You will be able to explain what your family must do to deal with your estate after you die.
The week after a death, families in Singapore discover the same thing: the bank is sympathetic but won't release the money. A death certificate isn't enough. For anything in the dead person's sole name, the bank wants to see a court document naming who has authority to deal with the estate. Until someone has it, the accounts stay frozen.
This lesson walks through what your family will have to do, so you can make it easier for them. It is education, not legal advice, and most families use a lawyer for the application itself.
The court document comes in two forms, and which one applies turns on whether there is a valid will.
If there is a will, the executor named in it applies for a grant of probate: the court's confirmation that the will is valid and that the executor has authority to act. If there is no valid will, a close family member applies for letters of administration, which appoint them as administrator with similar authority. The administrator is usually decided by the order of family members the law sets, which is one reason a will that names your executor makes life easier.
For non-Muslims, applications go to the Family Justice Courts, and their website explains the documents needed, the forms and the fees. For Muslims, the Syariah Court first issues an inheritance certificate setting out the heirs and their shares under faraid, and the grant is then applied for with that certificate. Searching the Registry of Wills for a will the family may not know about is often an early step.
The application lists the assets and debts of the estate, which is where the asset map from lesson 7.5, Map every asset to how it passes, saves weeks. Once granted, the executor or administrator shows it to each bank, broker and institution to release the assets, then pays debts and distributes the rest, as lesson 8.1, Executors, trustees and what they will have to do, described.
The Public Trustee's Office, under the Ministry of Law, deals with estates in two common situations.
For smaller estates below a value threshold, families can apply to the Public Trustee to administer the estate instead of going to court themselves. The threshold, conditions and fees are on the Public Trustee's website, and they change from time to time.
The Public Trustee also receives CPF savings for members who die without a valid CPF nomination, and distributes them to the people entitled under the intestacy rules. That is separate from the rest of the estate and is the main reason lesson 7.3, Nominations and joint holdings pass outside the will, put so much weight on checking your nomination.
Not everything goes through probate. A rough division:
Needs a grant: money and investments in your sole name, such as bank accounts, CDP holdings, brokerage accounts, SRS, unit trusts and property in your sole name or held as tenants in common, plus insurance policies with no valid nomination.
Usually doesn't: CPF with a valid nomination, which the CPF Board pays to nominees; insurance with a valid nomination, which the insurer pays to nominees on a claim; property held as joint tenants, which passes to the survivor through a transmission process with the death certificate; and joint bank accounts where the bank's terms give the money to the survivor.
Jasmine's map sorts like this. Needing a grant: her flat, her savings account, her CDP account, her SRS and her US shares. Not needing one: her CPF and both insurance policies, now that they all have nominations, and her joint account with Megan. Nearly a third of what she owns, by her rough values, would reach her family without waiting for the court.
Singapore has no estate duty. Your estate doesn't pay a tax on death here. The executor still has to settle any income tax owed for the year you died, and property tax on any property until it is transferred.
Overseas assets are another matter. Other countries have their own rules, and some tax the assets of foreigners that sit within their borders. A grant made in Singapore may not be recognised abroad, so the family may need to start a separate process in that country, sometimes with a local lawyer.
US shares are the common case for Singapore investors. The US can levy estate tax on US assets of non-US persons above a small exemption, and the family has to clear the shares through a US process before a broker will release them. Investing in US and global markets from Singapore, module 4, Plan for US estate tax before it matters, covers the exposure and what can be done about it. Jasmine wrote that course's lesson 4.4, Estimate your family's exposure, onto her to-do list.
You can't skip the process for your family, but you can shorten it. A valid will naming an executor and a backup avoids a contest over who applies. Nominations on CPF and insurance move large amounts outside the process altogether. An up-to-date asset map tells your executor exactly what to list. A note of where the original will is kept, and registering its location, stops the search.
Lesson 8.5 puts all of these into one file. Before the activity, take your asset map and sort each asset into needing a grant or not.
Write the steps your family would follow for your estate and which assets would need a grant before they can be released.
Junxiong-WFG Organisation is an authorised representative of AIA Financial Advisers Private Limited (Reg. No. 201715016G).