GOOD WILL WRITING
When everyone else is celebrating Deepavali with their Indian friends; eating murukus, capatis, tosais.. and vadehs.. I am home.. writing my own will.
For the Chinese, it is plain taboo to talk about death. What more to talk about having your will written?
Lucky thing for me, whose family is not filthy rich. (Yes – sometimes it is a blessing not to be overly rich). So, we do not have much to pass on the next generation.
Before my grandma passed on at age 84, last year, they have done the transfer of the old family house in Port Weld, Taiping, aeons ago, way before she reaches age 70. Longevity runs in the family.
When my youngest uncle (James look-a-like) died in 1989 intestate (meaning without a will), after a failed kidney transplant operation in India, the entire family were too grief-stricken to even look for his shares, bonds, bank accounts, etc.
It was when reality sets in, the entire family were frantically searching high and low for his stuffs. Till today, we couldn’t locate the thousands of ringgit of shares and bank account passbooks. From that time onwards, we decided to have joint names for all money related purposes. (We are one close knitted family – the only person they should worry about; who would squander all their money is probably – me).
Grandma and Grandad - Rest In Peace
Sasha caught red handed trying to abscond with a grape
My family members are not afraid to talk about death. As we went home for my grandma’s first death anniversary prayers, we talked about how we would like our dead bodies to be taken care of. Bury or cremated? KL or Taiping? Most of us preferred our body to be cremated in order to spare us the agony of Ching Ming every year. (The mountain climbing and the clearing of grass in some old cemetery and painstakingly avoiding trespassing the dead neighbour’s resting place).
What does it take to write a good will?
Writing a will is as easy as ABC. As long as you have include whatever that is to be passed on, and the will being witnessed by two of your best friends, it is as valid as the ones you pay thousands of dollars to get them drafted by blood sucking lawyers.
The tricky part here is not about writing a will, it is getting it executed when you are dead; either rotting in the grave (if you choose to be buried) or when turning into fish food (if you choose your ashes to be scattered into the sea).
If you have nominated any family members to execute your will, (which is not a bad thing if they know how to go about it), I would strongly advise you to let the professionals do it. Usually, in the time of grief, it would be mentally torturing to put your loved ones into so much hardship of getting your stuffs transferred to them.
By paying a mere RM300 (exclude the fee of will writing) per lifetime, you may get Amanah Raya Berhad as custodian, to get it all done for you minus the hassle of haggling service fees with lawyers. Some lawyers don’t even know what they are doing, ended up giving you more problems in the end (if you work with the piece-of-shit lawyer in my company, you will get the picture).
Nobody lives forever. It doesn’t hurt to start writing your will today, which would save your family a great deal of time and spare them from mental anguish, looking high and low for your hidden assets (if any) in the house.
If you loathed your pain-in-the-ass family members or maybe you don’t have anyone else in this world that you would love to give your stuffs to, it is good to have all your assets transferred to a welfare organization, rather than letting the government have it.
For the Chinese, it is plain taboo to talk about death. What more to talk about having your will written?
Lucky thing for me, whose family is not filthy rich. (Yes – sometimes it is a blessing not to be overly rich). So, we do not have much to pass on the next generation.
Before my grandma passed on at age 84, last year, they have done the transfer of the old family house in Port Weld, Taiping, aeons ago, way before she reaches age 70. Longevity runs in the family.
When my youngest uncle (James look-a-like) died in 1989 intestate (meaning without a will), after a failed kidney transplant operation in India, the entire family were too grief-stricken to even look for his shares, bonds, bank accounts, etc.
It was when reality sets in, the entire family were frantically searching high and low for his stuffs. Till today, we couldn’t locate the thousands of ringgit of shares and bank account passbooks. From that time onwards, we decided to have joint names for all money related purposes. (We are one close knitted family – the only person they should worry about; who would squander all their money is probably – me).
Grandma and Grandad - Rest In Peace
Sasha caught red handed trying to abscond with a grape
My family members are not afraid to talk about death. As we went home for my grandma’s first death anniversary prayers, we talked about how we would like our dead bodies to be taken care of. Bury or cremated? KL or Taiping? Most of us preferred our body to be cremated in order to spare us the agony of Ching Ming every year. (The mountain climbing and the clearing of grass in some old cemetery and painstakingly avoiding trespassing the dead neighbour’s resting place).
What does it take to write a good will?
Writing a will is as easy as ABC. As long as you have include whatever that is to be passed on, and the will being witnessed by two of your best friends, it is as valid as the ones you pay thousands of dollars to get them drafted by blood sucking lawyers.
The tricky part here is not about writing a will, it is getting it executed when you are dead; either rotting in the grave (if you choose to be buried) or when turning into fish food (if you choose your ashes to be scattered into the sea).
If you have nominated any family members to execute your will, (which is not a bad thing if they know how to go about it), I would strongly advise you to let the professionals do it. Usually, in the time of grief, it would be mentally torturing to put your loved ones into so much hardship of getting your stuffs transferred to them.
By paying a mere RM300 (exclude the fee of will writing) per lifetime, you may get Amanah Raya Berhad as custodian, to get it all done for you minus the hassle of haggling service fees with lawyers. Some lawyers don’t even know what they are doing, ended up giving you more problems in the end (if you work with the piece-of-shit lawyer in my company, you will get the picture).
Nobody lives forever. It doesn’t hurt to start writing your will today, which would save your family a great deal of time and spare them from mental anguish, looking high and low for your hidden assets (if any) in the house.
If you loathed your pain-in-the-ass family members or maybe you don’t have anyone else in this world that you would love to give your stuffs to, it is good to have all your assets transferred to a welfare organization, rather than letting the government have it.
Comments
VJ | 11.11.04 – 3:58 pm | #
Very informative post, thank you. You wouldn’t mind if I place you on my daily diet, would you?
fishtail | Homepage | 11.12.04 – 12:50 am | #
VJ: I don’t have Indian friends in KL. Most of my Indian friends are in taiping. And I missed their mom’s ass-kicking hot curry. Yummy…
Fish: Anytime .. man/woman? Hehe. I would do the same to yours too. Witty.
Gina | Homepage | 11.12.04 – 12:53 am | #
Youngest uncle = James look-a-like? That reminds me that you told James last time “You look like my dead uncle”. Hahaha!!
Ann | 11.13.04 – 12:35 pm | #
Unusual post. Who is Amanah Raya Berhad?
A private company?
viewtru | 11.13.04 – 3:09 pm | #
Ann: Oh.. you remember that eh? hahaha. He indeed look like my dead uncle.
viewtru: you may check out the website.
Gina | Homepage | 11.13.04 – 4:01 pm | #