Protecting an estate from fraud

Most estates are wound up honestly. When fraud happens, it takes money a family was counting on.

Life insurers and investment companies detected 161 attempts on deceased estates in 2024, up from 54 in 2023. They stopped R220 million and lost R18.9 million (ASISA, July 2025).

Warning signs

A bank or insurer says someone else has already claimed as executor or heir.
You are asked, by email or message, to pay money into a new or different bank account.
Someone you cannot place says they are the executor, and asks for documents or money.
You are asked to pay a fee before an inheritance, or money from the Guardian's Fund, can be released to you.

A name that matches a notice on this site proves nothing. Anyone can read these pages. Check with the executor or their attorney, on a number you looked up yourself.

Some requests are normal. Your executor, or their attorney, will ask for a copy of your identity document and your bank details before paying you.

If you are the executor

List every bank, insurer, retirement fund and investment company that holds something of the person's.
Write to each one yourself, with your letters of executorship, and ask them to record your contact details.
Use contact details you looked up yourself, never ones taken from an email or letter you were sent.
Send copies of letters and identity documents only to the people who need them, by a route you trust.
Treat any request to change bank details as suspect until you have confirmed it by phone, on a number you already had.
If an attorney or trust company acts for you, choose one you can check, and keep in touch with them.

If you are an heir

Deal with the executor, not with the banks. The banks will deal only with the executor.
Give your identity document and bank details to the executor or their attorney, and to no one else.
If anyone else contacts you about the estate, check with the executor before you reply.

Banks, insurers and funds

Letters of executorship and letters of authority issued through the Master's online system carry a QR code. A bank or insurer can scan it to check that a letter is valid and current. It is entitled to check before it pays, and may take time to do so.

If you work in fraud prevention at a regulated institution, you are welcome to write to graham@phasetransitions.ai.

If you think fraud has happened

Tell the bank, insurer or fund at once, through its fraud line, so that payment can be stopped.
Open a case at a police station and keep the case number.
Write to the Master's office that issued the letters, with the estate number and the case number. The Master can remove an executor. Dealing with the Master's office.
If an attorney is involved, complain to the Legal Practice Council.

What this site shows

Estate notices are published so that creditors and heirs can learn of an estate. This site shows the name, the dates of birth and death, the estate number, the executor and the Master's office.

It leaves out ID numbers, addresses and the executor's contact details. What is shown and what is left out.

Where this leaves you

Last checked 20 September 2026. The law behind these pages is the Administration of Estates Act 66 of 1965.