Writing A Will, What Do You Need to Prepare?
To many, writing a Will is not the top priority when finance or family planning matters come into play.
As Singaporeans, we always plan – our journey to financial freedom, the steps needed for success or even simply the pathway to your neighbourhood Kopitiam. So, why do we not plan for the only certainty in our life, death?
There are a couple of reasons, and procrastination often takes the critical blame. Extended hours spent meeting with individuals, researching and the burden of administrative work – we get it.
Writing a Will is a solemn subject, but it doesn’t have to be tedious or monotonous. We are here to help you tide through this.
With the heritance app, everything is achieved digitally. The only manual step required is to get two witnesses to sign the printed copy of your Will after it has been generated.
Components within a Will
Before diving in, let me introduce the different components found in a standard Will at heritance.
- Appointments
- Bequests AKA Gifts
- Immediate gifts
- Delayed gifts
- Conditional gifts
- Trustee Powers
- Non-financial gifts
- Others
There are plenty of Will templates with different variables and terms that may affect the legality of the Will. However, heritance’s SmartWill is designed and verified by lawyers to adhere to the legality of the Singapore Wills Act.
Check out the table below for more explanation of the individual components.
Not sure about the roles in your Will? Check out this article.
What to prepare before embarking on your Will?
To efficiently write out a will, you need to know the assets you have on hand – it could be intangible or material assets.
We suggest starting with a list of material assets first, i.e., property, bank savings account, investment portfolio, etc.
Then, move on to your intangible assets, i.e., digital assets such as social media accounts, heirlooms, favourite guitar, etc.
Moving on, you need to retrieve the data of the individuals that you have appointed the roles for. These are your executors, guardians, and even investment advisors. It is best to get their name, NRIC, address, email, and phone number. The same should be done for your beneficiaries.
The more details there are, the lesser the chances of a dispute between your beneficiaries and executors.
Lastly, think carefully and prudently about how you would like to allocate your assets. Questions to ask yourself would be, how much, to who, and when? Utilise the approach of #ValuesBeyondValuables to write a Will that impacts.
You are now ready to finalise your wishes when you have prepared.
Finalising your wishes
Writing a Will is as easy as ABC with the heritance app via the SmartWill function with all the details prepared. You can automate the process by adding members to your Tribe. Otherwise, you can manually fill in the details later.
The app will bring you step-by-step, from adding your assets to bequests and generating your Will. It is as simple as that.
What makes SmartWill different from the other services or templates provided online?
- It is a guided process, leaving you no doubts.
- Sophisticated with conditional and non-financial gifts
- Accessible at your fingertips
Imagine going to the lawyer only to realise that you’ve forgotten about a particular asset. You would have to pay a hefty fee to redo your Will and get it signed again to be legalised.
Full transparency and accessibility! With SmartWill, you are given the freedom and flexibility to add, remove, or change any components, and anywhere you deem fit. You can even preview the Will written before deciding if you would like to pay for it. How cool is that?
Remember to print and get two witnesses (who are not your beneficiaries or the spouse of your beneficiaries) to sign the document.
