of investment advice and simply couldn’t get his head around it until he found us through an internet search. What he didn’t realise was that he did not have any investments! As part of this wealth management exercise, the first thing we had to do was list his assets : A residence that a daughter…

With the 2019 Budget speech behind us, Estate Duty has gone from 20% to 25% on the amount by which an estate exceeds R30m. That’s five new reasons for holding assets in a trust. But really? Is anyone who’s sharp enough to accumulate R30m not going to have woken up to the idea of a trust? The answer, amazingly, is yes. There are such people out there. I’m currently finalising a business plan for a client who wants to buy a very profitable 28 year old dealership for, guess, R30m and the seller owns the shares in his company in…

wealth

Can a company protect my assets?

Recognise what is not an investment!

Five more reasons why the wealthy must have a trust