Should you write your will even at a young age?

Debunking what we know about wills

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The first thing that may pop into many people’s minds whenever the topic of getting a will written comes up in a conversation is, “Only millionaires need to do that.” The second, “How complicated can it be? Everything will just be divided equally among my kids, right?”

For those from my dad’s generation, the idea of writing a will holds an even more morbid meaning for them. They believe that such things are best left as close to the end as possible. I imagine he must have envisioned himself on his deathbed, instructing a lawyer what should happen to his estate with the last of his dying breaths.

It’s time we all drop these dramatic notions about will-writing.

When there’s a will...

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I’m just going to cut to the chase: my dad should have written a will. Dividing his whisky collection was easy enough — only my brother-in-law and I wanted it and the bottles were on a shelf at home. But when it came to the amount of money he had, none of us, not even my mum, had any clue.

“When a person dies without a will,” said Adrian Wee, managing partner at Lighthouse Law LLC, “each close family member who is entitled to a share of the assets, like his wife and children, has the right to be a co-administrator. This might cause issues if everyone has a different view about what to do with the estate.” In short, it means each surviving family member may think they are entitled to a larger share of the estate than another or want to manage the assets of the estate differently, and this may lead to arguments and much unhappiness.

“However, without a will, the Intestate Succession Act provides for fixed distributions depending on who is left,” he elaborated further. This means that even if my dad had wanted to leave 100 per cent of his estate to his favourite child (me), without a will, everything would be distributed according to the ‘formula’ set out in the aforementioned Act.

Save your family money and time

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Why write a will? Well, it will save your children and spouse time and money. With a will, your estate would be distributed in accordance with your instructions. What happened with my family was that we had to appoint a probate lawyer who helped in locating, securing and collecting the money and assets my father had with various financial institutions. The process of submitting the necessary paperwork to the court and locating all that money took close to five months. As I’m writing this article, my dad’s estate still has not been distributed.

While my family members were easy-going and quite happy to leave everything to me to handle, it’s not difficult to imagine how this process could easily have led to much strife among family members.

Good will hunting

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Now that we have determined that we should write a will, what makes a good will?

“A well-written will is precise in that it leaves no room for interpretation. It sets out clearly how the assets are to be disposed of or divided. The language used should be suitable — you want to strike a balance between being precise and also being easily understood even by laypeople. Lastly, a well-written will is one that is written after a rigorous estate-planning process,” explained Wee.

You need to decide who would make a good executor. Then you should take stock of the assets you have. You can then determine what you are giving, whom you are giving each asset to and why. For example, if you and your husband have built a modest but memorable art collection, and you know it holds special significance to him, you might want to leave that collection all to him. On the other hand, if the idea is simply to provide for those who are left, you could simply instruct that all your assets be sold and have the cash divided equally among your beneficiaries.

Finally, you should consider how gifts to minors would be distributed — at what age do they get the money and who would handle the money in the interim? “If you’re not confident that your surviving family members would know how to handle the money after your death,” Wee added, “you can put the money in a trust and appoint either a trusted person or a professional to manage the money for the beneficiaries’ benefit in accordance with clear rules that you can set.”

Getting a will written, no matter your age and health condition is not a morbid activity. If anything, you should see it as a way for your family to continue to live together in peace and harmony.

In case you’re curious, I asked Wee if I could leave my estate to my beloved dog Toufu. He said, “No, you cannot leave your estate to Toufu because a pet is not a legal person. However, you can set up a trust for the purposes of providing for your pet’s expenses.”

Connect with Adrian Wee of Lighthouse Law LLC if you’d like advice on getting a will done at lighthouselaw.sg

Deborah Tan-Pink is Communications Director at Bitstamp and the co-host of the podcast Good Girls Talk About Money. You can find her podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.