Online access to deceased estate information

7 Sep 2011

A new public online system for tracking progress on winding up the estate of a person that has died has been introduced through the office of the chief master of the High Court. The system will allow users to track the administration of estates and trusts according to an article published in the print and electronic editions of The Star.

Estate information can be filed at 14 masters' offices or 400 magistrate's courts around the country.

According to Lester Basson, Chief Master in Johannesburg, Masters' Offices spend too much time drawing files and answering questions on the contents of files and sometimes its not clear on where a file is kept.

He says the public portal will resolve these problems and proved an integrated case management system. The information will be updated daily. The development of the system was initiated and guided by Tienie Cronje, a researcher at the Law Reform Commission.

Some of the information is already available to the public. For instance, a family can now easily find out that a relative has died, where the person's will was filed and which office is dealing with it.

The development has been welcomed by the Fiduciary Institute of South Africa.