You will be able to explain how CPF nominations, insurance nominations and joint tenancy work.
After lesson 7.1, Jasmine sat down with a mug of tea and a list of everything she owns. She expected to plan a new will. An hour later she had found that the largest decisions in her estate had already been made, years ago, on forms she had forgotten. Her CPF would go to her former husband. Her term policy would go to her mother. Her joint account with Megan would probably go to Megan. None of that would be touched by anything she wrote in a will.
Nominations and joint holdings pass outside the will. For most people in Singapore they cover the largest share of what they own, so check them before you write a will. As with all of module 7, this lesson is education and doesn't replace legal advice.
Your CPF savings, including any CPF LIFE bequest, pass according to your CPF nomination, an instruction to the CPF Board naming who receives your savings when you die and in what shares. A will has no effect on them. CPF Mastery: every account and the choices you control, lesson 8.2, Nominations: what happens to your CPF if you die, explains how to make one online with Singpass.
Without a valid nomination, the CPF Board passes your savings to the Public Trustee's Office, which distributes them under the intestacy rules from lesson 7.2: the Intestate Succession Act for non-Muslims and Muslim inheritance law for Muslims. Your family has to apply and provide documents, and it takes longer than a payout to named nominees.
Three timing rules matter. Marriage revokes an existing CPF nomination for non-Muslim members. Divorce does not, so a former spouse stays named until you change it. And the birth of a child doesn't revoke a nomination, so a new child isn't added automatically. Check what happens to a nominee's share if that person dies before you, and review your nomination whenever anyone named in it dies.
A CPF nomination doesn't cover a flat bought with CPF savings. The flat passes according to how it is held, which is covered below.
Insurance policies can carry their own nomination under the Insurance Act. With a valid nomination, the payout goes to the nominees. With none, it goes into your estate and follows your will, or intestacy if there is no will.
There are two kinds, and the difference is about control.
A revocable nomination can name anyone, including a partner, a parent or a friend. You can change or cancel it at any time, and you keep full control of the policy, so you can still surrender it. The trade-off is less protection for the nominee, for example from your creditors.
A trust nomination can generally only name your spouse, your children, or both. It creates a trust over the payout for them. Once made, you can't change it, surrender the policy or use it as security without the consent of the trustee or nominees. In return, the payout is ring-fenced for them and generally protected from creditors.
So a trust nomination gives the family certainty and gives up your flexibility, while a revocable one keeps your flexibility and gives them less protection. Money as a couple and a family, lesson 7.2, CPF and insurance nominations sit outside your will, compares the two from a young family's side. Muslims should check with their insurer and the Syariah Court how nominations apply to them.
Property owned by more than one person is held in one of two ways, and the difference decides what happens on death.
Under a joint tenancy, the owners together own the whole property. When one dies, the survivor automatically owns all of it, by survivorship. The deceased owner's will has no say. Many married couples hold their flat this way.
Under a tenancy in common, each owner holds a defined share, such as half each or 70 and 30. When one dies, their share passes under their will, or under intestacy if there is no will. It doesn't go to the other owner automatically.
You can find out which you have from your title documents, HDB's records for an HDB flat or a title search with the Singapore Land Authority. Converting from one to the other, called severance, has its own procedure, and a lawyer can advise on it.
Joint bank accounts are similar in spirit but depend on the bank's terms. Many pass to the surviving holder. Read the account terms, or ask the bank, rather than assuming.
Jasmine went through each item.
Her CPF nomination named her former husband, made in 2012 and never revoked by the divorce. She made a new one online that evening, giving Megan and Ryan equal shares and her mother a smaller one.
Her term policy had a revocable nomination naming her mother. She kept it, because the payout would help her mother if Jasmine died first, and added Leong for part of it. As a partner, not a spouse, he can be named only under a revocable nomination.
Her whole life policy had no nomination, so it would have gone into her estate. She added a trust nomination for Megan and Ryan.
Her flat is in her sole name, so it passes under her will. Her joint account with Megan passes to Megan under the bank's terms, which she confirmed. She noted it so her will doesn't promise the same money to someone else.
Now do the same checks for yourself. Log in to your CPF dashboard to see your nomination, and pull out every insurance policy to find the nominee named on each.
Check your CPF nomination and each insurance policy's nomination and write who receives each one.
Junxiong-WFG Organisation is an authorised representative of AIA Financial Advisers Private Limited (Reg. No. 201715016G).