PSP 2 - Intestate Succession Act PDF

Takeaways The Intestate Succession Act governs the distribution of assets when someone dies without a will in Singapore. The Act does not apply to the estate of Muslims and defines terms such as child and legitimate. The domicile of the deceased person is crucial in determining the distribution o...

Takeaways The Intestate Succession Act governs the distribution of assets when someone dies without a will in Singapore. The Act does not apply to the estate of Muslims and defines terms such as child and legitimate. The domicile of the deceased person is crucial in determining the distribution of their property. The Act outlines nine rules of distribution, including the entitlement of the surviving spouse, children, parents, and other relatives. Certain individuals, such as stepchildren and foster children, may be excluded from inheritance. In cases of partial intestacy, the role of the executor and the government\'s entitlement is specified. A simplified table summarizing the distribution rules is provided for quick reference. Andrew Yip (00:00.194) Greetings everybody, welcome to the lecture on the Intestate Succession Act. My name is Vincent Ho, I am a partner with Wong Partnership LLP. In today\'s lecture, we look at the situation of what happens when somebody dies without the will, that is, he is intestate. Andrew Yip (00:21.838) Singapore\'s Intestacy Law is governed by the Intestate Succession Act, which only has 10 sections. This is probably one of the shortest statutes in Singapore\'s books. For your information, please see the speech by then Minister of Law Mr E.W Barker in moving for the passing of the Intestate Succession Act in 1967. The first thing to note about the Intestate Succession Act is that it does not apply to the estate of any Muslim. nor shall it affect the rules of Muslim law in respect of the distribution of estate of any such person. This is Section 2 of the Intestate Succession Act. Please note that Muslim succession law is not part of the syllabus. Please see Section 3 of the Intestate Succession Act, containing the definitions of the word child, interstate and issue. The interesting thing is that for the definition of child, This is defined as a legitimate child and includes any child adopted by virtue of an order of court under any written law for the time being enforced in Singapore, Malaysia or Brunei, Darussalam. Does that mean a child was adopted in, for instance, Australia? Is not a child for the purposes of the Interstate Succession For the word legitimate, as part of the definition of the word child, please refer to the Legitimacy Act to see under what circumstances the child is considered legitimate. In succession law, it is always important to ascertain and determine the domicile of a deceased person as the distribution of his property, whether immovable or movable, will hinge upon his domicile. See Section 4 of the Interstate Succession Act. as to which laws apply. The crucial importance of domicile of the deceased person can be seen from Section 5. Please read Section 5 carefully. This means that if a person was domiciled outside Singapore and he had immovable property and movable property in Singapore, his immovable property would be distributed in accordance with Section 7 of the Intestine Succession Andrew Yip (02:41.464) but his movable property will be distributed in accordance with the laws of his tumor cell. Section 6A of the Interstate Succession Act states that for the purposes of distribution, there shall be no distinction between those who are related to a person deceased through his father and those who are related to him through his mother, nor between those who are actually born in his lifetime and those who at the date of his death were only conceived in a womb but who have subsequently been born alive. Section 6b of the Interstate Succession Act is interesting. It states that those related to a person deceased by the half -blood shall rank immediately after those of the whole blood related to him in the same degree. Please see the case of Cheng Heng Te and estate and trust agencies. We now come to the main section of the Intestate Succession Act, Section 7, which provides for nine rules of distribution. The first rule, if an intestine dies leaving a surviving spouse no issue and no parent, the spouse shall be entitled to the whole of the estate. Second rule, that is if an intestine dies leaving a surviving spouse an issue, the spouse shall be entitled to one half of the estate. Andrew Yip (04:13.262) Rule 3 states that subject to the rights of the surviving spouse, if any, the estate of an interstate who leaves issues shall be distributed by equal portion per step east to and amongst the children of the person dying interstate. And such persons as legally represent those children, in case any of those children be then dead. There are two important provisos to Rule Andrew Yip (04:39.79) Provisal No. 1 of Rule 3 states that the person who legally represents the children of an interstit are their descendants and not their next of kin. What does this mean? This clarifies that if a child, ex, of the interstit had pre -deceased him, and ex had descendants who survived him, those descendants are the ones who are entitled to inherit. Ex -spouse, in other words, the interstit\'s child -in -law, will not be entitled to inherit at all. If X had no descendants, then proviso 1 does not apply. The other surviving children, or their descendants if any other child had also pre -deceased the intestine, will share equally the rule 3 entitlement. Andrew Yip (05:25.422) Provisal number 2 of rule 3 states that descendants of the interstate to the remotest degree stand in the place of the parent or other ancestor and take according to their stocks the share which she or she would have taken. What does this mean? This is the Perster -Biz Rule and shows that the distribution to descendants, where applicable, can extend to the grandchildren, great -grandchildren, etc. of an interstate. Rule 4 states that if an interstate dies, leaving a surviving spouse but no