Dear Readers,

A warm welcome to this first edition of the Appleton Times for 2025! We hope it will be a healthy and prosperous year for all our clients, professional partners and supporters across the country.

I have learnt many valuable lessons in over three decades of owning and running private wealth companies, but the one fundamental that never changes is the importance of professional Will drafting and proper estate planning. I have also learnt that both are specialist skills, which is one of the reasons we call Appleton ‘The Fiduciary Specialists’. The related lesson is just how complicated, time consuming and challenging deceased estate administration can be. In my experience, this is becoming more so. 

While technology is assisting with working with the Master’s offices and we have found the online portal to be of great assistance, the efficiency of many institutions we deal with in administering estates leaves a lot to be desired. Response times are generally very poor. Too often our administrators are left holding on to telephone calls in long queues only for the call to be dropped or not dealt with efficiently once we get through. The notion of customer service appears to have been dropped or is merely a nice to have catch phrase that is honoured more in the breach.

These are just some of the reasons why Appleton applies a team of two professionals to each estate we administer, and we also keep the number of estates each team administers manageable. It is simply impossible to provide the high levels of personalised service our clients require with one person handling hundreds of estates.

This also means that not everyone qualifies to be an Appleton client, but for those who do, our commitment to you, your heirs, beneficiaries, family and loved ones is to strive to deliver the very highest levels of service in the fiduciary industry in South Africa.

Before introducing the other sections of the Appleton Times, I would like to make a special request to you to consider making a bequest in your own Will to support the wonderful work of the Spirit Foundation, about which more can be found at https://spiritf.org/. I am sure you will be moved by the work done by the Foundation and will hopefully see your way clear to being part of this wonderful organisation.

Until next quarter, enjoy the read and take good care!

Sincerely,