Dementia: Understanding Your Legal Choices Before You Need Them – The Human Side Of Money Presented By Client Care

by admin | Sep 6, 2026 | Financial Planning, St Francis

There’s a phone call I’ve come to recognise over thirty years in this profession. It starts with, “Dirk, I need your advice about my mother,” and within a few sentences I can tell we’re already behind. A diagnosis has come, capacity is fading, and the family is trying to work out in a hurry what can still be done.

Sometimes there’s still a good answer. But it’s never as simple as it would have been a year earlier. In South Africa, so much of what we can legally do depends on one thing: whether a person still has the mental capacity to decide. Once that’s gone, some doors close for good.

Why plan early? Acting while the mind is clear means wishes are recorded, finances are protected, and families know their options without the cost and stress of an emergency court application. I’ve sat with families going through that, and the emotional toll often outweighs the financial one.

Your options, in brief:

Power of Attorney helps with financial matters while capacity is intact, but it automatically lapses once capacity is lost. It’s a bridge, not a long-term solution.

Administration, granted through the Master of the High Court, is a practical, less costly alternative when someone can no longer manage their affairs with proper oversight built in.

Curatorship, appointed through the High Court, offers more comprehensive management for advanced cognitive decline, with a curator acting in the person’s best interests.

Special Trusts (Type A) can offer long-term protection for someone with severe mental incapacity and safeguarding assets, ensuring continuity, and offering favourable tax treatment where requirements are met.

Advance Healthcare Directives record a person’s wishes about future medical care in writing, so loved ones and doctors aren’t left guessing when it matters most.

Wills should be reviewed and signed while capacity still allows it, ideally well before any diagnosis, so they reflect current wishes rather than an outdated chapter of life.

Before the crisis, not during it

None of this is about taking control away from someone. Done at the right time, it’s one of the most respectful things a family can do, preserving a person’s own wishes in their own words, made by their own hand, while they were still able to decide.

A dementia diagnosis is hard enough without a family untangling legal and financial matters under pressure. If there’s one thing to take from this; have the conversation now, while it’s still just a conversation.

As always, at Client care we happy to talk this through with you or your family, whenever it feels right.

—

Dirk Groeneveld, Certified Financial Planner

t. 083 261 9287

e. dirk@clientcare.co.za

The Retirement You Didn’t See Coming – Dan Haylett At St Francis Links, presented by Client Care

by SFT | Aug 24, 2026 | Financial Planning, St Francis

Retirement might sound fairly straightforward. Finish work, put away the alarm clock and start enjoying all that extra time. In reality, the transition can be considerably more complicated.

Client Care Private Wealth Management is hosting UK retirement specialist and author Dan Haylett at St Francis Links on Friday, 11 September, for a practical conversation about moving from working life into retirement.

Haylett is the author of The Retirement You Didn’t See Coming, a book exploring the human side of retirement and some of the challenges that arrive with one of life’s biggest transitions.

Living Well In Retirement

The discussion will look beyond the financial mechanics of retirement and focus on how people actually live once their working years come to an end.

Haylett will explore why the first 10 to 15 years of retirement can be particularly important. He will also discuss the concept of “front-loading” retirement spending, allowing people to make greater use of their money during the years when they have the energy and freedom to enjoy it.

As Haylett puts it, the goal is to retire and “live well – with energy, freedom and purpose – while you can.”

Breakfast At St Francis Links

The event takes place in the Sunset Room at the St Francis Links Clubhouse from 9am to 10am and includes breakfast.

Attendance is by RSVP for catering purposes. Those interested can book here – https://clientcare.co.za/events/ or contact Client Care at daniel@clientcare.co.za or call 042 940 0842.

For anyone approaching retirement, already retired, or simply thinking a little further down the road, it promises to be an interesting hour exploring what life after work can actually look like.

The R760 000 Question – The Human Side Of Money presented by Client Care

by SFT | Aug 23, 2026 | Financial Planning, St Francis

We sat with a new client couple last week, working through their goals for the future. It’s one of my favourite parts of onboarding a new family, unpacking not just where they are today, but where they’d like to be in the future. Holidays, cars, retirement, and, in this case, two children heading off into adulthood.

