Bulk matching

Who we work with

Only regulated institutions: a bank, an insurer, a retirement fund registered with the FSCA or set up by its own Act, a financial services provider licensed by the FSCA, or a practising attorney with a current Fidelity Fund certificate. Before the first match we check the registration on the regulator's public register, and confirm the request through the contact details listed there. Results go only to an address at the institution's own domain.

A tracer or agent cannot sign up on its own. The institution it works for signs the operator agreement, and the results go to that institution. Results are for the institution's own use, and may not be resold or passed on.

The reason is fraud. Matches about people who have died go only to institutions answerable to a regulator (protecting an estate from fraud).

Who uses it

You run unclaimed benefits at an insurer or retirement fund. You have policies or members you have lost touch with. Send the whole list, by ID number, and we tell you which of them have an estate notice and which executor to contact. The executor usually knows the family (what a notice tells a fund or insurer).

You trace beneficiaries for a fund or an insurer. Your client sends the names and dates of birth as a once-off check. We tell your client which have an estate, with the estate number and the executor named. The executor is the person who knows the heirs (what a notice proves for tracing).

You are an attorney with estates or wills in your care. Check a list of clients or testators once, and see which have an estate notice and who is acting as executor.

The data

When a person dies and their estate is reported, the executor publishes two notices in the Government Gazette: the estate opened notice (form J193), which calls for claims, and the payout plan notice (form J187), which says the liquidation and distribution account is open for inspection. The guide explains both.

Field figures from an audit of 1,144,398 notices on 27 September 2026, before a re-parse of the whole set recovered more.

What it does not cover:

• Deaths whose estate was never advertised. Most estates of R250,000 or less are not.
• Recent deaths: a first notice usually appears weeks or months after the death.
• Date of death for most notices from 2015 to 2020. It is in the gazette but not yet extracted.

Fields are read from the gazette PDFs automatically and can contain errors. The gazette is the record.

How matching works

• ID number, where the list has one: an exact match on all 13 digits.
• Surname and date of birth, where it does not.
• Name alone, allowing for spelling variants, where a name is all there is.

Each match says which method made it. Results come back as a spreadsheet (CSV or Excel), row by row against your own reference, and every match links to its notice.

Privacy and security

• Roles. You are the responsible party for your list; Phase Transitions is your operator under POPIA section 21, processing it only on your written instruction under an operator agreement. The notices themselves are public records.
• Where. Matching runs on servers in the United States (Oregon), hosted by Render. POPIA section 72 allows this where the recipient is bound by an agreement that protects the information. Render is bound by its data processing addendum, which forms part of its terms of service, and the operator agreement records the transfer.
• How long. Your list and the results are deleted 30 days after the results are delivered. Sooner on request, and every copy goes, including the email or upload it arrived in. Database backups roll off within seven days. Deletion is confirmed in writing on request.
• Use. Your list is used for your match and nothing else. It is not added to this site and not used to train AI models.
• Information Officer. Graham Rowe, registered with the Information Regulator (registration 2026-039627).
• Security. Encrypted in transit and at rest. A written breach plan: as your operator we notify you without delay of any breach affecting your list (POPIA section 21(2)). Technology errors and omissions and cyber insurance in place.
• Documents. The operator agreement, the list of sub-processors and answers to a security questionnaire are available on request. Our trust page and PAIA manual are public.

Sending a list

By email as a password-protected archive, with the password sent by another channel. Other methods can be agreed. Results come back the same way. A list can be CSV or Excel.

Columns that help, in order of strength:

• ID number
• Surname, first names and date of birth
• Your own reference for each person, so the results map back to your records

Price

The first sample match, on a small list, is free. After that, a quote per list.

Getting started

1. Email graham@phasetransitions.ai with what the list holds (which columns, roughly how many people) and what you need to find. Describe the list rather than attaching it.
2. Tell us your institution's registration: its FSP or fund number, its bank or insurer licence, or your Fidelity Fund certificate. We check it on the regulator's register and confirm through the contact details listed there.
3. We sign the operator agreement and agree how the list is sent.
4. The sample match, free.
5. A quote for the full list.

Who we are

Phase Transitions (Pty) Ltd (registration 2026/448729/07), a data science practice in Johannesburg, which runs GazetteSearch. Graham Rowe, graham@phasetransitions.ai.