
Valentine’s Month is a great opportunity to talk to your clients about their relationship and/or marriage status – a really important topic as you assist them on their financial planning journey.
In this post, we’ve included a helpful summary of different marriage regimes with compliments from Milpark Education. And we share one of our in-house expert’s top tips on how atWORK can help demonstrate your expertise as a trusted advisor.
Understanding marriage regimes in a South African context
Marriage regimes are legal frameworks governing asset ownership, management, and division in marriage dissolution or death. Knowing these regimes will help you create tailored financial strategies for clients, safeguard assets, ensure fair distribution, reduce tax burdens, and address estate planning.
Marriages recognised in South Africa:
- Civil Union
- Civil Marriage
2.1 In community of property (COP)
2.2 Out of community of property with accrual
2.3 Out of community of property (ANC) - Marriage concluded per customary law (traditional marriage with lobola and celebration, monogamous or polygamous)
*All civil unions and civil marriages are regarded as in COP unless they are ANC-registered.
The value of understanding the various marriage regimes and the definition of a spouse:
- A bequest to a spouse is free from estate duty
- A donation to a spouse is free from donation’s tax
- A transfer of assets to a spouse is at base cost for Capital Gains Tax (CGT) purposes
*All civil unions and civil marriages are regarded as in COP unless they are ANC-registered.