Their eldest starts university next year. Stellenbosch is calling, and rightly so. We costed tuition, residence and living expenses at R250,000 a year or R1,000,000 over four years. Their younger child has other plans. Port Elizabeth, staying at home, studying locally. That journey came to roughly R240,000 over the same four years.

Both wonderful kids, both wonderful plans. That evening, sitting at home, one figure kept nagging at me; R760,000. The present-day difference, sitting right there between two siblings under the same roof.

Let me be clear, there’s no right or wrong answer here. Every child is different, and I’m not suggesting a Stellenbosch education isn’t worth it. What I am asking is whether parents always think decisions this expensive through as deeply as they should. In my experience, often they don’t. The decision gets made with love and good intention, and once it’s made, the die is cast, quietly shaping financial decisions for years to come.

If both children had studied locally, the family would have saved somewhere around R500,000. That could go a long way toward housing deposits one day, a wedding or two, or the overseas trip this couple has been quietly putting off while they “get the kids sorted.” It’s not that spending on Stellenbosch is wrong, it’s that the alternative is rarely given equal airtime in the conversation.

My generation is more generous toward our children than the ones before us, and mostly that’s a beautiful thing. But generosity without reflection can quietly erode our own dreams such as an earlier retirement, a long-planned trip, the freedom to slow down sooner. Is it always the smart thing to do? Is it always appreciated the way we imagine? And could it be placing pressure on the goals we’ve been quietly working toward ourselves?

This is why our onboarding process spends so much time helping clients think about their future selves, not just today’s wants. It can feel like it takes the spontaneity out of decisions. But it makes for far wiser family choices.

So, here’s the real question. Would you rather sit with a tough, well-considered decision today, or leave your future self to live with the consequences of one that was never quite thought through?

—

Dirk Groeneveld, Certified Financial Planner

t. 083 261 9287

e. dirk@clientcare.co.za

What does Inflation mean to your Retirement Plan? The Human Side Of Money Presented By Client Care

by SFT | Aug 16, 2026 | Financial Planning, St Francis

Every month the Reserve Bank tells us what inflation is doing, and every month most of us nod, half-listen, and carry on. We know inflation is real. We know things cost more than they used to. But I don’t think we truly feel it, not in our bones, until we sit down and look at our own numbers over our own lifetime. So, let’s do that. Two things many of us know well: filling up the car and putting lamb chops on the braai.

 Back in 1980, R1,000 bought you 2,000 litres of petrol, or 149.5 kilograms of lamb chops. By 2000, that same R1,000 got you 333.3 litres, or 28.6 kilograms of chops. Roll forward to 2026, and R1,000 buys you 37.6 litres of petrol, about enough for a scooter, or 4.5 kilograms of lamb chops. Scary numbers, aren’t they.

Here’s the part that surprised me. Over that 56-year stretch, fuel inflation ran 61.5% higher than official CPI. Lamb chops, on the other hand, tracked almost exactly what the Reserve Bank told us inflation was doing. Same country, same period, two completely different stories.

 And that’s the real lesson. Inflation isn’t one number that applies equally to all of us. It’s personal. It’s shaped entirely by how we live. Two people who look identical to the man in the street, similar homes, similar cars, similar age, can be experiencing completely different rates of erosion depending on what they eat, what they drive, and where they holiday. This creep happens so slowly that most of us never notice it happening.

 This is exactly why I get uneasy when I see retirement plans built on static numbers and rules of thumb, treating every client as if they’re identical to their neighbour. That approach can lead to real trouble. On one side, you risk running out of money before you run out of life. On the other, sadder in my view, you leave behind a pile of money that could have funded experiences and time with the people you love most.

It’s never too late to take control of this. Your retirement plan should be as unique as you are, and building that only takes some time and care. If this has got you thinking about your own numbers, pop in for a chat. I know we can help.

