Topic: Estate Planning
25 posts tagged “Estate Planning”.
DIY Will Kits Versus a Lawyer
Online templates make a will cheap and quick. For a simple estate that can be enough; for anything with moving parts, the savings can cost your family far more than the fee you avoided.
What a Lasting Power of Attorney Is
An LPA is the one estate document that works while you are alive. It names someone to manage your money and care if you lose mental capacity — and from April 2026, it is free for citizens to set up.
What a Trust Is, and When It Helps
A trust holds legal title to assets on behalf of others, creating a legal separation between the person who gave the assets and those who eventually benefit. Understanding that — and the revocable/irrevocable distinction — is the key to knowing when a trust is worth it.
Providing for a Child with Special Needs
For a child who cannot manage money independently, an outright inheritance can do more harm than good. A special needs trust provides structured, lifelong support — and Singapore has a low-cost option.
How to Make a Valid Will in Singapore
A will only works if it is valid. The Wills Act sets a short list of requirements — age, writing, signature and witnesses — and getting any of them wrong can undo the whole document.
Choosing an Executor
Your executor turns your will into action — gathering assets, settling debts and distributing what remains. Choosing the right person, and a backup, is one of the most practical decisions in your plan.
Naming a Guardian for Your Children
For parents of young children, the most important line in a will is not about money at all — it is who would raise them. Naming a guardian is a decision only you can make in advance.
Specific Gifts and the Residue
Wills go wrong in predictable ways — gifts that no longer exist, assets nobody was left, percentages that do not add up. Understanding gifts and the residue prevents the most common drafting mistakes.
Your Estate Plan in One Page
The whole pillar in one place. An estate plan is not a thick legal file — it is five short decisions that say who decides for you, and who receives what, when you no longer can.
What Your Estate Actually Is
A surprising amount of your wealth never passes under your will. Knowing what travels inside the will and what travels outside it — including the common puzzle of joint accounts — is the first step to a plan that does what you intend.
Dying Without a Plan: How the Law Splits Your Estate
With no will, the Intestate Succession Act decides who gets what — by a fixed formula that may not match your wishes. Here is how the shares fall across the common family situations.
The Cost of Doing Nothing
No plan is itself a decision — one that loads delay, cost and friction onto the people you leave behind. The price of inaction is paid in time, money and family strain.
Estate Planning Is Not Just for the Rich
The myth that estate planning is for millionaires keeps ordinary households unprotected. In Singapore the family home alone is usually a six-figure estate — and it is only part of the total.
The Five Documents Every Adult Should Consider
A complete plan rests on five short documents — a will, a CPF nomination, insurance nominations, a Lasting Power of Attorney, and an Advance Medical Directive. Here is what each one does.
When to Update Your Will
A will is not a "write once" document. Marriage, divorce, children and major assets all change who should receive what — and in Singapore, marriage can revoke an earlier will entirely.
Why Your CPF Does Not Pass Under Your Will
One of the most common estate-planning mistakes is assuming a will covers your CPF. It does not. Your CPF savings pass only by a separate, free CPF nomination — here is how to make one.
No CPF Nomination: The Public Trustee Route
Skip the free CPF nomination and your savings take the long way home — through the Public Trustee, distributed by a fixed legal formula, with a fee and a wait of up to six months.
Insurance Nominations: Revocable Versus Trust
A life-insurance nomination routes the payout directly to your beneficiaries. But there are two kinds — revocable and trust (irrevocable) — and the difference in control and protection is large.
Nominations Override Your Will
A will and a nomination can point to different people — and when they do, the nomination usually wins. This single rule causes some of the most painful and avoidable family disputes.
Joint Accounts and the Family Home
How you hold your home decides where it goes. Joint tenancy passes automatically to the survivor and bypasses your will; tenancy-in-common does not. The distinction quietly shapes many estates.
No LPA: The Deputyship Route
Lose mental capacity without an LPA and your family cannot simply step in. They must apply to court to be appointed your deputy — a slower, costlier process than the LPA you could have signed earlier.
The Advance Medical Directive
An AMD lets you record, in advance, that you do not want extraordinary life-sustaining treatment if you are terminally ill and unconscious. It is a narrow, voluntary document — and often misunderstood.
Gifting During Your Lifetime
Singapore has no estate or gift duty, so giving while you are alive is simple — and can be deeply satisfying. But simplicity has limits worth understanding before you give large sums away.
Business Succession Basics
If you own a business, your estate plan has a second job — keeping the business running and its value intact when you step back or are no longer there. A few arrangements prevent a great deal of disruption.
Charitable Giving and Legacy
An estate plan can do more than provide for family — it can carry your values forward. Leaving a gift to a cause you care about is straightforward, and a few choices make it more effective.