I decided to conduct an informal survey among my relatives and clients with regard to distribution of the estate when their close one died. Most people I know do not have a Will. So all the persons I talked is with regard to dying intestate (no Will). When a person dies intestate, assets are distributed according to Intestate Succession Act but with some exemptions such as insurance nomination, CPF and properties held in joint-tenancy.

What I found are two general outcome of a person dying intestate. The first outcome is that none of the beneficiaries can agree as to who should be the Administrator. To be the Administrator, all other persons entitled to the estate must renounce their rights to be Administrator. If they do not renounce their rights, it becomes problematic. So when this happens, the estate gets stuck and nothing gets done. Hence, the estate cannot be distributed due to the lack of agreement among beneficiaries as to who should be the Administrator.

In other circumstances, the Administrators do NOT follow the Intestate Succession Act. In practice, it appears that Administrators just transfer according to mutually agreed proportion rather then by law. But this “mutually agreed proportion” is an understatement because it involves in-fighting among beneficiaries. Some beneficiaries decide not to pursuit the case (perhaps because the amount is small relative to the legal cost) and some simply just give up fighting for their rights because it is emotionally draining.

From the informal survey, it appears that the Intestate Succession Act only look nice on paper only. In practice I think, survivors just have to sort out among themselves. I also wonder are there any Administrator in Singapore who really followed the Intestate Succession Act to the letter. Of course, beneficiaries who are poor or are minors can never claim their rightful inheritance as they have no fire power to take legal action.

As I think about it, writing a Will may not solve the problem because the Executor could simply NOT follow the wishes of the Will and the beneficiaries would have to fight for their rights through costly legal battles or simply just give up claiming their inheritance. Again, the Will may look nice on paper but it is quite a different story in real life.

I felt that the main problem is the problem of enforcement. If it is going to be distributed under Intestate Succession Act, someone must audit and police the distribution. If it is going to be the Will, someone with authority must audit and police the Executor to do the right thing. But there is no one who monitors and police. The only way is for beneficiaries to fight for their rights through costly legal battles.

Through this informal survey, it makes me think about the difference between being theoretically correct and practically enforceable. Theoretically correct means having something very nice on paper. But whether that piece of paper is enforceable is quite another story. Thus, the Will has to be written such that it becomes easily enforceable. Most Wills written are not easily enforceable by the beneficiaries and it is up to the discretion of the Executor to do the right thing. I find this too dangerous. There are many tools used for estate planning and having a Will is but one of the many. Perhaps the best way of estate planning is not to depend solely on one tool. The keyword is diversification.