Blog Article

A ‘Will’ is a legal declaration of a person expressing how his/her property has to be divided and among whom. In India, any person aged 21 years is allowed to make a will.

If a person dies without making a will, then all his class one legal heirs (mother, spouse and children) will have equal rights to his assets. In the absence of class one legal heir, class two heirs (father, grandchildren, siblings and their grandchildren) can stake a claim.

Listed below are some of the major advantages of making a will.

Property is shared based on your decision

The most important advantage of making a will is that the property you pass on is distributed among the inheritors according to your wish. You will decide on who will get what and how much of it, even though you are practically not present.

By making a will, you will not only distribute the property to your inheritors, but can even make provisions to a close friend, your children under the age of 18, their guardians, children from past relationships, a loyal servant or even your cherished pets.

In some cases, if there is no will, it would be very complicated to share the property of a deceased person. However, if the property is inherited by your father, then it would be passed on to your children, as per the law of inheritance.

Prohibit family disputes

Everybody wants to acquire more wealth. If a person dies without making a will (intestate) and if there are many inheritors, then the deceased person’s family usually ends up in bitter quarrels with regard to property sharing. No one would want their wealth to be a reason for their family struggles. So by making a will, one can rule out any anticipated disputes among the family members after one’s death.

All assets revealed

Not everyone would have shared details of all the assets they hold with their children or spouse. Many people prefer to keep their income sources hidden in order to escape tax payments and there are chances that such assets may not fall into the hands of its rightful owners after the death of those individuals. But if they have made a will and mentioned all the details, then none of their hidden assets will go unclaimed after their death.

Be ready for your second childhood

As you grow old, there are chances that you catch certain ailments which may lead to memory disorders, insanity, delusions, etc. Or getting old itself would make you weak and dependent. Furthermore, accidents occur. In such cases, one may end up in situation in which the person may become very dependent on others. Even if the person writes a will at that time, the will may not be considered valid. Or some of your dishonest relatives may take advantage of your illnesses.

A will allows you to choose who should be the executors of your financial affairs in the event of your physical or mental incapacity. So by writing down a will while you are still in a sound condition, you would stay prepared for such difficult times.

Charities and business legacy

You may want your legacy of a family business or charity donations to keep running in the same pace even after your death. But your successors may or may not keep up the tradition for long. But this can be made possible by making a point in the will that a particular share of income from your property should be contributed to those bodies and for a certain period.

After knowing the importance of a will, please bear in mind that not only an old or a sick person has the need to make a will. Death is very unpredictable. It is advisable that whoever owns a piece of property, no matter if the person is rich or poor, young or old, should make a will.

Also, timely modifications to the will are necessary whenever you have purchased or sold a property, if there is any new inclusion of family members (spouse or children) and so on. While writing a will, mentioning the date is highly important since the latest one nullifies all the prior ones.

After knowing the prime advantages of will, you may also be curious to know what are the documents required for creating a will. LegalDesk provides with easy solution to create online will which is pretty simple and hassle-free, compared to the conventionally drafted ones.