Risks of not creating a will

For the records,Payal for operational reasons,had nominated her husband in every investment she made. But she never thought of making a Will. Would you believe it,if I said that her mother would not be eligible to receive any money from her estate?

As per the Hindu Succession Act,1956 when a female Hindu dies intestate i.e. without making a Will,her property devolves as follows:

Firstly,upon the sons,daughters and the husband; secondly,upon the heirs of the husband,the sister and the brother of the husband,in the above case. Only if the husband,children or brother and sister of the husband are not alive will the estate devolve upon the mother and father of the deceased female Hindu. If the parents of the deceased female are also not around then the heirs of the father and the heirs of the mother of the deceased will be eligible to inherit the assets.

So as per the law,all her hard earned assets have been inherited by her husband’s brother and sister and Payal’s grieving mother is helpless.

Think about it,if Payal had a choice,would she not have wanted her mother’s living expenses and future to be secure? Wouldn’t she have provided for her mother’s well-being? She had the choice then,and so do you,today.

All she had to do then and you have to do now is – make a Will.

There is another side to this coin. Since a woman is connected to two families after her marriage,the succession laws in India have been drafted to safeguard both sides of her life. Hence,any property inherited by a female Hindu from her father/ mother shall,in absence of her children,devolve upon heirs of her father. The property inherited from her husband or her father in law shall,in absence of her children devolve upon heirs of the husband.

A husband will not be entitled to inherit the property left by his wife,if she has acquired the said property from her father/ mother. In the absence of a Will,such property given to her as ‘Streedhan’ will,if she had no children,go to her father and his heirs and not to her husband. Therefore,if she wishes to give that property or part of it,to her husband,she should write a Will.

Today,at a time when the Indian woman has come into her own at both the workplace and home,she is still not educating herself enough about the rules and laws that govern the future of her loved ones. Financial freedom begins at home,and women need to be the ones who take on the onus to achieve this,for themselves and their families.

—The author isFounder & CEO,Freedom Financial Planners