Master’s urgent final call for assistance from trustees to improve compliance by 18 December 2024 - 13 December 2024

The ‘new’ requirement for trustees to submit “beneficial ownership” registers to the Master on a real-time basis was effectively introduced on 1 April 2023. With all South Africans  (including government) trying to find their feet in this new compliance storm, after the amendment of various laws to remain off the greylist, compliance rates started ticking up slowly. In the meantime, the Master moved from a temporary ‘Google doc’ format to a permanent register. Even though government issued various communications, they did not seem to have reached the correct audience; as to today, there are still many trust service providers who are not aware of the ‘new’ requirements, leaving their clients exposed.

The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development issued a media statement on 4 May 2023 reminding (informing) the public that these new measures have come into effect from 1 April 2023 with the heading “Increased measures for Trusts to combat money-laundering and terrorism financing crimes”. The Chief Master also issued Directive 8 of 2023, effective 16 October 2023, titled “Beneficial Ownership Register”, which reminds trustees that the requirements apply to all trusts, “irrelevant of when and for what purpose it has been registered”. No extension was provided to submit beneficial ownership information to the Master, and it stressed that “all South Africans are required to provide records and reports on all information about beneficial owners as from 1 April 2023”. The Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana, delivered his Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) on 1 November 2023. He stressed that “there is also a significant amount of work that must still be done” to prove to the FATF that enough is being done to remove South Africa from the greylist. The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development issued a Media Statement on 17 September 2024 titled “Trustees not complying with the provisions of the amended Trust Property Control Act to face harsher punishment”. In a drive to improve the chance to exit the greylist in early 2025, the media statement set a deadline for filing the beneficial ownership registers with the Master by 15 November 2024. National Treasury provided a progress update on 25 October 2025, following the FATF Plenary, which took place on the same day. National Treasury also called upon all companies and professional trustee service providers to ensure registration by companies and trusts they engage (or are involved) with before 30 November 2024 to increase the coverage in beneficial ownership registries significantly. The Master conducted a webinar “Unlocking Transparency: Paving the way for trust and accountability with our Trust Beneficial Ownership Register” on 29 October 2024 to discuss challenges and solutions. The recording was made available on the Department of Justice website.

Since the webinar and posting by various industry players on social media to remind trustees of their legal responsibilities to submit beneficial ownership registers, a significant improvement was noticed in the submissions on the Master’s portal. The Master extended the submission deadline to 30 November 2024 due to the volume of submissions simultaneously. The Master is busy collating their numbers for submission to the FATF and pleads with those trustees who have not yet submitted registers to do so by 18 December 2024. All trustees who have not yet submitted these registers should do so as good citizens and avoid any possible penalties and fines.