issue but a parent or parents, the spouse shall be entitled to one half of the estate and the parent or parents to the other half of the estate. Rule 5 states that if there are no descendants, the parent or parents of the interstate shall take the estate in equal portions if there be two parents. Interestingly though, if the deceased was an illegitimate child, Rd. 4 and 5 would have to be read with the Digitum Adcii Act, Section 10, and only the mother is entitled. This is also the position under common law. Rule 6 states that if there are no surviving spouse, descendants or parents, the brothers and sisters and children of the deceased, brothers or sisters of the interstate shall share the estate in equal portions between the brothers and sisters and the children of any deceased brother or sister. shall take according to their stocks the share which he or she would have taken. Candidates should note that rule 6 expressly refers to children of deceased brother or sister and not to the descendants or issue, unlike in rule 3. Therefore, if any brother or sister had died and their children had also died, but those children had left issue or descendants, rule 6 does not apply to those issue who come later than the children. Rule 7 states that if there are no surviving spouse, descendants, parents, brothers and sisters or children of such brothers and sisters, but grandparents of the infested, the grandparents shall take the whole of the estate in equal portions. Andrew Yip (07:41.935) Rule 8 states that if there are no surviving spouse, descendants, parents, brothers and sisters or their children or grandparents but uncles and aunts of the estate, the uncles and aunts shall take the whole of the estate in equal portions. Candidates should note that Rule 8 only mentions uncle and aunts, but does not mention the children of uncle and aunts if they are deceased. Accordingly, if the uncles and aunts have died even if they had children, these children of the uncles and aunts would not be entitled to inherit. would have seen the phrases whole blood and half blood earlier. So what is whole blood? Whole blood is a relationship existing between persons having the same two parents, that is, a mixed ancestry. What is half blood? Half blood is a relationship existing between persons having the same father or same mother, but not both parents in common. An example of a case where the Interstate Succession Act provisions came into play is that in Ching Heng Te and the Estate and Trust Agencies, 1927 Limited. In that case, the deceased had died in state and had no surviving spouse, descendants, parents, brothers and sisters or their children or grandparents. However, there were competing aunts. A whole blood aunt from the intestine mother\'s blood relations versus half blood aunts from the intestine father\'s blood relation. Andrew Yip (09:25.817) Please take a look at the family tree for the Ching Heng Teas case. It is important in such cases involving the Intestate Succession Act to draw up a proper family tree so that you can see how each party is related to the deceased who died the Andrew Yip (09:49.519) Ching Heng Tee\'s case involves an analysis of both Section 6A and 6B of the Intestate Succession Act. Under Section 6A, for the purposes of distribution, there shall be no distinction between those who are related to a person deceased through his father and those who are related to him through his mother. So based on 6A, it was a draw between the parties. Andrew Yip (10:16.579) But Section 6b states that for the purposes of distribution, those related to a person deceased by the half -blood shall rank immediately after those of the whole blood related to him in the same degree. Therefore, the whole blood aren\'t one. Andrew Yip (10:35.183) This case shows us that Section 7, Rule 8 of the Intestate Succession Act had to be interpreted in light of and subject to Section 6b of the Intestate Succession Act. The aunt of the deceased who shared the same parents as the deceased mother was the sole beneficiary of the deceased estate to the exclusion of the plaintiffs as she was a whole blood aunt of the deceased, unlike the plaintiffs who were the half -blood aunts and half -blood uncle of the deceased. Incidentally, This estate was worth many millions of dollars. In terms of intestate succession, the word child may come within 6 categories. 1. Legitimate child or legitimated child 2. Illegitimate child 3. Stab child 4. Foster child 5. Adopted child 6. Disowned child For the purposes of today\'s discussion, a disowned child will not be explored in this presentation. there is no need to discuss legitimate child because this is clearly defined in the Intestate Succession Act, Section 3. However, the rights of an illegitimate child and the illegitimate child\'s entitlement to claim point inheritance under the Intestate Succession Act is more controversial. In the decision by the Court of Appeal in AAG and the estate of AAH, the court That to permit an illegitimate child to claim for maintenance against his or her deceased parent\'s estate would be to indirectly allow that child to claim for a share in the intested parent\'s estate, contrary to the ISA. Andrew Yip (12:22.927) However, a child who remains illegitimate is entitled to the infested estate of his mother in the event that the mother does not leave any legitimate children. The illegitimate child takes the estate as if he were the legitimate child of his mother. See Legitimacy Act, Section 10. An interesting question is, what if the deceased woman had both legitimate and illegitimate children and had died infested? The answer is that the legitimate children would take to the exclusion of the illegitimate children. Can a stepchild of a deceased claim from the estate of an invested stepparent? This is the issue in the case of Low Guan Hong David and Suriyono Winno Doi, 2012 3 SLR 185, where there were competing claims between the stepchildren and the deceased single brother who live in Indonesia. Justice Dae Yong Kwan held that a child under Section 3 of the Interstate Succession Act cannot be interpreted