{"id":871975,"date":"2026-09-10T08:51:48","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T06:51:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=871975"},"modified":"2026-09-10T08:51:48","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T06:51:48","slug":"warning-to-rich-south-africans-who-are-married","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business-opinion\/871975\/warning-to-rich-south-africans-who-are-married\/","title":{"rendered":"Warning to rich South Africans who are married"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africa’s legal landscape is undergoing a massive shift as the government looks to streamline marriage laws, which poses several risks to rich South Africans and their wealth planning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kirsten Smit, Advisory Partner at Citadel, said that the reforms are a reminder to the high-net-worth (HNW) and ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) individuals that wealth planning is essential. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa has seen an increase in divorces, rising by 8.9% in 2024, which is the latest data from\u00a0Statistics South Africa\u2019s Marriages and Divorces report. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs divorce and family laws evolve, affluent families need to prioritise the protection of their wealth by putting guardrails in place in terms of their assets,” said Smit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It\u2019s not taking anything away from the marriage; it\u2019s about cultivating open communication from the very beginning and understanding that every marriage will end in an exit one day.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

New court developments emphasise the rigorous and fair application of the accrual system, with particular emphasis on uncovering assets that have been moved into a trust during the divorce trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The move to a trust aims to reduce the accrual in the estate, with the courts ruling that these assets must be accurately included in the accrual calculation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe courts and attorneys will now have to make sure that the accrual system really is applied fairly and that assets can be recovered from trusts when applicable,\u201d said Smit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interim relief measures also allow a spouse to apply for temporary maintenance, child-related relief or a contribution towards legal costs while divorce proceedings are ongoing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She noted that these measures can make maintenance expectations difficult to manage and that they need to be implemented with great care. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smit noted that for families seeking to protect generational wealth, a well-structured Antenuptial Contract (ANC) is the most effective way to ensure fairness regarding assets brought into a union. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Accrual can then be included or excluded, depending on circumstances. Smit noted that written clauses in an ANC should also ring-fence and exclude inheritances from future accrual claims. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUnder South African law, inheritances are automatically protected and kept separate from your spouse, but the exact mechanism depends on the terms of the ANC you choose,” said Smit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Get it right from the start <\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Smit noted that the efficacy of a family trust as a wealth preservation tool depends on its initial design and the quality of its oversight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said that many affluent individuals overlook the necessity of a well-structured trust deed that can evolve with changing legislation, which needs to be structured correctly from the start. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She recommended independent trustees who are aware of family dynamics and legislative changes, and can tweak guardrails if needed. Careful beneficiary designation and succession planning are also key. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A common oversight among wealthy families is allowing their financial structures to become overly fragmented, creating a high level of complexity that often needs to be untangled to unlock efficiency. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople tend to think that complexity is a good thing, but when you create more elegant, manageable solutions, you are truly adding value, transparency and fairness to everyone\u2019s lives,” she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs South Africa’s divorce laws and the courts\u2019 interpretations of them continue to evolve, the message to HNW and UHNW families is clear: proactive planning and regular reviews are non-negotiable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Africa’s legal landscape is undergoing a massive shift, posing major risks to rich South Africans and their wealth planning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":747972,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"failed","_sma_x_autopost_error":"Instagram publishing failed: Instagram returned HTTP 400: Media ID is not available","_sma_x_post_id":"2097941160064938200","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2201171360703263","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[11282],"class_list":["post-871975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-opinion","tag-citadel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=871975"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":871981,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871975\/revisions\/871981"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/747972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=871975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=871975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=871975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}