Madam Toh Ai Lan died in 2012 leaving a sum of money through her will to Special Needs Trust Company (SNTC). SNTC was to use this money to support the deceased’s daughter who suffers from Down Syndrome. In other words, Mdm Toh’s daughter is the ultimate beneficiary. Unfortunately the Executor did not transfer the entire sum to SNTC. SNTC decided to sue the Executor for the outstanding sum of … [Read more...]
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3-year-old boy lost entire family on Christmas Day to car accident
On Christmas day, a 3 years old Evan Lim lost his entire family to a car accident in Johor[1]. His father, Mr Barnabas Lim was just 45 years old. His mother Kristen Ng was 39, and his brother Rayshon Lim was 7 and they were all killed in the car accident. On another unrelated car accident that happened in 2013, 56-year-old taxi driver Mohamed Amin Abdul Manap was injured by another car which … [Read more...]
Majority lacks a written comprehensive financial plan, says FPSB
FPSB recently conducted a global survey among 19 markets. A total of 19,092 adults took part. Among those surveyed in Singapore, it was found that: Only 1/3 have a written comprehensive financial plan. The top two priorities are: owning your own home (60%) and free from debt (58%). Only 4% were willing to pay fees for financial planning services in excess of S$1,500. Majority (68%) were … [Read more...]
Appointment of deputy under the Mental Capacity Act drops to $250!
Good news, parents with children without mental capacity can now appoint themselves as deputies at a rock bottom price of just $250! This was after the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) started a pilot project to have volunteer undergraduate law students do some of the work previously handled by lawyers. Lawyers charged about $5000 for such work. My comments: A deputy is … [Read more...]
Not everyone needs to make an insurance nomination
Insurance nomination was recently brought up by a Sunday Times article (“Policyholders advised to name their beneficiaries, 10 May 2015, Sunday Times). The article gave a lop-sided impression of the importance of insurance nomination by stating only its advantages without mentioning the disadvantages. In this article I want to give a more balance opinion on insurance nomination. Before I … [Read more...]
Case study on simple integration of retirement & special needs planning
A client of mine has a daughter who suffers from Down syndrome. He wants to do some special needs planning for her but is not prepared to go through a thorough estate planning service because he has yet to decide on how to deal with many of his assets. Hence, he and his wife do not wish to write their wills (yet). They are also not prepared to go through a very detailed planning with me … [Read more...]
CPF Member & witnesses’ NRIC required for CPF Nomination
With effect from August 2014, CPF Board requires the copy of the CPF Member’s and the witnesses NRICs. Previously this was not the requirement. The following were the instructions on the CPF Nomination form before the change: This form may take you 10 minutes to complete. Please read the instructions carefully on CPF nomination before completing the form. You must be 16 years old and … [Read more...]
Regulation of CPF nominations not feasible
There was a case in which a man nominated his entire CPF to his ‘goddaughter’. Although his widowed wife tried hard to contest the nomination, she failed and incurred legal costs equivalent to the amount of CPF money the man had! Someone wrote to the Straits Times suggesting that CPF Board regulate the distribution of CPF. I decided to write to the Straits Time forum: I AGREE with Mr Liew … [Read more...]
Man bequeath all CPF to ‘goddaughter’ through CPF Nomination
Mr. Saw did not work for 30 years after a business failure. He was supported by a wife (earning only $1000 salary) and three children. When he committed suicide in June 2013, it was found that he had made a nomination using CPF Nomination to bequeath everything to an unrelated China woman to inherit his entire $37,000 CPF money. His widow wife took legal action but lost because there was … [Read more...]
The Real Singapore: Evidence on little understanding on financial planning from stolen article
Recently one of my old article entitled Man lost almost his entire HDB property to siblings due to poor financial planning got “stolen” and was published without my permission on The Real Singapore website and shared on their facebook page. I was going to write to the editor of The Real Singapore for copyright infringement when I got shocked with the reaction of the commentators. The reaction was … [Read more...]
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