The Will To Make A Will

I made my Will today!

…Yes I did! And I am proud of doing so! 

Better late than never! Yes, I should have done it a long time ago! Yes, it was always on my mind to make my Will. But there were so many ifs, buts and more urgent things that pushed away this very important task to a future date. 

Amongst the ifs and buts that were there in my head were: 

Oh what’s the urgency, I am not going to die so soon. 

Let me finish these more important tasks first and then I will definitely make my Will. 

I don’t have time right now!

How do I begin? 

Where do I find a lawyer? 

Do I even need a lawyer to make my Will or can I make a Will myself? 

But my assets will soon change, then I will have to again make a Will! 

I don’t have enough assets to make a Will.

Will it be a bad omen to make my Will!?

Who will I make my executor!? 

and so on………

And the chores never ended, and the buts kept increasing, and the making of my Will kept getting postponed until one day I decided to catch the bull by the horns. I fixed a date for myself, I found a lawyer, I firmed up a time with him, I paid the lawyer the money; and then it just happened! The day I paid the lawyer the money I knew my Will will now be made. And so here it is! Finally! Phew! And am I relieved! Yes! Absolutely! Relieved and fulfilled! I Made My Will Today

Believe me when I say this- It wasn’t difficult! Seriously! It seems a bigger monster that it turned out to be!

So now let me tell you why am I telling you to make your Will!

Do you know that as a part of Financial Planning, we are taught that Making of a Will is  perhaps one of the first steps in Financial Planning. However for most of us making a Will perhaps, sometimes, turns out to be not even our last step in our Financial Planning journey. 

You will ask; Who should make a Will and why should we make a Will early? Well, anyone who has any dependants should make their wills today rather than tomorrow. And if you have minors as dependants’, then it’s even more advisable to make a Will today rather than tomorrow with proper identification of who the guardians for your minors will be. 

Whether you have a few assets, many assets or no assets (assets include cash, bank accounts, fixed deposits, land, property, gold, jewellery, mutual funds, policies, stocks, cryptocurrency, a piano, your business, your social media accounts, your car or anything else that you  think is of value) making a Will early is the best gift you can gift to your family. 

Making a Will prevents our family from running from pillar to post if something happens to us! They are already dealing with the trauma of losing us (at least we hope so 😜), to make them go through all the crazy mess that we have left for them will only make their pain worse. So spare them the trouble. Make your Will today.

Another myth that got busted for me is that a Will has to change every time my assets change! Our assets change every single day! Right?! One day we have X account, the next day we have Y account. One day we have X car, the next day we have Y car. One day we have X house, the second day we have Y house! So should we keep changing our Wills?

The answer is NO. A Will once made can last for your lifetime so long as your beneficiaries don’t change. Also a well made Will will have layers of beneficiaries and executors so that there is a step down structure in case something untoward happens to one beneficiary or executor. 

Also, your assets need not be a part of your Will and can be annexed later. These assets can keep changing and you can change the Annexure as many times, but the Will remains unchanged.

Remember, a Will has to do with who will be your beneficiaries irrespective of what your assets are! Of course there are nuances if you wish to be selective in giving particular assets to particular beneficiaries but a well drafted Will will have sufficient provisions for all these after thoughts that you may have without changing your core Will.

I know you must be saying to yourself, even if I don’t have a Will my assets will be governed by the Succession laws! True! But Succession laws are messy and convoluted and you don’t want your dependents or beneficiaries to get stuck in all that crazy mess of proving who they are and why they deserve what they deserve!

So my simple suggestion! 

If you are still postponing the making of your Will – just catch the bull by the horns, and Voila! Make Your Will happen for you! 

Do it for yourselves, do it for your dependants’! You owe it to them!  

Share your thoughts, apprehensions, questions or experiences below!