Closing the Gaps in Estate Administration

How LexisNexis Leads the Digital Shift with New Features and Integrations

Estate administration in South Africa has long been a complex, paper-intensive process. Legal practitioners, estate administrators, and banks handling deceased estates often juggle multiple systems for property searches, client communication, and compliance checks. This fragmented approach slows down the administration process and increases the risk of errors.

LexisNexis South Africa is changing this landscape through digital transformation. The Lexis® Deceased Estates platform has introduced new web-based integrations – including links with Lexis® Convey, Lexis® WinDeed, and Lexis® Secure – to unify and streamline the entire deceased estate process. These enhancements create a single integrated ecosystem for estate administration, boosting efficiency, accuracy, and transparency for professionals and their clients.

Key highlights of the enhanced platform include:

• Fully Digital & Web-Based: The platform is cloud-based and accessible anywhere, anytime through a web browser – no software installation or paperwork needed. This means you can work on estate files in the office, at court, or from home with equal ease.
• Integrated Ecosystem: One platform connects all tasks. Property transfer workflows, asset and liability searches, and client communications are now interlinked within Lexis Deceased Estates. Practitioners no longer have to capture information in various different applications.
• Greater Efficiency & Accuracy: By eliminating duplicate data entry and automating calculations, the platform reduces human error and saves time. Information entered once (like a property detail or an asset value) flows through to all relevant processes, ensuring consistency and speeding up estate wind-ups.
• Enhanced Transparency & Security: Real-time milestone tracking let practitioners and stakeholders monitor progress on an estate. Meanwhile, encrypted communication via Lexis SecureChat replaces email for sensitive discussions, protecting confidential information and creating an audit trail for accountability.

Meeting the Challenges of Modern Estate Administration

Deceased estate administration has long been riddled with bottlenecks. Gathering asset information, managing paperwork, communicating with heirs, and complying with Master’s Office requirements traditionally meant using separate tools for each task. For example, an executor might use one system for drafting documents, another for property searches, and numerous emails for updates. This siloed approach led to repeated data entry, delays waiting on information, and potential oversights if something fell through the cracks.

The Lexis Deceased Estates platform directly addresses these pain points. It serves as a unified digital workspace that covers the end-to-end estate administration workflow – from initial reporting of the estate to finalizing the Liquidation and Distribution Account. By centralizing tasks, the platform reduces duplication of effort and minimizes errors, all while keeping every step aligned with legal requirements. The latest feature enhancements take this a step further, closing the gaps by integrating external processes (like conveyancing and asset and liability searches) into the platform. The result is a smoother process that allows practitioners to focus on serving clients rather than managing multiple systems.

New Features and Integrations Driving the Digital Shift

LexisNexis has rolled out several key new features this year, in the Deceased Estates platform, each aimed at modernizing the estate administration process. Here’s a closer look at these integrations and how they improve day-to-day workflows:

1. Seamless Property Transfers with Lexis® Convey
   • What’s new: Lexis Deceased Estates now integrates with Lexis® Convey, the leading conveyancing software for property transfers.
   • How it works: When you record a property in a deceased estate matter, you can send those details directly to Lexis Convey with a click. All the information – property description, title deed number, heir details, etc. – flows automatically into the conveyancing system.
   • Why it helps: This eliminates manual re-entry of property data into separate software. By sharing data between the estate file and conveyancing workflow, transferring a property to an heir becomes faster and less error prone. Practitioners save time and ensure that the property transfer part of winding up the estate is handled efficiently and accurately, without typing mistakes that could cause delays.
     
2. Instant Asset Searches with Lexis® WinDeedWhat’s new: The platform now features a built-in link to Lexis® WinDeed, South Africa’s go-to service for bank account, home affairs, property, person, and vehicle searches, as well as credit bureau checks.
   1. How it works: From within an estate, an administrator can launch WinDeed queries to verify property ownership, search for other assets or liabilities, and pull data from Deeds Office records and credit bureaus – all without leaving the Lexis Deceased Estates platform.
   2. Why it helps: By conducting these searches internally, administrators can quickly uncover all assets and debts that belong to the deceased estate. For example, if you need to confirm if the deceased owned any other properties or bank accounts, you can do it in-platform. This integration ensures nothing is overlooked when inventorying the estate, and it saves the step of logging into a separate system. Early discovery of assets and liabilities means the estate can be administered more completely and with fewer surprises down the line.

