What is a Will?

A Will is a document which expresses a person's declaration of his/her intentions with respect to his/her estate and other matters which are to be carried out into effect after his/her passing.

With a Will, you can make clear your intentions and wishes to your loved ones to avoid uncertainties which is normally the cause for many family disputes in estate distribution.

" Your Wealth … Your Loved Ones … Your Choice "

What can a Will do for you?

• Your Faster Way to Distribute Your Wealth A valid Will shortens the process of unlocking and distributing your wealth (estate) to your loved ones.

• Your Choice of Beneficiaries and Their Entitlements In a Will, you have the liberty to state how your hard-earned wealth is to be apportioned among your loved ones upon your demise. Without a Will, this will otherwise be decided by the law and such apportionment pursuant to the prevailing law may not be according to your wishes.

• Your Appointment of Your Trusted Executor(s) A valid Will also would allow you to clearly state who you wish to appoint, to carry out your wishes for your loved ones.

• Your Testamentary Trust and Your Wealth Purposefully Used You may wish for some of your wealth to be used purposefully by your loved ones, for example, to safely and steadily provide for future expenses such as your children's education and your elderly parents' living expenses. You may set up a testamentary trust in your Will to entrust a trustee of your choice and confidence to carry out your wishes after your passing.

• Your Choice of Guardian(s) for Your Children A valid Will would allow you to appoint the guardian(s) of your choice and in whom you have confidence to care for your minor children (below 21 years old) during their growing and formative years.

" I'm the sole-breadwinner in my family; my parents are old and my children are young. What if a co-disaster were to happen to my wife and me? Who is going to take care of my children and parents? "

" I have worked very hard to build my wealth to what it is now. I do not want my children to spend it all away. I would like to plan and provide for my children's, grand-children's and great-grandchildren's and their children's education "

" If anything were to happen to me, I do not want to burden my family financially "

" I wish to set up a Trust to help the poor and the needy for as long as possible "

" I wish to grow my investment and for someone to monitor this "

Private Trust is a versatile tool that allows you to plan for wealth distribution, preservation, protection and distribution. We are here to assist you to plan and structure your Private Trust.

Charitable Trust is a Private Trust but has a public character and is set up for certain purposes beneficial to the public or a segment thereof. Charitable Trust is set up for the relief of poverty, advancement of education, religion or other purposes beneficial to the community. There is no perpetual period for a Charitable Trust.

Investment Trust is a Private Trust but the funds are invested by Fund Managers. You are able to maximize the value of your liquid assets by having a panel of professional fund managers who are appointed by RHB Trustees Berhad to invest the funds. The investments can be local or off-shore or a combination of both if the fund size is substantial.

" I have purchased Insurance Policies and have nominated my spouse and children to be nominees. But what if an unforeseen event was to happen to my spouse and me at the same time, my children are still minors? Or what if the unforeseen event happens to my entire family at the same time? "

" I have a special need child and who is to take care of my child after my lifetime? "

" I am growing my business. I have taken a lot of mortgages for my properties and business. I understand that after my demise, my assets are all going to be frozen until Grant of Probate or Letters of Administration is obtained. How are the monthly mortgages to be paid? "

Life insurance is an integral part of Financial Planning and is essential in providing security to your loved ones if an unforeseen event was to occur. Nomination of your Life insurance is not sufficient to provide security to your loved ones.

But setting up an Insurance Trust allows you to plan for all these contingencies. You can create an Insurance Trust by an absolute assignment of your life insurance policy to the Trustees. Once the proceeds from the Insurance policy is paid to the Trustee, the funds in your trust would be readily available to take care of your loved ones.

Insurance Trust does not form part of your estate and consequently is not subject to claims on the estate. There is no requirement to wait for your Grant of Probate or Letters of Administration to be extracted, thus your Insurance Policies are not frozen. The Trustees can also use the Insurance Policies proceeds to pay for debts and mortgages in your Estate and especially before the Grant of Probate or Letters of Administration is obtained.

Unlike other private trusts, a testamentary trust is intended to take effect only after the demise of the creator. You can create a testamentary trust by appointing a trustee under your duly executed Will to hold certain specified funds or property upon trust for your loved ones as beneficiaries. By creating a testamentary trust, you will be able to direct your trustee to distribute the funds or property under the trust in the manner of your choice over a period of time in the event of your departure.

More often than not, most testamentary trusts are created for the maintenance or otherwise benefit of minor children, elderly parents and other next-of-kin who may be your dependents.