Will Planning and Will Writing
Many people think that they do not need to write a Will because they are not wealthy or their assets are too simple to have a Will written.
Whether you have written a personal Will for yourself or not, you have already owned one. For people who died without a Will, his/her estate will be distributed according to Distribution Act 1958 (amended in 1997). So, if you want to distribute certain assets to a specific person or group of people, e.g. to distribute a jointly owned house to the surviving joint owner instead of to a 3rd party who is a legitimate beneficiary under the Distribution Act 1958 (amended in 1997), you must write a Will to enable?the distribution is done in accordance to your wishes.
Can you write your own Will Yes, you can. A Will is a personal declaration of your intentions about the disposition of your property at death. Getting your wishes or rather distribution instructions clearly stated in the Will is important. Yet, to ensure your wishes can be executed fully and smoothly upon your demise is equally important. Often, people overlooked on the execution part, for example, in your Will you have stated that you wish to distribute a house to your 3 children and hope they can keep it for generations. Upon your demise the market value of the house is RM900,000. However, it has an outstanding mortgage of RM500,000. Your 3 childrens finance are not sufficient to support the loan amount and hence they have to force sell the house in order to repay the outstanding loan. As a result, your wish is not executed.
Thus, a proper Will planning is crucial prior to Will writing.? In the Will planning process, we attempt to eliminate the uncertainties that could jeopardize the execution of your estate distribution.
