You will be able to explain who receives an estate when there is no will.
At a family dinner, Jasmine's brother said he didn't need a will because "it all goes to the family anyway". Her partner Leong, sitting next to him, said nothing. Later he asked her quietly who "the family" would be if something happened to her. She realised she didn't know, and that the answer probably didn't include him.
This lesson answers that question precisely. If you die without a valid will, the law decides who receives your estate, in fixed shares, without asking what you wanted. Which law applies depends on whether you are Muslim. As with every lesson in this module, this is education rather than legal advice.
For non-Muslims in Singapore, an estate without a valid will is distributed under the Intestate Succession Act. The Act sets an order of relatives. Who survives you decides who inherits and in what shares.
The main rules run like this, depending on who survives you:
A spouse, with no children or parents: the spouse receives everything A spouse and children: half to the spouse, and the children share the other half equally A spouse and parents, with no children: half to the spouse, half shared by the parents Children and no spouse: the children share everything equally No spouse or children: the parents inherit, and after them brothers and sisters, then more distant relatives in the order the Act sets out
Only when no relative on the list survives does the estate go to the government.
A child who has died before you is represented by their own children, who share what their parent would have received. Children under 21 can't simply be handed their share, so it has to be held and managed for them until they come of age, which adds work for the family.
You can read the Act itself on Singapore Statutes Online. The Family Justice Courts and the Public Trustee's Office explain how it is applied in practice.
The Act follows the list. It doesn't know who you love or who depends on you. Several kinds of people receive nothing under it at all.
An unmarried partner, however long you have been together, is not on the list, and neither is a stepchild you never legally adopted. Friends, carers, godchildren and charities get nothing, and a former spouse, once divorced, is not your spouse under the Act.
Apply it to Jasmine. She is divorced with two adult children, Megan and Ryan. If she died today without a valid will, her estate would go half to Megan and half to Ryan. Her mother, who is 82 and partly depends on her allowance, would receive nothing. Her brother would receive nothing. Leong would receive nothing.
That may be close to what Jasmine wants for most of her estate. But she would like her mother's allowance to continue if she dies first, and she would like Leong to have something. Neither can happen without a will.
Remember too that the Act only covers the estate. Her CPF passes by nomination, and her nomination still names her former husband, as lesson 7.1, What a will controls and how to make it valid, discovered. So her divorced husband would receive her CPF while her mother received nothing. That combination, the opposite of what she wants, is the kind of result that intestacy and stale nominations produce together.
Dying without a will also creates work for the people left behind. Someone, usually a close relative, has to apply for letters of administration to be appointed administrator before they can deal with your assets, and the application may need extra steps that a named executor would avoid. Lesson 8.2, Probate, letters of administration and the Public Trustee, covers the process. During that time, accounts in your sole name stay frozen.
A will also lets you choose who deals with the estate. Without one, the person entitled to apply may not be the person best suited to the job.
For Muslims in Singapore, estates are distributed under the Administration of Muslim Law Act according to faraid, the Islamic law of inheritance. The heirs and their shares are fixed by the rules, which depend on which relatives survive. Among children, sons generally receive twice the share of daughters. Spouses, parents and in some cases siblings and others have set shares.
A Muslim may direct only part of the estate by wasiat, a Muslim will, and there are limits on who can receive under it. The rest is distributed by faraid whether or not there is a wasiat. So for Muslims, a will doesn't replace faraid. It works alongside it.
Jasmine's colleague Nurul, who is Muslim, assumed her husband would inherit everything. Under faraid, her husband, her children and her parents would each have a share. The Syariah Court issues an inheritance certificate setting out who inherits and in what shares.
How CPF nominations, insurance nominations and jointly held property work for a Muslim estate has its own considerations. Some Muslims use other instruments, such as a gift made during their lifetime, to provide for someone faraid doesn't cover. Anyone in this position should check the Syariah Court's guidance and speak to someone experienced in Muslim estates before acting.
Before the activity, write down every relative who would survive you today, then apply the rules above to see who would inherit and in what shares.
Write who would receive your estate under the intestacy rules today and whether that matches your wishes.
Junxiong-WFG Organisation is an authorised representative of AIA Financial Advisers Private Limited (Reg. No. 201715016G).