Section 29 placement guide for South African practitioners

Section 29 of the Administration of Estates Act, 1965 obliges the executor, immediately after Letters of Executorship are issued, to call upon all persons having claims against the estate to lodge them within a period of not less than thirty days. The notice must be published once in the Government Gazette and once in one or more newspapers circulating in the district in which the deceased was ordinarily resident at the date of death.

The 30-day period runs from the date of the last advertisement, not the date of issue of Letters of Executorship. Aligning the Gazette and newspaper notices to publish in the same week is the simplest way to keep the calendar tidy.

The Master's Office expects the newspaper to genuinely circulate in the district of last ordinary residence. For Johannesburg residents, that typically means The Star or Beeld; for Cape Town, the Cape Times or Die Burger; for smaller centres, the local community paper of record is usually acceptable.

If the deceased was resident in a deep rural area where no daily newspaper circulates, the regional weekly is acceptable, provided you record on file why you chose it. Master's offices have refused notices placed in city dailies for rural-resident deceased estates.

The notice must state: the full name and identity number of the deceased, date of death, last ordinary residence, the estate number, the Master's Office of registration, the period within which claims must be lodged (no less than 30 days from the date of the notice), and the name and address of the executor.

The wording does not need to be identical across the Gazette and the newspaper, but the substantive particulars must match. When I Am Gone generates both notices from a single intake to avoid mismatches.

For each notice, the file should contain: the dated tear-sheet (or PDF page) of the newspaper showing the notice, the Government Gazette extract showing the publication, the official receipt for the placement fee, and a chain-of-custody page recording who placed the notice and when.

The Master's Office may call for proof of placement when reviewing the L&D account; banks and SARS routinely ask for it before they release information. A proper proof pack short-circuits weeks of follow-up correspondence.

Placing the notice before Letters of Executorship are issued: the Master will require it to be reissued.

Quoting the deceased's old residence (e.g. last appearing on the ID document) rather than the actual last ordinary residence at date of death.

Failing to publish in the Gazette at all - the newspaper alone is not enough, regardless of how widely it circulates.

Starting the 30-day clock from the wrong date when computing the L&D account inspection period.

Capture the deceased's particulars and Master's Office once on the matter. The workbench drafts the notice from the prescribed wording, computes the placement price (newspaper plus optional Gazette assistance), and submits both placements in the same screen.

Tear-sheets and the Gazette extract are filed against the matter automatically. The audit log records the practitioner who placed the notice, the date, and the publication evidence reference.