Legato Trust and Fiduciary Services provides the strategic and practical support needed to navigate your financial legacy.
– Maya Angelou
FINANCIAL LEGACY
Your financial legacy is a very personal matter.
We understand that it is not just about money. It is also about anticipating the future needs of your dependents and successors, and making decisions that will safeguard their generational financial sustainability and security.
It is not easy to navigate the challenges of sound trust and estate planning, tax management and regulatory compliance, especially when set against a backdrop of complex family dynamics and cross-border residency. Our sole focus at Legato is to provide our clients with experienced and professional support in all aspects of trust management, estate planning and tax management, to ensure legal compliance and the effective transfer of wealth to future generations.
Let’s start a conversation about how we can help you.
About Legato Trust and Fiduciary
At Legato we are all about people.
Our purpose is to provide our clients with peace of mind and assurance that their wealth will leave a lasting legacy for their descendants, so that they can focus on the importance of being present in the here and now.
Legato Trust and Fiduciary Services was founded by Hanna Marais in 2021 with the goal of increasing generational shared value for her clients. Hanna has over 25 years’ experience in the South African financial services industry. Her foundation is grounded in extensive fiduciary and trusts experience, with strong knowledge of the regulatory and legislative landscape facing her clients.
“At Legato we are all about people. We strive to support our clients through highly complex and emotional decision making processes, and manage all aspects of fiduciary and administrative requirements, providing assurance to trustees that their beneficiaries can build on their hard-earned success,” says Hanna.
Work with us
Legato Trust and Fiduciary Services
Succession Planning
Often overlooked and fraught with difficulties, succession and estate planning is the cornerstone of preserving your family’s legacy.
Trust Services
Legato has a proven track record of independent trusteeship, which extends to chairing of trusts and management of all aspects of trust compliance.
Trust Education
Effective trust management requires a certain level of knowledge by the beneficiaries.
Wills & Estate Services
We have broad expertise in the drafting of wills and the appointment of executors.
Advisory Services
Our team’s depth of experience extends to a wide range of advisory services.
Family Governance
Legato assists families in South Africa and abroad to draft their bespoke family governance structures.
Succession Planning
Often overlooked and fraught with difficulties, succession and estate planning is the cornerstone of preserving your family’s legacy. As a trusted advisor to families, we build relationships with the wealth creator, as well as his or her spouse/partner and children, and other dependents and beneficiaries. We bring our vast experience to bear by designing a robust legal structure for succession and estate planning, and support this with bespoke family governance structures that we support with management and advisory services.
Trust Services
Legato has a proven track record of independent trusteeship, which extends to chairing of trusts and management of all aspects of trust compliance.
Legato can support clients at any point in the the trust lifecycle. From setting up new trusts to reviewing existing trusts, we can develop a robust trust structure that ensures the compliance of all parties in the trust. We have extensive experience in the management and administration of local trusts including charitable and B-BBEE trusts.
Trust Education
Effective trust management requires a certain level of knowledge by the beneficiaries. Legato works with family members to ensure that they understand how trusts work and their responsibilities in ensuring the legacy of the trust. We also assist in the education of family governance and coach families to become familiar with the operations of the governance structure. This goes a long way towards resolving conflict and building understanding between trustees and beneficiaries.
Wills & Estate Services
We have broad expertise in the drafting of wills and the appointment of executors. In addition to winding up deceased estates we also hold wills in safekeeping.
Advisory Services
Our team’s depth of experience extends to a wide range of advisory services, which include:
Tax planning and advisory
Tax structuring
Offshore tax planning
Business advisory
Trust advisory
Company registration and secretarial services
Valuations
Family Governance
Legato assists families in South Africa and abroad to draft their bespoke family governance structures. We also schedule, manage and chair family assemblies and family councils, and provide the full scope of administrative and compliance support for these gatherings.
Taxation Services
- Individual Tax Compliance
- Trust Tax Compliance
- Companies Tax Compliance
- Individual Tax Audit
- Company Tax Audit
- Tax Clearances Individual, Trust and Company
- Notice of Objection (ADR1 and ADR2)
- Tax and SARB Emigrations
- Foreign Investment Allowance (FIA ZAR 10 million SARS allowance)
- Special Foreign Investment Allowance (FIA Above ZAR 10 million)
- Value Added Tax
- Payroll Services
- Estates
- All Tax type registrations with SARS
Company Services and Accounting Services
Our Clients
We offer personalised services
Legato has the benefit of being a privately owned business, which provides a high degree of personalised service, flexibility and customisation to our clients’ needs. Confidentiality and discretion are at the heart of our approach and privacy policy
We aim to build relationships across familial generations, not only with the wealth creator. Our success lies in our ability to understand the specific needs of our HNWI and UHNWI clients and their families, entrepreneurs, and families with interests and assets in multiple jurisdictions.
We believe that family governance is a lifestyle, not a product, which allows us to bring softer skills to the table to facilitate decision making and resolve conflicts related to estate and trust planning.
Our Clients
Why clients trust Legato
Data and information collection are key in successfully managing generational wealth. Our clients appreciate our straight-forward processes and hands-on involvement, which helps to clearly define responsibilities and document decisions. We respect the trust and value that is placed in us by being a reliable and trusted expert advisor who can ask the hard questions and see things through. We understand the importance of communication with multi-generational family members and will meet them where they are at in terms of their understanding and experience, talk their language and share our knowledge. We are not a firm that chases high volumes of clients, but rather invests deeply in long-term relationships with our client base.
We walk the long road with our clients, and ensure that today’s acorn becomes tomorrow’s oak tree.
Hanna Marais - Director: Fiduciary
Connected & Collaborative
Our Team
As our name, Legato, implies, we aim to work in a connected and collaborative way with our clients, by bringing our expertise and strong work ethic together in service of our clients.
We pride ourselves on our proactive approach in every aspect of client service, and focus on relationships rather than transactions. Each member of our team is passionate about helping families successfully transfer wealth to future generations, and take the approach of bringing about harmony within family governance structures and between trustees and beneficiaries.
Our strengths as a team lie in our attention to detail, assertiveness, solutions focus and resilience.
Please reach out to any of the Legato team members to find out how we can be of service to you:
Hanna Marais
Director: Fiduciary
Hanna.marais@legato-tfs.com
Hendrik van der Walt
Director: Accounting and Tax
Hendrik.vdwalt@legato-tfs.com
Jacques Thysse
Director: Accounting and Tax
Jacques.thysse@legato-tfs.com
Jaco Burmeister
Head: Legal and Wills
Jaco.burmeister@legato-tfs.com
Annemarie de Lange
Head: Estates
Annemarie.delange@legato-tfs.com
Natassja Matthews
Fiduciary Specialist
Natassja.matthews@legato-tfs.com
