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FREE Digital Will Writing Service from MoneyOWL

If you write a Will, you have a document that allows your loved ones to have a better process of gaining access to your estate. 

When a person passed away in Singapore, his possession became his estate. 

The estate could include the following:

  1. Bank accounts
  2. Property
  3. Personal Effects
  4. Investments

The estate needs to be distributed to the beneficiaries. However, the beneficiaries need a Court Oder that gives authority to close the bank accounts, cash in the investments and sell or transfer the property, pay off the deceased’s debts and then distribute what is left of the estate to the beneficiaries. 

If the deceased has a will then a Grant of Probate is issued to the Executor in the will. The executor will collect the asset and distribute the assets to the beneficiaries. The beneficiaries cannot replace the executor.

If the deceased does not have a will then it will go down the path of Letters of Administration. Accordingly, the law stipulates a list of people that can apply to be the administrator in the Letters of administration. 

They are:

  1. spouse
  2. children of the deceased
  3. parents
  4. brothers and sisters
  5. nephews and nieces
  6. grandparents
  7. uncles and aunts

Since the deceased did not leave behind a will, section 7 of the Intestate Succession Act kicks in. The assets will be distributed based on the act. 

Intestate Succession Act 1
From MoneyOwl

The table above shows how, under the Intestate Succession Act, would the asset be distributed.

It should also be noted that CPF and HDB are not covered by the Will. For CPF, it depends on whether the decease made a nomination. If the deceased did make, it will be distributed accordingly to the nomination. 

If not, it will be distributed by the Public Trustee based on the Intestate Succession Act.

For HDB, if there is a joint tenant, the joint tenant would fully take over. If not, and if there is a will, it will be determined by the Grant of Probate.

So what is the Usefulness of having a Will?

Let’s you decide how you want your assets to be distributed. The assets may not be given to your choice of beneficiaries. A dear friend or the son of a dear friend that you wish to help may never get it if you do not have a will.

Lets the right executors and trustees manage the distribution of your assets. The job of the executor is rather important, and you might not want one of your family members, who are not so savvy with money, or reliable to mismanage the whole process. 

Appoint a guardian to take care of your children who are below 21 years old. If you have children, it’s important to make sure that they’re always protected and cared for.

MoneyOwl’s Digital Will Writing Service – How do You Write a Will?

As part of MoneyOwl‘s vision to provide holistic wealth and financial planning solutions, they offer a digital will writing service at an affordable cost. (You can read my write up introducing MoneyOwl here)

And for a limited time, you can create a Will for FREE.

Simply start the digital will writing process through my link here.

PROMO CODE: MOPTR4

I don’t get anything out of it. Most likely it lets them know whether you heard it from Kyith or some of Kyith’s competitors.

I tried it myself and I think its a pretty simple process. 

I do have friends who reached the late thirties, and we are starting to see this to be more important. So they would benefit from this.

MoneyOwl’s digital will service is supposed to be as generic as they come. 

And they have explained in their FAQ what it is not:

If you have a Muslim will requirement, MoneyOwl’s service might not be the solution for you. If you need a more granular specification of how your assets should be divided, this is probably not for you as well.

Is This Digital Will a Legal Document?

This is a popular question and yes the will is a legal document provided:

  1. You print out the will and physically sign it together with 2 witnesses on every page
  2. The 2 witnesses are 21 years old and above, and not your spouse or beneficiaries, and the 2 witnesses are in the presence of each other

The Digital Will Writing Process

I decided to show you from the start to finish how to create the will. 

Since I need to do one for the family member, I might as well go through the process.

We start the process by going through my link and PROMO code here:

Simply start the digital will writing process through my link here.

PROMO CODE: MOPTR4

If you specify that you do not have all your assets in Singapore, MoneyOwl recommends you to seek legal advice.

Here is where I specify the will holder’s full name and identification number, his/her status, and how many children the will holder has.

We specify the details of the children.

Here you can add more beneficiary, that is not your children.

As you cannot distribute your estate in a mixture of percentages and absolute amount, the will holder specified a 50%/50% split here.

The next step is to specify the executor of your estate. You can also specify an alternative executor. 

You will then be asked to check your details again to ensure that they are correct.

