An executor’s remuneration — Some unease with ‘gross value’ as a point of departure for its calculation if a fiduciary’s interest and matrimonial property are involved

An executor’s remuneration for the administration of the estate is determined according to a prescribed tariff in the absence of an explicit clause in the will, and the Master taxes it according to the gross value of assets in the estate. The executor is entitled to receive the appropriate remuneration out of the estate’s assets. If the gross value includes the value, for example, of the joint estate where the deceased was married in community of property or of a fideicommissary asset that formed part of the deceased’s estate as fiduciary assets, this inflated value translates into an enhanced calculated remuneration that the executor could receive out of the residue of the assets of the estate. This, in turn, results in the unjustified impoverishment of all other beneficiaries and is to the unjustified benefit of the fideicommissary.