Before you refer.
Short answers to the questions estate practitioners ask first. If yours is not here, the contact page reaches a person, and the referral form has a notes field for anything specific to a matter.
Referring a matter
Do I need to attend a meeting or a call?
No. A quick referral needs only your contact details and the name of the deceased. Everything else follows through the portal once the matter is open, and our team contacts you only when a decision or document is needed.
What do I need before I refer?
Your firm, your name and email, and the name of the deceased. The Master reference, date of death, province and the executor's own email address can be added later on the matter page, where your firm invites the executor. Licence copies and letters of executorship are uploaded through secure links.
Can I refer an estate from anywhere in South Africa?
Yes. The matter opens at once and your firm receives its portal link. We verify the executor's authority and prepare the documents. We take estates from anywhere in South Africa. We take the file within one working day of the referral and start the compliance work: the Regulation 103 deadlines and inventory, the valuation and any heir's licence. We handle estates throughout South Africa. Where custody is needed, we arrange it with a licensed dealer and coordinate any necessary transport for the estate. We confirm the handover arrangements with you.
What does my firm see?
One matter record with the current status, who holds the next action, the document register, the custody history and, at the end, the closure pack. The Regulation 103 dates are on the matter, with an email before each one falls due: we prepare the inventory and notice for the executor to sign, and your firm records the date of the letter of appointment and each filing. Milestone updates arrive by email; exceptions are raised only when something needs you.
Custody and the executor
Who holds the firearms while the estate is administered?
Licensed custody sites only: dealers with a police licence to store firearms, whose dealer licence, which specifies the safe or strongroom, is recorded and tracked for expiry; a site is allocated only while it is current. Your firm is told the custody region and when custody is confirmed, and sees the region only. The executor, as the depositor, sees the custody partner's trading name and licensed premises address on the portal, for the executor's notice to the Registrar of where the firearms are stored; they are never sent by email or SMS, and internal storage positions never leave the system. Every receipt, movement and release is receipted.
How do the firearms reach the custody site?
Nobody at your firm carries them. Where an heir who will inherit the firearms already holds a firearm licence and has them, they stay with that heir under the executor's written consent. Otherwise we book a permitted transporter for the estate: it collects the firearms where they are kept, a relative's home included, and delivers them to the licensed custody site, which receipts them on arrival. The transporter invoices the estate, anything we pay it for the estate is passed on at cost, and Firearmdesk never carries a firearm or charges for carriage.
What can the executor do with the firearms?
The executor is offered the options the law allows for the matter, such as transfer to a licensed heir, sale through a licensed dealer or lawful disposal. If the legal or administrative position changes, the matter is updated before any affected step proceeds.
What happens if the legal position changes?
Every regulated step follows the current legal position, recorded with its legal source and approved by two people before it takes effect. If a step must pause, the matter shows a neutral hold, you are told, and custody and records continue to be tracked.
Fees and information
What does it cost, and who pays?
The estate pays a compliance fee of R2,242.50 per matter where the firearms go into custody (R1,437.50 where a licensed heir keeps them), a one-off custody coordination fee of R632.50 per firearm received into custody, and a written valuation. The licensed dealer's own intake (R200 per firearm) and storage (R110 a firearm a month from day 15 after receipt) are passed on at cost, with no mark-up, plus the dealer's VAT where it is registered for VAT. Firearmdesk never stores, carries or transports a firearm: where the firearms must move, we book a permitted transporter for the estate, which invoices the estate, and pass on anything we pay it at cost. The heir pays R1,437.50 per firearm for transfer administration. On a sale the selling dealer deducts its 10% commission, plus VAT if the dealer is registered for VAT. Firearmdesk is not registered for VAT, so no VAT is added to our fees. Two itemised invoices per matter are paid by EFT; no card payments are taken, and sale proceeds go from the dealer to the estate or the attorney trust account, never through Firearmdesk. The full schedule and a worked example are on the fees page.
Is anything sensitive sent by email?
No. Email carries status notifications and secure links only. Firearm serial numbers, identity documents, photographs and matter documents are held in the secure portal and viewed there.
Not a referring firm?
- Executors and families What an executor can expect, from the invitation to the signed instruction.
- Heirs What an heir needs to keep an inherited firearm: competency, a licence and a safe.
- Licensed dealers How custody partners are appointed and paid.
A question we have not answered? Ask us first.
Or refer the matter now: a referral needs only the details you already have.