The following can only be a brief introduction of the legal subject concerned. Before you take any action which may have legal consequence, you should first seek advice from your own lawyer or make an appointment at any District Office to see a volunteer lawyer of the Free Legal Advice Scheme.




(812) MAKING A WILL

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Any person over the age of 18 may make a will. A will is a document which sets out how a person's property is to be distributed after his or her death. The man or woman making the will is called the "testator".

A will enables the testator to arrange how his property will be shared between relatives and friends. Where no will has been made, the law applies its own rules to share out the deceased person's property, and these may not reflect his wishes or the wishes of his family. For further information on this topic please ask for the recording titled 'Where a person dies without making a will'.

By making a will, a testator is free to choose who is to benefit from his property. The beneficiaries need not be relatives, they need not even be people. He can leave his estate to a charity, a university or any other non-profit organization. He may also choose the people who are to act as "executors" of the will. That is the people who look after his property and see that it is distributed according to the testator's wishes.

A person can also use his will to appoint guardians for his infant children; that is, persons to look after the children while they are under 18 years of age.

There are certain strict formalities which apply when making a Will. Firstly, the will must be in writing. An oral Will is rarely valid. Secondly, the testator must sign the Will or it may be signed by some other person in the testator's presence and with his authority. In either case, the signature should be placed at the end of the Will. Thirdly, the testator's signature (or the signature of the person signing on his behalf) should be witnessed by two persons. Fourthly, the witnesses should each sign their own names on the Will in the presence of the testator (or the person signing for him) and, ideally, they should also in the presence of each other.

The witnesses should not be persons who will receive a gift under the will, nor the husband or wife of a person who will receive a gift; otherwise the gift is forfeited.

A Will which fails to comply with the necessary formalities may still be valid if the Court is satisfied that there is no reasonable doubt that the testator intended the document to be his Will. However, it is necessary to make an application to the Court for its ruling and its ruling will depend upon the evidence available. So it is very wise to employ a lawyer to help you draft your Will or to change your existing Will.

Date of amendment: 29th November 1995