What A Will Must Include in Singapore?

The essential legal documents in anyone’s life are a will. It is one of those documents that decide the possession of the property and belongings to another person upon the death of the respective owners.

Apart from this, a will can also help provide and appoint guardians and dependents like unmarried partners and illegitimate children who cannot care for themselves when their parents die. Read more on what a will must include in Singapore

Types of wills in Singapore

Several kinds of wills can be used in Singapore includes:

• Wills made by individuals who have never been married;
• Testament;
• Codicil to the last will;
• If necessary, a photocopy of the original will;
• Statutory will; and
• Handwritten will.

What are the requirements of will in Singapore?

A will must meet the following requirements:

The will should be in writing.

Each will must contain the respective signature of the person making the will.

For the will to be valid, the testator (also known as the person who makes it) must sign it or have an authorized signatory sign it. In most cases, the will might require the Singapore of more than one person, so it is always better to confirm with your lawyer if you wish someone else to sign the will on your behalf. Apart from this, the other two witnesses also need to sign the documents only once the testator has signed the document.

A handwritten bottom line usually on the pre-printed document will not be considered a valid signature unless the testator expressly indicates this was what he wanted. For example, if you are a testator, you can write “Witness” above your name.

Age of the witness

The minimum age criteria for the witness must be at least 21 years and should be Mentally capable (means have enough thinking capability to understand what’s right and what’s wrong). Each witness needs to thoroughly read the will and ensure that they understand everything before signing the document. In case the petition is of more than one page, that witness must sign every page of the petition, not just the page where their signature appears.

Precise information on the will

Each page of the will must include the signature and respective addresses of the witnesses. All the details that are included in the document should match with their NRICs or passports. However, you can also get assistance from your lawyer immediately as they will better clarify the things and guide you whether you require calling witnesses. As a general rule, this shows when the document became effective.

Presence of a lawyer

The clause does not need to be drafted by a lawyer unless exceptional circumstances dictate otherwise.

• It is the right of the witness to get a complete understanding of when the testator signed the will so that they can confirm if the signature was done in their presence. As a result, you need to inform them when the signature was done and mention the same in the clause at the beginning of the will to eliminate any confusion in the future.
• To ensure correct numbering, your will must have consecutive pages numbered throughout. If you plan on printing more than one page, make sure there is a line break between each page.
• Erasures and insertions are not allowed.
• No matter the situation and urgency, you are not granted to include any additional pages once it has been signed and witnessed by all the respective witnesses. Since it will lead to confusion, you will need to prepare the next valid document if you still wish to include anything else.

Keep in mind that if your prepared will does not meet all the above-given requirements, it might negatively impact Singapore is limited situations. The respective lawyer has the required skill to make sure that the prepared will is legally effective in the following situations:

• A testament or codicil that you wish to revoke;
• Disinheriting (excluding) someone;
• Whenever you are planning to draft the next written declaration of your will;
• If you wish to amend either your testament or your codicil; or both and;
• Having died, the testator left no valid will.

Additionally, in most of the situations when the above-given requirements are not met, you still have the option to draft a separate will by considering that it must complete upon execution (i.e., All essential requirements must be met), including the presence of the testator, witnesses, and proper signatures by all those people who sign on behalf of the testator.

When drafting a will, people tend to make the following mistakes:

• A lack of a plan for dividing your estate among your beneficiaries;
• Making no clear statements about what you would like to happen after your death;
• By excluding specific items from your will, you might risk having them seized by law if you include them afterward; or
• Falsely stating that you no longer owned something at the time of your death.

Conclusion

A testator needs to avoid making any of the above errors when writing their new last will in Singapore. The lawyer’s presence is mandatory while preparing and signing the will as they will guide the testator if anything goes wrong. However, if you seek legal document translation, we at Singapore translators offer you certified Legal Translation Services at a budgeted price.