The uncertainty created by the global pandemic has led to an increase in succession planning especially through wills as you might not know as to when and how you can get infected and hospitalized which might leave your family with financial crisis after your death. However, social distancing and isolation has made the process of establishing a will quite challenging.
Therefore, it is essential to draft a will that will ensure you a peace of mind of your wishes are followed accordingly.
In this blog we’ll discuss the various challenges that occur while drafting a will and provide appropriate solutions for the same.
What goes into will making:
A will can be easily executed by a sound person or anyone at the age of majority where there are 2 key formalities that are taken into consideration:
Signing:
the will is supposed to be a written document which has to be signed by the person who is making the will that is, the testator.
Attestation:
the will is attested in the presence of the testator by making two or more witnesses to sign it. Also, the testator has to either sign the will in front of the witnesses or send a personal acknowledgement of his/her signature.
Therefore, the above mentioned criteria are important for the formation of will or else the deceased’s closest next of kin would apply for the letter of administration in Victoria that will allow them to legally administer the estate which could then lead to further complications and tension among the family members.
In contrast to a popular belief, neither any stamp duty is paid on the will nor the will is supposed to be notarized or registered.
Challenges in will making:
The above mentioned formalities can be easily completed for the execution of will, however, the testator is likely to face some challenges during these extraordinary circumstances which include:
- Looking for a lawyer who can assist in preparing the will.
- Problems while printing a typed draft of a will in order to sign it in the absence of a printer.
- To look for at least two witnesses who could be present while the testator signs the will.
Hence, there are certain trends or solutions that could be followed to overcome such challenges like:
Issue 1- lack of access to a lawyer:
there are a number of lawyers available who are willing to prepare the will from home. However, the testator is allowed to draft the will on their own in the absence of access or interest of time. Hence, it is not necessary that a lawyer must always draft the will.
A simple will can be prepared by any individual, however, a more complex will needs to engage a lawyer during preparations. A simple interim will could be executed at the moment and expanded to a more extensive one later after the restrictions are eased out.
Therefore, there is no particular format to be followed while constructing a will as a short and a simple will having information such as the recipient of the estate after the testator’s death and mentioning one or more executors to look after the terms of the will would be enough.
Issue 2- printing a will:
the law doesn’t necessitate for a printed or a typed will so, a normally written will on a regular paper would work. Such hand-written wills are known as holographic will. However, there should be extra care given to such handwritten wills to ensure that there are no spelling errors and the handwriting is legible.
Issue 3- finding witnesses:
this issue might be the most difficult one to resolve. It is enough noticed that testator appoints family members as their witnesses whom they mostly reside with. However, it is suggested that the testator should not make members that are eligible for receiving benefits under the will as their witnesses.
In case, a witness chooses legatees as their witness due to lack of access to others, then they are eligible to replace the will once another set of witnesses are available.
Also, a family member who has no bequest under the will can also be appointed as the witness. For eg- the children can be witnesses in cases where the spouse has control over the entire estate of the testator.
Similarly, 2 neighbors can be chosen as witnesses by maintain the social distancing and hygiene norms where the testator would be a safe distance from the witnesses.
Moreover, the attendants or healthcare practitioners could be asked to become witnesses if the testator is admitted to a medical facility.
Therefore, the barriers created by pandemic during the creation of will can be avoided by adopting various technological advancements like digitalization. This includes allowing the wills to be made through emails or signing and witnessing the wills over video calls.
However, to ensure the validity, the process of creation of a will must ensure that certain formalities are followed.
Therefore, in order to be more familiar with the requisites one should appoint a professional and what’s better than hiring our experts at Probate Consultants who could navigate you through the steps leading to a more favorable outcome.
