What a shock to the testator when I tell them their Will are incomplete!
The purpose of Residual Clause is to cater for assets that are not specifically mentioned in a Will. A properly written Will MUST have a residual clause.
Why is this important?
1. People forget to include all assets in their Will.
2. You may acquire assets after you wrote your Will but did not update your Will.
3. You inherited some assets from someone who died before you but you did not manage to update your Will
If your Will does NOT have a residual clause, a situation known as partial intestacy happens. This mean that all the asset that you :-
1. specifically wrote down in your Will will be distributed according to your instructions in your Will,
2. did NOT write in your Will, will be distributed according to provisions in the Distribution Act of Malaysia
The residual clause is your instruction how you would like to distribute all the assets that are not specifically written in your Will. It takes care of assets you left out or those you acquire after your wrote your Will. This means you do not have to keep on updating your Will all the time.
A NOTE OF CAUTION!!!
Although the residual clause may sound like the remainder of your assets, your residual assets may be more than the total of your other assets. For example, let say you have 2 properties and the total value of these 2 properties is RM 1 million. After your wrote your Will, you bought your largest property and this last property is worth RM 2 million. If you did not update your Will, whoever gets the residual can potentially inherit the largest portion of your property.
Other possible scenarios include perhaps be a wealthy relative died and you inherited a large chunk their asset. This changes your total residual assets. Perhaps you won the lottery, who knows?
So the CONCLUSION is to :
1. have a residual clause in your Will, and
2. review your Will from time to time.
CONTACT ME NOW: 016-6825195
Source: LegalWillsMalaysia.com
No comments:
Post a Comment