Managing Your Will

The executor/trustee is given powers to distribute the funds for the interest of beneficiaries. He may decide how best to distribute e.g. encash immediately, encash later or if possible make arrangements to transfer the investments to the beneficiaries’ account.

In the case of such simultaneous death, the court will deem that the older person would have passed away first and left it to the younger person. The distribution of assets will hence follow the will (if available) of the younger person. If the will specified the children as beneficiaries then it will be passed to the children. However the child must be able to inherit the property, i.e. age 21 and above and does not own a HDB flat. Otherwise the executor will hang on to the property and manage it the best way possible – either hold on till child is old enough to inherit or sell it away and split the proceeds.

For safe-keeping of wills, you will need to store your original signed hardcopy will in a safe and secure place. You need to decide whom you would like your will to be disclosed to. This person or persons must be informed of the location of the will and be able to access it when the need arises. One good place is to keep it together with your insurance policies. Putting it in locked storage may pose problems when the keys are lost. As of now, digital copies and digital signatures of wills are not acceptable in the court of law.

As long as the drafted will is not signed by the testator (you) and the 2 witnesses, it is not valid. There is no need to make any changes to your entries in the online wills. Should you have validated/executed a will, you can supersede it by a later will.

If your witness passes away, your will remains valid even if the witnesses have passed away or become invalid to stand as witnesses. Their testimony stands that at point of signing, the testator was of sound mind. Usually before grant of probate, court may ask witnesses to validate the will but if they are unable to do so, will is valid but could be prone to questioning. For practical reasons, the will should be signed again with a fresh pair of witnesses. If his beneficiary also passed away, the executor will distribute your share of assets across the remaining surviving beneficiaries according to their allocation. For example, 34%, 33% and 33% to each of 3 kids. If child 1 passes away, the 34% will be distributed to the remaining two children following their new allocation percentage, which would be 50% and 50%.

• CPF nomination – you can read more from CPF website and download the form here. https://www.cpf.gov.sg/Members/Schemes/schemes/other-matters/cpf-nomination-scheme
• Schedule of assets – this is a list of assets that you have, eg, property, bank accounts, investment, overseas assets.

You should review your will from time to time to make sure it remains current and viable. These are situations where you should review and amend your will if necessary:

• change in distribution wishes
• change or death of any of beneficiaries, guardian, executor, trustee
• marriage or re-marriage – these events will revoke your earlier will you have made.
• change in personal circumstances such as addition of new family member, or divorce

Be aware that you cannot alter your will by simply crossing something out or adding something new. In fact, making a handwritten change could invalidate your entire will.

You will need to store your original signed hardcopy will in a safe and secure place. You need to decide whom you would like your will to be disclosed to. This person or persons must be informed of the location of the will and be able to access it when the need arises. One good place is to keep it together with your insurance policies. Putting it in locked storage may pose problems when the keys are lost. As of now, digital copies and digital signatures of wills are not acceptable in the court of law.