Filter Coffee # 221

On Will-Power

Bengaluru

FC 220 on Button-holed got a few comments which I would like to share.

• Tarun Kunzru: “It takes two to Tango! A nice, polite person with warm vibes is always ideal for button-holing. One has to develop the skill of 'Zip up and sign off!' It's always hard for nice people, as they believe it's rude. Pras, but then your experience on the train journey had become suffering!!”

• Lakshmi Raman: “Buttonholer, too, is a new term for me and I plan to use it soon. Perhaps buttonhole my daughter into listening to my ideas on development? I just remember that a late colleague of mine (he had gone bald early in life) often had the experience of being buttonholed by a fellow passenger as he travelled by bus or train in rural Tamil Nadu. 'Are you travelling alone? Why are you bald? Is it a vow to Tirupati that you shaved your head? Are you married? Why not? If married, then why no children?' He said he learnt to cope with it with his fantasy narratives — that he was a sadhu but in plain clothes or that he came from the Himalayas and was an ascetic in disguise or was a Catholic priest and quite enjoyed these imaginary personas he built for himself.”

• N Raghupathy: “A classic example of journalists who try to buttonhole is the interview I watched between the well-known Karan Thapar, who hosted the ‘Devil's Advocate’ and the Iron Lady Jayalalitha. However, he had to eat a humble pie at the end when she refused the customary 'handshake' with a parting remark that it was "not a pleasure" being interviewed by him! The second category of ‘talking someone's ear off’ is indulged by most marketing executives who engage in a monologue about the quality and value of the product without bothering to know whether the customer needs the product or not. Instead of winning over the customer, such executives end up losing the business.”

• Shereyar Vakil: “The article highlights the simple moments of life. Another version of being buttonholed could be being cornered. A compulsive conversationalist (as per my wife), I tend to corner many a person. The flip side is that I have been put in a corner many times. The silver lining of such encounters is that I have become a good listener.”

📃 Will-Power

My readers may have come across this adage “Where there’s a will there’s a way, but where there’s no WILL there are relatives!”. It encapsulates the sage wisdom in bequeathing your worldly possessions when you are in full control of all your faculties.

An aged distant relative of mine passed away a couple of months back, and much to the horror of all concerned, he had left no Will. To complicate matters he had no wife, no children, no parents and no siblings too. His estate will now devolve to certain heirs as per the classification of heirs under the Hindu Succession Act. This throws up an interesting situation. None of these newfound heirs had neither anything much to do with the deceased nor did they ever care for him or interact with him. Now the scramble is on among the newfound relatives as to how to get hold of their share in the estate that was not in their distant dreams. 

The case of my aged relative is an exception. But most of us have close relatives and if we do not write a Will during our lifetime, we not only make things complicated but also give room for relationships to get strained. You are cursed for not leaving a Will and they will rip you apart instead of letting you RIP. Like charity begins at home, I will walk the talk and write my Will.

A large section of the population still shies away from drawing up a Will. Some people consider writing a Will a bad omen. They feel that they have plenty of life left in them and why then should they be contemplating death? Others say nomination is adequate and there’s no need to make a Will. Still, others say, “We hold the asset or account jointly and what is left belongs to the survivor.”

These statements all seem quite convincing but they don’t guarantee hassle-free inheritance. The situation militates against smooth succession. Someone may challenge the nomination, though it could be argued that nomination is not a testamentary disposition. Designating a person to receive the money or the asset in trust for all the heirs may appear a wise move but is it free from contentious claims? 

Is it not better to make a Will and rule out a post-mortem fight? The purpose of making a Will is to ensure that the estate passes on to the chosen beneficiaries without a hitch. I encourage everyone to seriously consider making one. There are a few basic things to know about the form and content of a Will that I’ll summarise for you.

There are two kinds of succession that the law contemplates. ‘Testamentary Succession’ means there exists a Will and ‘Intestate Succession’ is where there is no Will and the personal laws of inheritance will come into play, the outcome of which may be quite chaotic. The court process and procedures to be followed in the case of intestate succession are quite daunting, for example going through the process of Succession Certificate, Letters of Administration, etc. — depending on the situation.

The person making the Will is the Testator (Testatrix for women). A Will is a declaration of intent of the Testator as to how his estate may devolve on the beneficiaries under his Will after his death. A Will need not be on a stamp paper and is not compulsorily required to be registered, although registration may be an option. Some believe that a registered Will enjoys a higher degree of credibility and can better sustain a challenge. An unregistered Will kept in the custody of an inheritor may come under challenge by persons who are disinherited by the Testator on the grounds of undue influence or coercion.

The Testator should nominate a person as the Executor of the Will, whose duty will be to ensure that the wishes of the Testator, as set out in the Will, are carried out. For that purpose, the executor will apply for a Probate, which is nothing but the Will duly certified by a competent court to evidence the fact that the Will has either not been challenged —  or if it has been challenged, has withstood that challenge. The Testator may appoint a beneficiary under the Will as the Executor or appoint a trusted person and provide for some compensation to be paid to him for officiating as the Executor.

Married couples can draw up a joint and mutual Will whereby the estate is passed on to the surviving spouse. This type of Will is ideal if the estate is small and jointly owned. In the case of large estates, it is better to consult a legal expert and draw up a Will that works well for all the beneficiaries. There are large estates which have likely inheritors who are minors. In such cases, a testamentary trust helps. The Will itself operates as a trust. But these will require both legal and financial experts to guide you.

A Will can be amended or rescinded by executing a document called Codicil. Registered Wills can be so amended only by a registered Codicil.

A Will, to be valid and enforceable, must be attested by two witnesses and the language of attestation should be clear. The following is an example of such attestation:

“On the date last above written, X, known to us to be the person whose signature appears above at the end of this Will, have declared to us, the undersigned, that the foregoing instrument, consisting of N pages, including the page on which we have signed as witnesses, to be their Will. He has signed the Will in our presence and, at their request, in their presence and the presence of each another, we now sign our names as witnesses.”

Having said that, a holograph Will — one which has been written in the Testator’s hand — does not require attestation, technically. But I would still recommend attestation to rule out contentions of the Will having been executed under duress or coercion.

There is yet another class of Wills called Privileged Wills. These are typically a testamentary disposition made by a soldier when he is laying down his life. He may either write it down himself or ask another soldier to write as he dictates or orally communicate his wish to another person.

It is important to note that there is no inheritance tax. The Estate Duty Act imposed a tax on the total value of the assets remaining in the estate at the time of the Testator’s death. However, this estate duty was abolished in 1985 and hopefully will not be revived, as some people fear. The Law of Wills is a vast subject, covering several kinds of Wills. If you are interested in knowing more or wish to be guided on how to draw up a Will,  please feel free to write to me. 

Living Will is an entirely different animal. How is it made?  Is it good to make a Will or gift the property away while you are alive? Maybe I will talk about these in one of the future editions.

Now in a lighter vein:

David had died. His lawyer is standing before the family and reads out David's last Will.
"To my dear wife Esther, I leave the house, 150 acres of land, and one million dollars.
To my son Barry, I leave my Lexus and the new Jaguar.
To my daughter Shriley, I leave my yacht and $250,000.
And to my brother-in-law Aaron, who always insisted that health is more important than wealth, I leave my treadmill.”

Q: What describes best a will?
A: A dead giveaway

Until next week, take care and will yourself to make a Will.

Ciao!