3. Secure and Protected Communication with Lexis® Secure (SecureChat)
   • What’s new: Lexis Deceased Estates now includes Lexis® SecureChat, an encrypted messaging and document-sharing feature from the Lexis Secure suite.
   • How it works: Within each estate file, you can use SecureChat to send messages or share files with beneficiaries, and other stakeholders (like attorneys) on that estate. All communication is encrypted and stored.
   • Why it helps: Estate matters involve sensitive personal and financial information. Using ordinary email for corresponding with heirs or co-executors risks data breaches or lost threads. SecureChat provides a secure, auditable channel for these communications. Every message and file exchange is protected and tied to the estate. This means greater security (no chance of outside interception) and clear record-keeping of what was communicated, when, and to whom. It replaces scattered email trails with one reliable conversation stream, which is particularly useful for keeping everyone on the same page and for protecting client confidentiality.

4. Foreign Currency Conversion Tool
   • What’s new: A Foreign Currency Conversion feature is now available directly in the platform for estates that include assets valued in other currencies.
   • How it works: If an estate has, say, a bank account in US dollars or a stock portfolio in Euros, you can enter the foreign amount into the conversion tool. Select the relevant date (for example, date of death or date of distribution) and the currency, and the tool will convert the value into South African Rand using official exchange rates for that date.
   • Why it helps: Globalisation means many estates have overseas components. Previously, executors had to manually look up exchange rates and calculate conversions for the Liquidation and Distribution (L&D) account – a process prone to mistakes. Now, the built-in converter ensures accurate and compliant valuations of foreign assets in the L&D account. It saves time and removes the guesswork from currency conversion, helping practitioners confidently handle multi-currency estates.

Building on a Strong Foundation

These new enhancements are built atop Lexis Deceased Estates’ already strong feature foundation. Even before the latest update, the platform offered numerous tools that simplified estate administration:

• Cloud-Based Access: As a web-based program, Lexis Deceased Estates is accessible from any device with an internet connection. Practitioners can log in from the office, home, or court, without any special software installations. This makes collaboration and remote work much easier.
• Automated Document Generation: The platform can auto-generate all the necessary forms and reports required by the Master’s Office in minutes. For example, reporting documents, death notices, inventories, and liquidation & distribution accounts can be produced using pre-formatted templates, saving hours of paperwork.
• Compliance Checklists: It provides step-by-step checklists for the estate process. These built-in guides ensure that no critical steps or filings (like publishing notices or obtaining tax clearances) are overlooked. This reduces the risk of non-compliance and associated delays.
• Asset & Liability Management: Users can capture and categorize all assets and liabilities of the estate (properties, bank accounts, investments, debts, etc.) in one place. The system helps keep track of these, and even reconcile values when needed, giving a clear financial picture of the estate at any time.
• Smart L&D Account Calculations: The platform applies automated rules for calculating the Liquidation and Distribution account. It handles the arithmetic of asset values, expenses, fees, and distribution to heirs, ensuring the final accounts balance without.
• Milestone Tracking: Tracks the progress of each estate matter – from initial appointment of executor to final distribution. This milestone view lets practitioners and even clients (if given access) see exactly what stage the estate is at and what tasks remain.
• Executor & Beneficiary Management: The system has dedicated sections to record details of executors, heirs, and their respective entitlements. This makes it simple to manage who gets what, and to generate distribution schedules or receipts for beneficiaries.
• Secure Document Storage: All documents related to the estate (wills, death certificates, correspondence, etc.) can be uploaded to the platform’s secure cloud storage. This means an end to rifling through filing cabinets – any document can be retrieved with a quick search in the digital file.
• Audit Trails & Reporting: Every action taken on the estate file (editing an entry, sending a message, generating a document) is logged. This audit trail provides accountability and makes it easy to review the case’s history or to generate status reports for clients or supervisors.
• Task & Milestone Reminders: Automated reminders alert the user of upcoming deadlines (e.g., filing a preliminary inventory within 14 days, or anniversary of appointments). This task system helps practitioners stay on top of all obligations without relying on memory or external calendars.

