Will Planning

This is a long overdue post. A few weeks ago, I had attended a talk about Will planning. It is said that if you did not make any will, then the Intestate Succession Act (for Singaporeans) will help you distribute your assets when you depart.

This act contains 9 rules which are rather wordy and tough to understand. The lawyer, Ms. Sunita Sonya Parha (from S. S. Parhar & Co.) presented the Act in a simpler table which I shall share with you.

Married with no children or living parents : 100% to spouse
Married with children : 50% to spouse & 50% to children
Married with no children but with living parents : 50% to spouse & 50% to parents
Not married : Equally to parents
Not married with no living parents : Equally among brothers & sisters, and children of deceased brothers & sisters
Not married with no parents and no siblings but with living grandparents : Equally among grandparents
Not married with no parents, no siblings and no grandparents : Equally to uncles & aunts
Not married with no parents, no siblings, no grandparents and no uncles and aunts : Government

Other than this table, she told us a story which has an interesting morale.

Imagine there is a newly wed couple who is going for their honeymoon. Unfortunately they met with an accident and both died. The gentleman is 32 years old and he left a brother and his grandparents. The lady is 31 years old and is survived by her parents. What would happen to their asset?

All of us thought that the gentleman’s family will get the gentleman’s asset and the lady’s parents will obtained the lady’s asset. Unfortunately that is not the case. In court, the judge will actually ask “Who die first?” What seems like a ridiculous question is actually a logical question because of the procedures we have to follow. If you are clever, by now you would have guessed the reason for the question.

Anyway in an accident, nobody knows who die first. Thus the next question the judge will ask is “Who is older?” Logically the older person died first. So in this context, this gentleman die first. Based on the first rule, all his assets will be bequeathed to his wife which was supposedly alive (because the law says that the gentleman die first).
After the necessary is done for the gentleman’s part, it is easier to distribute the lady’s assets. Everything will be willed to the lady’s parents. Amazing right! This gentleman must have loved his in-law a lot.

Now that we came to the end of the story, imitating Under One Roof’s Tan Ah Teck’s golden question - “What is the morale of the story?”

The morale is to marry someone older than you! Of course my boyfriend says if everybody follows that adage, then nobody gets married. Well if you love your spouse or your in-laws a lot, you can ignore that adage also.