Writing a will

If you wish to pass on your movable, fixed and financial assets to your rightful heir(s) after your demise (which is inevitable), you need to prepare a will that will transfer the legal rights of ownership of all your earned and inherited assets to your legal heirs. A will enables smooth transfer of ownership of assets to your loved ones and helps avoid disputes among survivors and the legal hassles that arise from such disputes.

The will should clearly define who should get what and, if the ownership of the asset is to be passed on to more than one heir, in what proportion the allocation is to be made. The writer of the will is called the ‘Testator’, while the person appointed by the testator to manage and execute the will after the demise of the testator is called the ‘Executor’. The person to whom the ownership of the assets is passed on by the executor is called the ‘Beneficiary’.  The executor of the will could be one of the beneficiaries or a third person such as a trusted relative, friend or lawyer. The beneficiaries could be one or more individuals, institutions, organisations, etc, and the assets can be allocated to these individuals/organisations in full or in part.

In India, writing a will is quite easy and simple. It is not necessary to write the will on a judicial stamp paper and a will written on a plain piece of paper and signed by two witnesses is a valid legal document. The witnesses to the will should be trustworthy and should preferably not be the beneficiaries of the will to avoid conflict of interest or manipulation. Neither the will nor the signatures of the witnesses be notarised. Also, there is no need for a lawyer to prepare a will, but the advice or services of an experienced lawyer can be useful while preparing a will. There are also online platforms that provide services for preparing an e-will.The will can be updated or changed by the testator any time if there is any high value accretion or erosion in the assets.

After the demise of the testator, the will goes under probate, which is a judicial process to prove the validity and authenticity of the document as the final testament of the deceased. The will needs to be probated before it is executed and this process is somewhat tedious and time-consuming.After the will is probated, the executor can proceed to execute the will.