South Africa’s FNB has long been a regional leader in succession planning. This area of private banking can be tricky to define. What defines excellence when debating how good a financial institution is at helping families transfer ownership and oversight of wealth from one generation to the next? This process might take place overnight. On other occasions, it can take years to complete and be tortuously complex. Either way, preparation is all.
Data is always a good place to start. During the awards period spanning the 12 months to the end of September 2024, FNB’s private banking team onboarded 510 family estates. It helped clients sign 90,900 physical wills – a year-on-year increase of 7% – as well as around 8,000 digital wills. Total assets under administration (offshore plus onshore) rose 26.5% year-on-year during the awards period, to R62.7 billion ($3.4 billion).
FNB’s succession-planning team manages any number of tasks in a typical busy day, including court approvals, asset management, debt resolution and beneficiary distribution.