Appointing the Executor of your Estate has to be very carefully considered as it, not only, involves a lot of work but there are lot of legal tasks to be fulfilled.
If you appoint a family member of friend who is not a practising attorney, accountant or auditor then the Master of the High Court will most likely require the nominated Executor to acquire the assistance of someone who is. What is more, if you have appointed someone who lives outside of South Africa at the time of your death and s/he has no residential address within the country, a new Executor will have to be appointed.
At present I am assisting a person who was nominated as Executor to an estate while she was still resident in South Africa (SA). She has since moved to Australia and has no registered address in SA so she has been required to decline the position of Executor by completing a “Declination of Executorship” form and appointing another person in SA as Executor. She has found this quite hard to accept as she is a Chartered Accountant and would like to retain control of the day to day administration. This would require discussion with the new Executor but she cannot sign anything as the Executor.
On The Wills Factory website I found a very good article on whom to appoint as an Executor. It is a well worth a read but the following is clearly stated in Section 10.
The following individuals cannot act as executors:
• A person that resides outside the republic without an address in South Africa; and/or
• A person who is a minor, lunatic and prodigal; and/or
• An insolvent person.
The first statement may be a problem for many of us and we will have to rethink on the appointment of an Executor if we prefer to appoint a family member or a well-trusted friend. It is another reason why one should check and, if necessary, change their will as situations change.