I have to report a death

Two offices must hear of a death. Home Affairs registers it and issues the death certificate. The Master of the High Court opens the estate. This page is about the Master.

Do this now

Get the death certificate from Home Affairs. The undertaker usually arranges this.
Find the original will, if there is one. Ask the family, the person's bank, their attorney and their insurer.
Work out roughly what the person owned and owed. Whether it is more or less than R250,000 decides the process.
Report the death at the Master's office for the district where the person lived in their last year, within 14 days.
Tell the bank, the employer, the pension fund and any insurer. They run their own processes and do not wait for the Master.

Which office

The Master has an office in each main centre. The estate belongs to the office for the district where the person lived in their last year. Not where they died, and not where you live.

For an estate of R250,000 or less, the Magistrate's office for the district can take the report instead. Estates can also be reported online through the Department of Justice's website. The status messages it shows are the Master's own codes, and the office can explain them.

What to bring

The death certificate, and the identity document of the person who died.
The original will, if any.
Your own identity document, and the surviving spouse's.
The marriage certificate and any antenuptial contract.
A list of what the person owned and owed, with rough values. The Master's form for this is the inventory (form J243).
The death notice (form J294), the Master's own form, which the office will help you complete.
For an estate over R250,000, the acceptance of trust as executor (form J190), signed by the person who will act.
Names and addresses of the heirs.

Bring originals and certified copies. Offices differ in what they ask for, and a missing paper means another visit.

What happens next

For an estate of R250,000 or less, the Master issues letters of authority to a family member. That person collects the assets, pays the debts and hands over the rest. There are usually no gazette notices and no formal account.

For a larger estate, the Master issues letters of executorship to the executor named in the will, or to someone the family nominates. The executor then publishes the estate opened notice. What happens after that.

Letters can take from a few weeks to several months, depending on the office.

Where this leaves you

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