Question:
My late father-in-law had been receiving a monthly annuity payment from SA, paid into a non-resident account and from there transferred to his account in the UK. The policy was held on a survivorship basis so that his wife could continue to receive the payments until her death. However, the insurance company stopped the payments into the SA account after his death because it was not also in his wife's name. They say she must open an SA N-Res account in her own name, but these accounts all seem to stipulate that deposits should only be in foreign currencies. They say there are exceptions, but it is not clear what these exceptions are. While it seems easy enough to open such an account, it is not clear if it will be able to receive payments in Rand or if these can then be transferred to a UK account. We have no information on how my father-in-law set up the previous arrangement with the SA bank to receive and transfer his payments. We do not want to contact that bank because an annuity payment in my mother in law's own name is also being paid into it and transferred to the UK and we don't want to upset that apple-cart also. My mother-in-law does not know if they formally emigrated from SA - her husband handled all that. Any advice/suggestions?
Answer:
Mary,
Your comment "these accounts all seem to stipulate that deposits should only be in foreign currencies" cannot possibly be true. The entire purpose of the non-resident bank account for former SA residents living outside of SA is to collect local proceeds and to remit these overseas. You may erroneously be looking at accounts for non-residents living in SA, looking to set up accounts in SA and wishing to remit foreign currency into these SA bank accounts (ie the money is flowing the other way).
If you contact one of the four big banks here (Nedbank ABSA, Standard, First National) they will all be able to assist you with setting up a
non-resident bank account (also called 'blocked' rand account), which can receive your local annuity income and then transfer this abroad. Financial emigration specialists such as cashkows.com would also be able to help you, but obviously at a fee. Given your situation, you probably don't need outside assistance, but their website may help explain the requirements in a bit more detail.
