Sharia Compliance
The importance of
Sharia Estate Planning
The importance of
Sharia Estate Planning
As a response to a clear need in the community, Legacy established a team dedicated to Sharia compliant Estate Planning. We were able to call on the various skills of the directors and outside experts to enable us to set up the necessary structures required to provide this service. With these structures now in place, and the team firmly established, Legacy is proud to offer a complete Sharia compliant Estate planning service to our Muslim clients.
Founding director, Showkat Alie Mukadam, a Chartered Accountant, specialising at Legacy in personal and business succession planning, and has spent much of his distinguished career serving the Muslim Community in a number of capacities. He is pleased to be able to continue to do so with Legacy’s Sharia Estate Planning team.
“The Islamic laws of succession include distinct rules and nuances. I spent a significant amount of time studying overseas and in South Africa with leading Islamic scholars to gain a good understanding of the intricacies of the Islamic laws of succession and related issues.” “It was a good learning curve” he says proudly. “There are strict rules in the Quran stating how shares in an Islamic Estate must be apportioned. The challenge is reconciling these with the secular laws and taxes of South Africa where the apportionment of an Estate can have negative tax or personal consequences. We need to be able to provide practical solutions to such challenges. I’m pleased that our dedicated team can assist our Muslim clients with such issues.”
While most of the situations encountered in Sharia compliant Estate Planning are fairly common, it’s understanding and providing practical solutions to the extraordinary situations that sets Legacy Fiduciary Services apart. Showkat provides an example, “People in commerce want to know how their share in a business will be dealt with on their death. They are looking for solutions to provide for business succession with family members who are involved in the business without prejudicing those family members who have no such interest. All this must be achieved within the requirements of the Islamic laws of succession.”
A hard but worthwhile learning curve
The learning for Legacy Fiduciary Services over the past decade has been phenomenal as they have been continuously challenged with assisting each client with their own particular circumstances.
The issues facing Muslim clients include giving comfort to a surviving spouse that their needs will be taken care of, providing for adopted children from your Estate and the principle in Sharia law that all heirs share in each asset in the Estate.
“A challenge,” described by Showkat, “Especially where are assisting clients with a family business where some children are involved in the business and others are professionals in their own fields.” “Communication with the family is a vital component of any Estate Plan, let alone such an Estate where we have to ensure that a child who is not involved in a family business receives other assets in the Estate to make up their portion.”
Experience and expertise place Legacy Fiduciary Services in high demand
Their experience and expertise in the field of Sharia Estate Planning has resulted in Legacy being called upon by people across the country to assist with their Estate planning. Showkat concludes, “People might know and understand the principles and develop their theories but with the right Attorneys in our practice, Legacy are uniquely placed to provide a complete Sharia Estate Planning service to our clients.”
– Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W) Bukhari
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Estate Planning
Fiduciary Services
Trust Administration
Administration of Deceased Estates
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