By bringing these capabilities together, Lexis Deceased Estates has, from the start, provided an end-to-end solution. The new integrations simply extend that solution to cover even more aspects of the work, reinforcing the platform’s position as a one-stop hub for estate administration.

Why These Updates Matter

This upgrade isn’t just a software patch; it represents a paradigm shift in how professionals handle deceased estates. By integrating conveyancing, search and verification, and communication tools into one platform, LexisNexis is acknowledging that practitioners work across many areas and need them to work in harmony.

In the past, estate administration was all about managing separate parts: you had to be an impromptu project manager, ensuring the conveyancer did their part, checking that all assets were found, and constantly updating beneficiaries. Now, the Lexis Deceased Estates platform serves as a command centre for all these parts.

For practitioners, the updates mean:

• Less administrative drag: Many formerly manual or repetitive tasks are automated or integrated, giving you more time to focus on complex issues that require your expertise.
• Fewer errors: Integration means data only needs entry once and all calculations (like those in L&D accounts or currency conversion) are handled by the system. This significantly lowers the chance of mistakes that could require rework or lead to compliance issues.
• Greater confidence and compliance: With built-in reminders, audit trails, and secure communication, you can be confident that you’re meeting all legal obligations and keeping an incontrovertible record of actions and decisions. This is beneficial not just for peace of mind, but in the event of any audits or disputes, you have everything documented.
• Better client service: You can respond to client queries faster (since information is at your fingertips), provide updates more proactively, and close estates quicker, all of which improve client satisfaction and trust in your services.

For clients the benefits are also tangible:

• Transparency: They get clearer insights into the process. With regular SecureChat communications and possibly shared milestone tracking, they aren’t left in the dark about the estate’s status. This transparency builds trust.
• Speed: Faster administration means heirs receive their inheritances sooner and executors can conclude their duties in a more reasonable timeframe. This can bring closure and financial resolution quicker.
• Security: Knowing that their personal information ,and that of the deceased, is handled securely and not being sent around on email provides peace of mind. Especially for banks involved as executors or custodians, the encryption and audit trail are critical for their compliance and risk management.
• Accuracy: Beneficiaries can be confident that the distribution calculations are correct and that no assets have been missed, thanks to the rigorous search and accounting tools. This reduces the likelihood of disputes or corrections after distribution.

A product owner at LexisNexis South Africa put it this way: “By integrating Convey, WinDeed, and Secure directly into the Deceased Estates platform, we’ve created an ecosystem that mirrors how practitioners actually work. This is not just about efficiency — it’s about building trust through accuracy, transparency, and security.” In essence, the technology is aligning with real-world needs and workflows, not forcing users to adapt to the software.

Embracing a Digital Future in Estate Administration

With these enhancements, Lexis Deceased Estates has solidified its position as South Africa’s most comprehensive estate administration platform. It showcases what the future of legal practice can look like in this field: fully digital, integrated, and client-centred.

The concept of an “ecosystem” is key. Just as we’ve seen in other professions, having all tools under one roof leads to exponential improvements in how work gets done. For deceased estate administration, this means one secure web-based environment where every piece of the puzzle is connected. Practitioners who adopt this approach are effectively stepping into the future of estate administration – one where mundane tasks are minimized and oversight is maximized.

By moving away from siloed systems and embracing an all-in-one solution, professionals can handle higher volumes of cases or simply handle their current caseload with less stress and overtime. They can devote more energy to advising clients, planning complex estates, or expanding their practice, knowing that the busywork is largely automated.

The digital shift also aligns with broader trends in the legal industry. Clients today expect faster service and greater transparency – and they’re more comfortable than ever with online solutions. Lexis Deceased Estates delivers on these expectations, giving law firms and banks a competitive edge in service delivery. It shows clients that you’re using cutting-edge tools to serve their needs and that their matter is being handled efficiently.

In conclusion, LexisNexis’s new integrations and features truly close the traditional gaps in estate administration. They create a smooth, efficient process where all stakeholders – from the attorney to the heir – benefit from improved speed, clarity, and security. This is more than just a software update; it’s a step toward the digital transformation of estate administration in South Africa. By embracing this integrated, web-based ecosystem, practitioners position themselves to work smarter, reduce errors, and provide superior service during a time when compassion and competence matter most.