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Saturday, August 8, 2020

9 Tips on Making an Effective Will at Home

Last Will and Testament

Due to increasing number of COVID 19 cases, people have realized that they ought to prepare for the worst. In the last four months we have seen a surge in the number people making a Will and taking Life Insurance Policies. Some people still think a Will is a comprehensive legal document which requires a lot of formalities. However, making a Will barely takes more than an hour and it requires no registration, no stamp paper, and can even be handwritten (in fact, it’s better if it’s handwritten, but more on that later.). Here’s a few points to keep in mind while making a Will:

1) Essential Requirements: Your Will must include (a) Your full name and address; (b) Who will be your Executor (a family member or close friend who will oversee that your properties/monies will be distributed in accordance with the Will and who will apply for probate, if required.); (c) Which properties will go to whom (the main part of the Will!) (d) your full signature on last page along with date of signing (e) you require two witness to sign the Will (they don’t need to know the contents of the Will they just need to identify your signature)

2) To Type or Not to Type: The most basic ground to challenge a Will is to say that the signature on it is forged. A Will written by hand (formally called a ‘Holographic Will’) is harder to challenge since it is difficult to contend that the handwriting on the entire Will is forged. Consider writing your Will by hand, if you have a legible handwriting!