Last Updated on 7, April 2014
Question: Wilfred, I asked a lawyer for Will Writing for Muslims. I want to write a Will so that I can bequeath 90% of my estate to my wife and the remaining equally among my children but he charges me at a price that is too expensive.
Answer:
A Muslim can only Will up to 1/3 of his estate. Moreover, the beneficiaries must NOT be his own family members. To be precise, the beneficiaries of the Will cannot be Faraid beneficiaries. This means you cannot Will to your wife, sons, daughters, mother, father, etc. You can check out the law society website HERE in which section D(i) and D(ii) state the 1/3 rule and the beneficiaries can only be 'non-Faraid". The definition of "Faraid" is found on section E which you'll find are basically the testator's family members. This means writing a Will does not meet your requirements since you are not even allowed to Will to your wife and children!
Nevertheless, you can still use other estate planning tools to bequeath certain assets to certain beneficiaries. For example, a Muslim can make an insurance nomination either under revocable or irrevocable nomination. See the LIA guides at the bottom of page 3 HERE and the Fatwa from MUIS website HERE.
As for CPF, a Muslim can now made a CPF Nomination. See this newspaper report HERE and the Fatwa from MUIS website HERE.
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