IF you do not have an account with MoneyOwl, the process will ask you to create one.

Once you have created your account, the will generation process will be complete. MoneyOwl will ask you to print out and review your will.

You will sign and date the will, in the presence of 2 witnesses. To avoid the conflict of interest, the witness should not be any of the beneficiaries.

The following is how the will, that is printed outlook like:

At every page, the 2 witnesses and the will holder should sign it

If you wish to maintain some form of confidentiality of the distribution percentage, cover the page of the percentage of allocation with post-it notes, then let the witnesses sign it.

Then store the will in a safe place.

There! You have completed the whole process. 

The cheapest Wills in this form would cost around $120 to $300, so why not make use of this opportunity and create one for free?

Let me know how it goes!

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Kyith

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momo

Wednesday 13th of March 2019

This is why we need a low cost sreit etf to replace all the individual reit holdings. No need to worry about heirs handling rights issue etc. As passive as it can get. Hope kyith can push for such a product

Kyith

Thursday 14th of March 2019

Hi momo, isnt there a lion philips REIT ETF that caters to this?

Sinkie

Monday 11th of March 2019

Getting probate or letters of admin will cost at least $1,200++ for straightforward & simple case. No choice if physical assets are involved e.g. properties, vehicles, safe deposit boxes.

However, if you don't have much assets (only some $$$ in banks) & you're not too uptight with legality, you can have your IDs & passwords written down in a sealed envelope. Or you can just tell your family if you trust them. :)

Bank deposits can be transferred online. And securities can be traded or sold off with online brokers.

This is what we did for my in-law & relative. Their CPFs had nominations, so that aspect was settled. And they had surviving spouses with their properties under joint tenancy, so no issue there either. And both didn't own cars. So for them, we didn't need to spend money for probate or letters of admin. The surviving spouses however is a different matter as there are properties to be handled.

BTW, good practice to register your will in the Will Registry (although it costs 50 bucks): https://www.mlaw.gov.sg/content/pto/en/wills-registry/information-for-testators.html

Kyith

Monday 11th of March 2019

The nominations is rather important. it saves a lot of trouble. but i think to an extend i find it problematic that we have to liquidate everything

Bob

Monday 11th of March 2019

Bank deposits and securities have to be accessed.

If just one family member feels they have been slighted or disagrees, they could create one helluva hooh-hah by reporting any "lack of legal uptightness" in handling probate.

I can't see the point of the Will Registry. It only says who has written the Will and where it is, the actual Will is not kept there.

M

Monday 11th of March 2019

Heads up for Muslim readers: the service is unable to support wills which need to be drawn up according to Shariah requirements (i.e. faraid) and recommends you to seek lawyers trained in Shariah.

Kyith

Monday 11th of March 2019

Yup that is right.

Bob

Monday 11th of March 2019

Thanks.

This is an issue I am currently trying to deal with.

Note that shares held in CDP do not have to be liquidated, but can be transferred by SGX for a fee of S$10.70 (Incl of GST) for each counter.

I am also putting together a step by step description of the various administrative procedures involved in probate, which I will give to my heir/executor. In my case

1. How to obtain probate. 2. How to transfer shares at the CDP. 3. How to access bank accounts.

Which require 4. How to open a bank account. 5. How to open a trading account. 6. How to open a CDP account. 7. How to link them.

Which then require 8. How to operate them. 9. How to get started in investing.

Overkill?

I don't know. But it would be a shame to simply liquidate everything and have just a number in a bank account instead of an income generating portfolio "carefully" put together over a long time.

In my case my heir has shown no interest in investments. I hope I can still change that, which will make points 4 to 9 redundant......

If your heirs are the same, what is going to happen?

WGM

Monday 11th of March 2019

Hi Bob,

I'm in a similar situation as you. Do you mind sharing your step-by-step instructions when it's done?

With regards to the income generating portfolio, I'm considering creating a checklist for each counter for my heirs to go through every quarter or so. However, this might be an issue if the portfolio has a lot of counters. Still trying to figure out a solution.

WGM

Kyith

Monday 11th of March 2019

Nothing is an overkill if you have a lot of time. it is an overkill if you do not. it looks like a lot of blog posts though and it is hard to be very comprehensive about it.

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