- Your Will can be changed by others

Your Will can be changed by others

Written by Wilfred Ling

Wednesday, 24 March 2010

When a Will is written, it does not take effect until the testator dies. Can a Will be revoke or amended by the testator? It depends:

1. If the testator is mentally incapacitated, he or she cannot revoke nor amend his Will.

2. With from 1 March 2010, the Mental Capacity Act 2008 took effect. Among many things, the Court has the power to revoke and/or amend the testator’s Will when he or she lacks mental capacity.

Relating to the second point, this is a double edged sword. Estate planning now has become more complicated due to more flexibility and tools available. This is a subject that is now much more challenging.

Comments

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Anonymous

|220.255.7.188 |2010-03-26 03:10:22

I don't think the Courts will anyhow change or hantam the Will; it will need to do due diligence and be in the best interests of the testator and his estate. Of course what the Courts decide may not be 100% agreeable to the testator.

Haven't read the Mental Capacity Act yet, but izit the Donee who will apply for change/revocation of the Donor's Will to the courts?
Maybe in the LPA should appoint maybe 3 or 4 donees, and to force decision-by-committee. Slower but less chance of a single Donee cocking-up the show.

Anyway LPA can help smooth out cases like for "living" benefits e.g. CI insurance, whereby policyholder suffered, say, stroke or coma. He's not dead yet, so payout cannot go to beneficiaries yet. But policyholder is deemed mentally incapable of making decisions for himself, so insurance company won't release monies to him. The family then kalang kaboh.

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