The guide to writing a will

  

Date Posted: 1/13/2018 12:22:13 AM

Posted By: ROZA  Membership Level: Silver  Total Points: 961

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A will is a document written or spoken as way of preparation in case of one’s demise. It states clearly the deceased wishes once he/she is no more, in regard to his/her properties. For a will to valid and executable, there are several things that must be taken into account. And they are the following:
1. The person writing it should be sane and of a sound mind.
2. There must be two witnesses to witness the writing of the will
3. The witnesses should not be beneficiaries of the will
4. The will can be written in any language provided it is understandable
It is good to note that the writer of the will writes it as he wishes without being pushed by anybody. But after his demise, parties that feel that they have been discriminated against can go to court to protest whatever the will has stated. Then the court will determine and consider the following:
1. How much did the deceased have in terms of possessions
2. How many beneficiaries did he have
3. How was the relationship between the deceased and the parties who have gone to court
4. Has the deceased ever given the parties in court anything before his demise
But remember that the deceased is not the one who is taken to court since he is already gone, it is the executor who is taken to court, that is, the person who explains the will and distributes everything according to what the will has stated. But the executor has no right to change the will; he obeys everything the writer of the will says without making any changes.
In case of the absence of a will, meaning that for some reason the deceased decided not to leave a will, the family goes to court to report the death of the deceased. The court then gives the family an administrator, who is now

given the authority to take care of everything. The court can give up to a maximum of four administrators depending on the amount of possessions the deceased had. The administrators should also not be beneficiaries of those properties.

There are also other people who leave their properties under the care of trustees in cases where they think that they might pass away when their children are at a tender age. They then state the age at which the trustee should hand over the properties to the deceased’s children.
Although most of the wills are written, a will can also be oral. But this kind of a will is limited in the sense that, in some places they are not acceptable while they are acceptable in others. In some countries they can be accepted if only the person who spoke about it dies within maybe about 3 months after giving his will.

If a husband dies, the wife can inherit her husband’s property but if a wife dies, the husband has to prove that she was assisting him financially but the children are given first priority in this case. In case a divorce happens and everything is settled, then one spouse dies, the left partner has no share in the inheritance. All children including those born out of wedlock have a right to have a share in the inheritance.

Conclusion
A will can be written by the writer; he can destroy it or do away with it and decide to stay without a will. If he then feels that he needs another will, he can rewrite it again. There is no law that forbids all that. It is advisable for us to inform our family members about our possessions, because all we know is our yesterday and today, tomorrow is a mystery. There are a lot of properties that are lost because people keep their property a secret, we call them unclaimed assets. Some people are afraid of declaring their wealth to their family members because they fear being eliminated, so that they can be inherited. But instead of hiding it and losing everything in the end, one can go to a lawyer, write a will and keep it a secret. That way, one can keep his properties a secret but nothing will go wrong in case of death. A will is the answer.

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