The case “Lim Lina v Estate of Quick Cheng Gee, deceased” dated 19 Dec 2011 shows that insurance nominations made under Section 73(1) of the Conveyancing and Law of Property Act does not form part of the life assured’s estate. To me it is a straight forward case but nevertheless it was still disputed. The plaintiff had to bring it to the High Court to confirm that the insurance proceeds form a separate estate.

But what troubles me are the existing countless number of insurance nominations not made under any statutory law. For example, prior to 1 September 2009 there was no statutory law allowing insurance nomination for parents and siblings other than that under the section 45 of the Cooperative Societies Act. I am still seeing large number of clients who had not revoked such non-statutory law type of nomination.