—

Dirk Groeneveld, Certified Financial Planner

t. 083 261 9287

e. dirk@clientcare.co.za

Client Care is pleased to welcome Emile van Niekerk to the St Francis Bay team.

by SFT | Aug 16, 2026 | Financial Planning, St Francis

Emile joins Client Care after spending more than 12 and a half years building a successful career in corporate finance and accounting. Starting as a graduate, he progressed through a variety of finance roles and ultimately worked his way up into senior management within a large, global automotive business. His career has taken him across the globe, with opportunities to work in the United States, Germany, Mexico, and the United Kingdom, providing him with valuable international experience across both manufacturing and sales organisations.

During his time in the UK, Emile qualified as a Chartered Management Accountant (CGMA), further strengthening his financial and commercial expertise. Throughout his career, he has worked across both commercial finance and statutory accounting, helping businesses make better long-term strategic financial decisions while also overseeing areas such as corporate tax, external audits, and the preparation of annual financial statements. During this time, he has also led teams of finance professionals and has always found the greatest satisfaction in building strong relationships and supporting the growth of those around him. Most recently, Emile worked as a Finance Manager of Continental Tyre South Africa.

While Emile thoroughly enjoyed his corporate career, he realised that what motivates him most isn’t simply working with numbers, it’s helping people make confident financial decisions that have a real and lasting impact on their lives. In a fitting example of long-term planning, the journey to Client Care actually began more than three years ago. While both living and working in London, Emile met Client Care’s founder, Dirk, over a conversation in a local pub. What started as a casual discussion about careers, financial planning, and shared values gradually evolved into an exciting opportunity. Three years later, that conversation has come full circle, with Emile joining the Client Care team in St Francis Bay to help clients plan confidently for their own futures and he is excited to now be part of helping our clients achieve their financial goals.

Away from the office, Emile has always been passionate about sport. In his younger years, he completed six Ironman 70.3 triathlons, with competing in Hawaii being a personal highlight. These days, however, with a five-month-old baby at home, his evenings are more likely to be spent at bath time than on a training ride, a role he enjoys just as much.

The Client Care team is delighted to have Emile on board and looks forward to introducing him to clients over the coming months.

Read more:

An Investment Portfolio Without a Plan is Meaningless

Five Dangers Of DIY Financial Planning

Finding The Delicate Balance In Giving

Dead Money, Living Money

The Women Who Balance the Books, And So Much More – The Human Side Of Money, presented by Client Care

by SFT | Aug 9, 2026 | Financial Planning, St Francis

It’s Sunday, it’s Women’s Day, and it’s a public holiday. Here in South Africa, we have so many of them that it’s easy to lose track, and true to form, my phone has already been buzzing since early morning with the usual memes from mates asking, tongue firmly in cheek, “when’s International Men’s Day?” I have good, decent friends, and all of it is said in jest. But it did get me thinking, and I’d like to use this space to share something a little more personal.

I have a mother, three sisters, a wife, four daughters, a daughter-in-law-to-be, and 2 granddaughters. That’s a lot of women in one man’s life — all of them strong, capable, and yes, sometimes a little scary. When I reflect on what each of them has walked through in their lives, the premature loss of a parent, watching parents’ divorce, tough financial seasons, raising a difficult child, marital strain, careers quietly set aside for the sake of the family, it’s impossible not to feel deep respect for every one of them. Today, they range from six months old to ninety-two, and my life would look very different without a single one of them in it.

It’s much the same in my professional life. Over thirty years, I’ve sat across the table from countless women, breadwinners, widows, single mothers, who aren’t just holding things together – they’re flourishing, financially and personally, regardless of the path that got them there. And yet I still see it often: households where the finances default to the man, almost without either party deciding it should be that way. In our practice, we actively work against that pattern. Women are every bit as capable with money as men are, and in my experience, their instinct for the wider family picture, the school fees, the ageing parent, the child who needs a bit more support this year, often makes their financial planning sharper and more grounded than anyone gives them credit for.

This isn’t a dig at men. It’s simply a nod from someone lucky enough to be surrounded by remarkable women his whole life. Given everything, they carry, quietly and without much fuss, setting aside one day to say thank you feels like the very least we can do.

Happy Women’s Day.

—

Dirk Groeneveld, Certified Financial Planner

t. 083 261 9287

e. dirk@clientcare.co.za