What Happens to Your Assets When You Die Without Making A Will
In my previous post, I shared with you 6 Reasons Why You Should Make A Will. Now I will tell you what happens to your assets when you die without making a will. For purposes of this post, I shall be confining my sharing to non-Muslim Malaysians residing in West Malaysia as well as non-Muslim and non-native Sarawakians.
If a person dies without making a Will, the law takes over in terms of the distribution of the assets of the deceased. The relevant law applicable is from the Distribution Act 1958 which stipulates the rightful beneficiaries and their proportion of their inheritance. Some definition of terms used would be necessary here.
According to the Distribution Act 1958, “issue” includes children and the descendents of children. “Child” means a legitimate child but does not include an adopted child unless the child was adopted under the provisions of the Adoption Act 1952 or the Adoption Ordinance of the State of Sarawak. This means that a step-child is not included. The word “Parent” where it appears in the Distribution Act 1958 means the natural mother or father of a child or the lawful mother or father of a child under the Adoption Act 1952. This also means that a step-parent is not included.
| If died leaving | Parents | Spouse | Issue |
| Parents, no spouse and no issue | Whole | - | - |
| Spouse, no parent and no issue | - | Whole | - |
| Issue, no parent and no spouse | - | - | Whole |
| Parents and Spouse and no issue | 1/2 | 1/2 | - |
| Spouse and Issue and no parents | 1/3 | 2/3 | |
| Parents and Issue and no spouse | 1/3 | 2/3 | |
| Parents, spouse and issue | 1/4 | 1/4 | 1/2 |
What if there are no surviving parent, spouse or children? The Distribution Act 1958 states that the assets would then be distributed according to the following priorities – brothers and sisters in equal shares, grandparents, uncles and aunts, great grandparents, great grand uncles and great grand aunts and finally, the Government.
The definition of “Issue” in the Distribution Act 1958 does not include a stepchild or step-parent. Hence, they would not be entitled to an inheritance should the deceased die without making a Will.
comments
You got something to say?