Writing your Last Will and Testament (Will) probably is one of the most important deeds you can ever done for your family and loved ones. The consequences of one died without a Will are their assets will be frozen until the rightful beneficiaries obtained a Letter of Administration (LA) and must be granted before the Court could distribute the assets of the deceased. Without the LA, even the money of the deceased in the bank account cannot be touched by those who really need it, for example, to send children for education or for loan repayment. Hence, this will cause a lot of emotional stress, burden to the deceased family or beneficiaries. Other than frozen assets, you hard-earned assets may not go to the people you want to inherit in the manner that you wish. Without a Will, the Law of your respective country will decide on who shall inherit your assets. For example, your sister-in-law may inherit part of your house together with your surviving spouse or children. A proper Will will facilitate the legal process. Thus, it relieves your family and loved ones from stress and burden, i.e. by reducing unnecessary complex legal battles and legal / administrative costs. It is fairly simple and easy to write your own Will. Here are a few simple steps for you take: Step 1 - Prepare Your Assets List Gather and compile a list of assets that you owned currently. Don't bother who will be the beneficiaries for the assets yet. Just list down the assets together with the important details such as land title/ownership number, bank account number, trust fund account no, company registration number, etc. Make sure you list down all your assets before proceed to step 2. Step 2 - Determine Your beneficiaries Gather details of person's whom will be involved in your Will. This could be your executor(s) and trustee(s), beneficiaries, guardian(s), witnesses, etc. Write down their details: 1. Full name (as in their National Registration Identity Card) 2. Identity Number (as in their National Registration Identity Card) 3. Relationship to you (e.g. spouse, son, daughter, father, mother, etc.) 4. Contact Address (optional but recommended) 5. Contact number (optional but recommended) Step 3 - Allocating Your Assets With your assets list and beneficiaries name list in-place, now you can start deciding on who will inherit your assets and in what proportion. This process usually takes time and for most people it is hard to decide who get what. Don't get discouraged at this point take your time to think it through. For each of the assets list down your first choices of beneficiary(ies) and their proportion of shares. Don't forget to choose an alternate beneficiaries in case your first choices of beneficiary(ies) couldn't receive it. Should you face difficulty in deciding who are your the beneficiaries, you could do a simple Will first. An example of simple Wills will be allocating all your assets to your spouse and alternate it to your children. Step 4 - Determining the Executor and/or Trustee An executor is the Personal Representative of the deceased. An executor is appointed by the deceased under a Will. The executor's function is to gather all the assets of the deceased, pay all the debts, taxes, etc. of the estate and then distribute the balance of the assets to the beneficiaries in accordance with the terms of the Will. In the event that you have minor (children whom are under aged), the executor and trustee will be guardian of the assets until they reached majority age. Step 5 - Determining the guardian to your children If you have children who are still minor (under 18 year of age. In some country like Malaysia 21 year of age), you need to appoint a guardian to them otherwise you may skip this step. Step 6 - Drawing up your Will With all the important information in-place, you now can start writing your Will. To ensure you have written a fully compliance Will, check the Will Law in your Country or use a Will writing software. For more info on our will writing software, please visit Last Will and Testament Software If you are writing the Will on your own, please ensure all the formality of the Will is taken care off. Step 7 - Signing of Will Before you sign, read the Will carefully and understand the meaning of every word. Make sure it reflects your instructions and intentions. For your Will to be valid you must be of sound mind and of the age specified by your state/country. Your Will should be witnessed by at least two witnesses. The witnesses cannot be beneficiary(ies) or spouse or children of the beneficiary(ies) in the Will otherwise your gifts will fail. You should sign your Will in the presence of both witnesses, who should both see you sign and who must witness each other signing. The witnesses need not know the contents of your Will. You must say to the witnesses that you intend this document to be your Will. Make sure you and the two witnesses sign the bottom of each page. On the last page of your Will sign it in the presence of the witnesses. Step 8 - After Signing of Will Keep your Will in a safe place, where it can be readily found. You may want to consider keeping your Will safe with a Trust Corporation. You may make photocopies, for example, to give to your executor. However, only the signed original is legally valid and can be probated. Step 9 - Future update to Will contents If there are major changes in your life, you should prepare a new Will and have it witnessed. Destroy the original of your old Will and all copies. Changes that make it wise for you to make a new Will include but not limited to: having or adopting a child, moving to another state or country, the death of anyone named in your Will, a change of marital status, and significant changes in the property you own. Disclaimer Quality Credentials has made every effort to ensure the accuracy and correctness of the contents, information or data contained in this article. Quality Credentials does not represent or warrant the truth, accuracy, completeness and correctness of the same. The information herein have been obtained or derived from sources believed by Quality Credentials to be reliable. Quality Credentials accepts no liability for loss or damage suffered or incurred by you or your estate as a result of you relying on any advice given or any wrongful advice provided by Quality Credentials or howsoever arising from the use of the information or material presented herein. This article is intended for educational purposes only and should not be used to inform personal decisions. If you are in any doubt about the law in your region then please seek expert legal advice in your country/state.
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