A honest review on the services from Capital Legacy from the viewpoint of a conveyancing secretary

So I have decided to write a honest review on the complete experience received from Capital Legacy. My mom's partner passed away in October 2023, her second partner , and her second late estate she had to deal with. I am a conveyancing secretary, from another law firm who does not deal with Capital Legacy. I am thus in a position to ask advise from my boss, who deals with late estates, and I do have a good understanding on the terminology and processes involved when dealing with late estates.

I therefore encourage each person who are considering Capital Legacy, to read this review. 1. Upon the reading of the will. Here the service was excellent, and timeous. done within days of his passing. 2. The Transfer Attorneys were appointed quite quickly, and the process started painlessly. 3. The Transfer Attorneys provided weekly updates, which my mom and I were very happy with. 4. We had to ask Phumizile Thabethe for feedback on the progress of the late estate. feedback was provided to us, however as mentioned, it had to be requested. I did read previous reviews about Capital Legacy, and I have a feeling that feedback was mostly provided due to the fact that I also know the process. 5. Any extra requests we had, that the executor (Capital Legacy) needed to assist us with, was denied. Phumizile Thabethe and her manager Belinda simply gave us the reason: "because it is too much admin". Extra requests we had, were involving the insurance of the property that needed to be transferred to my mom's name. My mom wanted to move the insurance to her name, as she was the one paying it anyway. They gave us the run around for almost a week, and the result ended in a "no". 5. Be aware of the above point, as when they tell you in the beginning that you can ask their help with regards to anything when it comes to the late estate, they dont really mean it, and they are quick to tell you that it will be too much admin. 6. With regards to the L & D account, the account we received indicated that no estate tax will be payable. Be aware of this, as in our case, this was false. My mom ended up paying late estate tax, The amount of which I unfortunately am not at liberty to disclose. 7. Be aware of their sales slogan. Both my mom and a friend of mine, have policies with them, because they were informed that 90% of the late estate costs will be covered should they pass away. This is only valid if the policy holder actually has money available, and have kept up with their premium payments. In our case, there was almost no money available, and my mom ended up paying around 90% of the costs out of her pocket, which was well over R100 thousand. Due to this, my friend has contacted Capital Legacy, as he needed to ensure that his loved ones will be covered once he is gone. My mom has also decided to cancel her policy with Capital Legacy, due to this very reason. 8. We were informed late of documents being lodged, prep and registered at the deeds office. Do not be fooled, they dont inform you on the day if happens. My mom's property was registered already for two days before they informed her. She already knew, because I have access to the same systems they have. This was bad service from both the Transfer Attorneys and Capital Legacy. 9. In the beginning of the process, they kept on calling us, wanting to find out about the particulars of his previous wife. I have explicitly asked them on two occasions, if they are asking about his first or second wife (who passed away in 2017), as my mom is his common law third wife. Each time Phumizile got confused, and asked about the first wife. We did send her all documentation we had on her (the first wife). For over a month, this was the hold up. Eventually they realized he was married twice, even though I did mention it to them on two previous occasions. They then had to get a copy of the testament and L & D account of his second wife, which I offered to assist them with. Upon receipt of the documents, it came to light that they, Capital Legacy actually handled the Late Estate of his late wife. And they never realised it. I did send the documents to them, stating that they should have still had it on file, as it was only closed in 2018 and most places keep files for around 5 to 7 years. I did not receive a response from them. I am still convinced that if it was not for my assistance in this, the late estate would not have been finished by now. 10. Lastly, when the transfer of the property came on prep at the Deeds office. Apart from the fact that we were informed a day after it came on Prep, we contacted them and asked them if there was any amount still outstanding, as we will not want for that to be the reason why it does not register. We only received an answer around two working days later, indicating that there is an amount outstanding. We had to ask them three times what the amount was, twice we were told that they dont want to send a lot of invoices (too much admin) to my mom, and they will rather wait for the amount payable to the Tax Practitioners, before they send everything to her in one go. This after we told them that we do not mind receiving more than one invoice, we just want the transfer to happen. Two days before the final date , they informed us of the outstanding amount. My mom then struggled to pay the amount, as her cell phone banking was not allowing it. She had to physically go to the bank, to get payment authorised, only for Belinda from Capital Legacy to call me, and tell me that we are delaying the registration of the transfer. When this was mentioned to me, I told her that it was not us, it was them, as we have been waiting for them to tell us how much must be paid. Belinda then tried to tell me that the Transfer is dependant on the Tax Practitioner and Tax Certificate, which it is not, and I told her so. She then got irritated with me, and proceeded to even sound irritated with me over the phone, by trying to mention late estate jargon which she thought I will have no idea what it means, I called her out on it, and she then backed down. I did find this attitude to be disrepectfull.

As my mom has decided to cancel her policy with them, this might be a part one of a two parter, as I have read that some people are complaining of their cancellation fees being extremely high.

I wanted to give a one star review, however decided against it, as we were provided feedback, even though we had to ask for it. Please consider this actually to be a one and a half star review.