Job Summary
A well established company in the financial services sector is looking for a Estate Intake and Reporting Officer to join their team.
Your:
Education:
- A relevant National Diploma (Paralegal, Law or Legal Administraion) or Degree (B. Com Law, LLB, BA Law, etc)
- Paralegal diploma, legal secretary qualification or equivalent legal administration qualification.
Experience Required:
- Minium of 3 years ‘experience in deceased estate administration support, fiduciary administration, legal practice support or an estate administration related professional services environment.
- Working knowledge of deceased estate reporting requirements and Master's Office processes.
- Strong document management, client communication and workflow tracking ability.
- Experience with Lexis Deceased Estates or comparable case management software.
- Experience within a trust company, fiduciary business or law firm deceased estates department.
- Familiarity with reporting requirements across more than one Master's Office region.
- Exposure to financial adviser networks or professional intermediary relationships.
Will enable you to:
Responsibilities
Estate Intake & Case Establishment:
- Receive and process new deceased estate referrals.
- Engage with family representatives, heirs and financial advisers in a professional and empathetic manner.
- Obtain and verify the minimum documentation required to open a new estate matter.
- Open new matters on Lexis Deceased Estates or any equivalent system adopted by the company.
- Create and maintain complete electronic estate files in line with company file hygiene standards.
- Ensure all cases are accurately captured, classified and tracked from inception.
Estate Information Gathering:
- Collect the information required for estate reporting.
- Compile preliminary schedules of assets, liabilities, income flows, policies and supporting estate information.
- Obtain wills, death certificates, identity documents, marriage information and other supporting legal documents.
- Identify missing information early and proactively manage follow-ups.
- Coordinate document collection activities with the Junior Estate Administration Assistant.
Master's Office Reporting:
- Prepare the estate reporting pack required for submission to the Master.
- Prepare and coordinate statutory forms, affidavits and supporting documents.
- Ensure reporting packs comply with the requirements of the relevant Master's Office.
- Track submissions and maintain proof of submission and status records.
- Escalate unusual, incomplete or high-risk matters to the Managing Director.
Letters of Executorship Management:
- Own the workflow from intake to issue of Letters of Executorship.
- Monitor the progress of reported estates with the relevant Master's Office.
- Resolve routine queries and outstanding requirements.
- Maintain a central LOE tracker and identify delays or bottlenecks.
- Escalate aged or problematic matters for management intervention.
Handover Preparation to Panel Administrators:
- Conduct a file quality review before handover.
- Prepare a structured administrator handover pack once Letters of Executorship have been issued.
- Ensure estate files are complete, indexed and supported by the required source documents.
- Coordinate allocation and handover to the appointed panel estate administrator.
- Record the handover date, responsible panel administrator and next action milestones.
Stakeholder Communication & Reporting:
- Provide clear and timely status updates to advisers.
- Provide appropriate progress feedback to family members and nominated representatives.
- Maintain accurate case notes and communication records.
- Prepare weekly status reports for the Managing Director.
- Support advisor-facing service standards and protect company reputation as nominated executors.
Governance, Compliance & Quality Assurance:
- Maintain confidentiality and POPIA-compliant record keeping.
- Support FICA and onboarding compliance processes.
- Apply EFBOE checklists, templates and workflow controls consistently.
- Identify operational risks, delays and rework trends.
- Contribute to improvement of Succession Desk SOPs, templates and reporting tools.