Many South Africans are deprived of their right to decide who will inherit their estate when they die, a University of Cape Town (UCT) study has found.
Section 37C of the Pension Funds Act 24 of 1956 does so by removing death benefits from one’s estate and, therefore, from their testamentary control, and transfers the right and responsibility of allocating their death benefits to the trustees of retirement funds.
Karin Lehmann, a lecturer at UCT’s Department of Commercial Law, challenges this Act in her PhD thesis as being unconstitutional. She argues that most South Africans do not own substantial assets when they die; therefore, for most employed people, their retirement savings is the most valuable property they own, which means that they effectively do not have the right to select the recipients of their most valuable property.
Guest on the line: Dr.Karin Lehmann, a lecturer at UCT’s Department of Commercial Law