Willing it over

Legal Eagle

Making a proper will at an early age ensures that there are fewer people challenging it later.

A will is a legal document through which you can allocate your wealth to your loved ones after your death. If you have adequate wealth and a fair number of inheritors, it is always better that you keep your will ready in case of an unfortunate event. Making a will is not difficult if you follow the following simple steps:

1. It is better to make a will at a younger age. As and when events in the family necessitate changes, the will can surely be changed. The advantage of making a will at an earlier age is that unscrupulous relatives could challenge the will made by a very old person saying that the person was not of a sound mind when he made the will.

2. Make a detailed note of all your wealth. This will include your bank accounts, your investments in shares, mutual funds, post office schemes, bonds, property, gold etc. Collect various details such as your bank lockers numbers, your bank account numbers, your demat account numbers etc. When you are planning on the distribution, be very clear on how much each person gets. For instance, if you want to allocate funds in your bank account to two family members, state the percentage each should get clearly.

3. Once you make your will it does not mean that you will no longer accumulate more wealth. You should therefore provide for allocation of future wealth build up in your will itself. This will help you avoid the hassle of creating a fresh will periodically.

4. The will must always be dated. If more than one will is made then the one having the latest date nullifies previous wills. In fact, a statement to that effect should be specifically made.

5. A will should be signed by you in presence of two other witnesses who should sign in presence of each other and you. Also, have their addresses stated in it. A witness should not be a beneficiary under the will. Similarly, the executor of the will should also not be a witness to the will.

6. You, the maker of the will, should be in sound physical and mental health and hence one of the two witnesses could be your family doctor who could testify, if necessary, to that effect.

7. Each page of the will should ideally be serially numbered and signed by the testator and the witnesses. This is to prevent substitution, replacement or insertion of a paragraph or a page or pages by fraudulent persons. At the end of the will, the testator could even indicate the total number of pages in the will.

8. Decide on who should be the executor of your will. A close friend but younger in age to you whom you trust completely would be a good choice. A beneficiary can also be an executor.

9. Get your will registered. While registration is not legally required, it adds authenticity to your will and prevents subsequent complications. The execution of the will attracts no stamp duty, no gift tax, no income tax nor any estate duty, and certainly not death! It merely facilitates smooth devolution of the wealth to the desired set of persons without their having to go to a court of law for obtaining a probate. A will supersedes all the provisions of the applicable Succession Act.

10. The will may be kept in a safe place like a bank vault. The executor and the beneficiaries should be informed where the will is kept. It is advisable to keep a signed copy of the will with a trusted professional. Duplicate copies of the will may be made, signed by the testator and the witnesses and kept at separate places so that if one is misplaced the other may be used.

11. A will supersedes nominations. If you have made nominations for investments in shares, bank deposits, mutual funds, insurance policies etc, a will is still essential. In the eyes of the law, a nominee is only a trustee and he need not necessarily be a beneficiary to a will. The nominee is merely a caretaker and the right to the property passes by will of the deceased. This means that if there is a will, the nominee will only hold the assets as a caretaker trustee for the beneficiary. The nominee is legally bound to transfer the nominated property to the beneficiary of the will. Ideally, it would be better to name the nominee as the beneficiary under the will to ensure smooth distribution.

Estate planning through executing a will is important for everyone with wealth. In metro cities like Mumbai, "living" has become uncertain and risky. It is an act of foresight on the part of anyone with some wealth and lots of love for their near ones.

While leaving behind wealth, let us not leave behind problems and acrimony.

(The writer is a chartered accountant.)