Estate & Wealth Planning in Singapore

“Always plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark.”

– Richard Cushing

Why Estate Planning Matters for Everyone

Everyone, regardless of age, marital status, or wealth, should consider Estate Planning. It is the process of arranging and managing an individual’s assets during their lifetime and after their death. The goal of estate planning is to ensure that an individual’s assets are distributed according to their wishes and in a manner that minimizes taxes, fees, and legal disputes.

Key Legal Documents for Estate Planning

The most common estate planning instruments that we specialise in drafting and/or reviewing include:

Last Will and Testament
Revocable Living Trust
Irrevocable Trust
Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA Forms 1 and 2)
General / Specific Power of Attorney
Declarations

Will Writing in Singapore – Protecting Your Legacy

Writing a legally sound will ensures that your assets are distributed according to your wishes. Without a will, your estate will be distributed according to the Intestate Succession Act Singapore, which may not align with your preferences. Proper will writing can help prevent disputes and unnecessary legal complications.

Essential Estate Planning Tools for Future Security

Other common Estate Planning tools in Singapore we offer include:

CPF Nomination – Ensuring Your Savings Go to the Right Beneficiaries

Even if you have made a Will, you will need to make a CPF nomination as CPF savings cannot be distributed through a Will. Furthermore, you will likely have specific people or charities that you want to bequeath your CPF savings to. In addition, there’s lesser administrative delay, and your estate can avoid paying a fee to the Public Trustee’s Office for administering un-nominated CPF money.

To make a nomination, simply fill in a CPF nomination form and submit it online, or in person at any CPF Service Centre.

What isn’t covered under a nomination

Properties bought using your CPF savings
Payout from Dependants’ Protection Scheme (DPS)
Investments made under CPF Investment Scheme

Distribution of your CPF savings

Upon your demise, CPF Board will get in touch with your nominees to facilitate the distribution of your CPF savings. Your CPF savings will be distributed to them in cash.

If you don’t have a nomination, your CPF savings will be transferred to the Public Trustee’s Office for them to distribute to your beneficiaries in accordance with the intestacy laws.

Advance Medical Directive (AMD) – Making Healthcare Decisions in Advance

An Advance Medical Directive (AMD) is a legal document that you sign in advance to inform the doctor treating you (in the event you become terminally ill and unconscious) that you do not want any extraordinary life-sustaining treatment to be used to prolong your life.

Making an AMD is a voluntary decision. It is entirely up to you whether you wish to make one.

In fact, it is a criminal offence for any person to force you to make one against your will.

Anyone who is 21 years old and above, and who is not mentally disordered can make an AMD.

How do I make an AMD?

Step 1: Obtain an AMD Form

The forms are available from medical clinics, polyclinics and hospitals. You may also ask your doctor for the form if you have decided to make an AMD. Alternatively, you can also download the AMD form online.

Step 2: Consult a doctor with a witness

The AMD must be made through a doctor (you do not need either a lawyer or legal advice to make an AMD). The doctor has the responsibility to ensure that:

You are not being forced into making the AMD.
You are not mentally disordered.
You understand the nature and implications of making an AMD.
You need to have two people witness you sign the AMD and they must sign the form as witnesses in your presence at the same sitting. One witness must be the doctor. The second witness must be 21 years or above and can be the doctor’s nurse, or any other suitable person.

Both witnesses of the AMD must:

be above the age of 21;
not be a beneficiary under your will or any policy of insurance;
not be an immediate family member (i.e. parent, child, adopted child; spouse or sibling);
have no interest under any instrument under which you are the donor, settler or grantor;
not be entitled to an interest in your moneys held the Central Provident Fund or other provident fund on your death; and
not have registered an objection under section 10(1) of the Advance Medical Directive Act 1996.

A doctor who for any reason objects to the AMD and registers his objection with the Registrar can refuse to witness the signing of an AMD. You can then approach another doctor to witness your AMD.

Step 3: Return the form to the Registrar of AMD

The completed form should be sent in a sealed envelope by mail or by hand to the Registrar of Advance Medical Directives at Ministry of Health, Singapore, College of Medicine Building, 16 College Road, Singapore 169854

Your AMD is only valid when it is registered with the Registrar of Advance Medical Directives. The Registrar will send you an acknowledgement when the directive has been registered.

Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) – Protecting Your Interests in Times of Incapacity

A Lasting Power Attorney (LPA) is a legal instrument that allows the person you have nominated as your Donee to make personal welfare and property and affairs decisions on your behalf when you are medically diagnosed to have lost your mental capacity.

If you have not made one, when you are medically diagnosed to have lost your mental capacity, your care giver will have to apply to the Family Justice Court under the provisions of the Mental Capacity Act 2008 to be appointed as your Deputy and to act on your behalf. This can be an expensive and uncertain route as the Court determines who is suitable to the appointed as the Deputy and what powers should the Deputy be granted.

Making an LPA is thus one of the key tools for estate planning and should not be overlooked.

Below are very useful and self-explanatory videos that can be found on official Youtube Channel of the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) that may interest you when making your LPA.

Making an Online LPA

Making your LPA in OPGO

Frequently Asked Questions About Estate & Wealth Planning

I do not own many assets – do you recommend me to make Will?

Yes. It doesn’t matter if you do not have many assets. If you make a Will, you can decide who you want to give your assets to and the share you want your beneficiary to have. You can also exclude a person from benefitting from your assets. It is also easier for your appointed Executor to apply for a Grant of Probate instead of leaving it to your beneficiaries under the Intestate Succession Act to prove their relationship with you and to decide who will apply for the Grant of Letters of Administration.

I am 80 years old, of sound mind and not mobile due to poor health. I included my son as a joint account holder in my POSB Bank to facilitate the management of the account for my personal expenses. What can I do to ensure that my son does not claim the money in the account is his when I die and refuse to share equally with his siblings?

You may wish to make a Deed of Trust and/or a Declaration under oath to express that your son has been included as a joint account holder purely to assist you with the management of the account and that you want him to beneficially own the balance monies in the account when you pass on. You can also make a Will and make reference to the joint account expressing how you wish the monies in the account to be distributed on your death. We strongly advise you to obtain legal representation when drafting the relevant legal instruments.

I have drafted my Will. The beneficiaries in my Will are my wife and son. Can I get my son’s wife to be the 2nd witness to my Will?

No. Your son is a beneficiary in your will. The witnesses to you signing the Will cannot be a beneficiary named in your Will nor the spouse of a beneficiary.

My husband and I purchased a property on trust for the benefit of my only son who was a minor at the time of purchase. We executed a Declaration of Trust which included a clause that if the property was not sold before my son turned 21 years old, all the rights, title, estate and interest in the property shall be transferred to him when he turns 21. My son is now 22 years old. The property is not sold or transferred to him. He wants to sell the property.

Subject to the terms set out in the Declaration of Trust your son may be able to obtain a court order to terminate the trust if you do not transfer the property to him. We strongly advise you to seek legal advice.

My elderly mother is getting very forgetful, and I am worried she may suffer from dementia. Can I get her to make a Lasting Power of Attorney and a Will?

You will need to get a medical doctor to assess your mother’s mental capacity and issue a medical memo to confirm if she is mentally capable of making a Lasting Power of Attorney and a Will.