as including a stepchild. The main meaning of a child was legitimate child, and the enlarged definition was adopted child. Taken as a whole and in its proper context, the ISA requires a legal and biological connection between parent and child, and hence the exception for lawfully adopted children who satisfy the legal but not the biological requirement. The court observes that it is therefore incumbent on step -parents wishing to provide for their step -children\'s entitlement to their estate to expressly state so in a proper way. Andrew Yip (14:12.847) In terms of foster children, there is also a decision by the court in Lim Wei -Pin and Lim Bo -Chuan, which held that a foster child is not a child under the Intestate Succession Act. We now come to the exclusion of the Hodge -Potts rule that\'s contained in Section 9 of the Intestate Succession Act. Children\'s advancements are not to be taken into account, which means that where a distributive share of the property of a person dying in the estate is claimed by a child, or any descendant of a child of that person, no money or other property which the attested may during his life have given, paid or settled to or for the advancement of the child by whom or by whose descendant the claim is made, shall be taken into account in estimating such distributive share. Please note that this only applies to the entitlements of the child or his descendants. It does not apply to others such as spouse, parents, siblings, etc. Andrew Yip (15:15.695) As explained in an earlier lecture, even when a person dies living a will, his estate could still be governed by the Intestate Succession Act. One example is when the will fails to distribute or dispose of all the assets in the person\'s estate. This is known as partial interstacy. Section 10 of the Intestate Succession Act states as follows. Where any person dies living a will beneficially disposing of part of his property, The provisions of this Act shall have effect as respects the parts of his property not so disposed of, subject to the provisions contained in the will, provided that the personal representative shall, subject to his rights and powers for the purposes of administration, be a trustee for the persons entitled under this Act in respect of the part of the estate not expressly disposed of, unless it appears by the will that the personal representative is entitled to take that part beneficially. Andrew Yip (16:13.519) There is also a very similar provision in Section 24 of the Civil Law Act, which states that an executor is deemed to be the trustee for the person and titled to residue on interstice. Andrew Yip (16:28.207) So what is the difference between Section 10 of the Intestate Succession Act and Section 24 of the Civil Law Act? Both appear practically identical, but it should be noted that Section 10 of the Intestate Succession Act provides that, with regard to the Intestate Estate, the provisions of the ISA shall have effect subject to the provisions contained in the will. This phrase is absent from the Civil Law The effect of Section 10 of the Intestate Succession Act and Section 24 of the Civil Law Act is that in partial -intestacy cases, the executor of the will should simply apply for the grant of probate of the will, notwithstanding the partial -intestacy. The executor does not need to apply for a separate grant of letters of administration even if they are infant beneficiaries of the intestate portion of the estate. The executors\' powers and duties are spelled out in Section 10 of the ISA and 24 of the Civil Law Act and the will, if applicable. It should also be noted that Section 24 of the Civil Law Act only applies when the person\'s name as executors apply for the grant of probate. When the executors have renounced or are unable to take the grant, for instance, they have passed away before the deceased or have become mentally incapacitated, Persons who are entitled to apply for grant of letters of administration with Will and X will then have to apply for grant of letters of administration. And then it is in this situation that Section 10 of the Intestate Succession Act would be applicable and not Section 24 of the Civil Law Act. The final rule, Rule 9 of Section 7, provides that in default of distribution under the foregoing rules, the government shall be entitled to the whole of the estate. This is also known as bona vacantia. This happens when a person dies leaving no surviving spouse, descendants, parents, brothers and sisters, or their children, or grandparents, or uncles and Andrew Yip (18:37.231) For Bonavicantia estates, please note Section 27 of the Civil Law Act. This allows a person who can establish to the satisfaction of the Minister of Law that he has an equitable or moral claim to the estate or property of the person who died in the estate, and the Minister may disclaim or release to such person the whole or part of the estate as the Minister thinks appropriate. This may be relevant if you are advising a client who is perhaps a close friend or a godson of the deceased person and is seeking to stake a claim in the deceased person\'s estate. Andrew Yip (19:19.819) As you would have seen from today\'s lecture, the distribution rules under the Intestate Succession Act has many intricacies and nuances. However, for your understanding and quick overview, I have set out a simplified table on this slide showing the distribution rules. I hope this has been helpful, and this concludes my lecture on the Intestate Succession Act. B24 PSPB24 PSP - C. INTESTACY - **[Without a Will (Intestate)]** - 1\. Scope of application of the Intestate Successioin Act (**[ISA]**) - s7 of the ISA - **[Rules of distribution]** instestatcy susccession - **[Assume that Right of survivorship for property outside of Singapore jurisdiction]** - **[2. Issues of illegitimate, adopted, and foster children]** - **[s10 ISA]** - Partial Intestacy c/f from s24 Civil Law Act - **[Summary distribution]** - **[14 Advantageoues of havng a Will]** - 2: Ability to choose the Executor and Trustee of one\'s Will and set the terms of appointment. - S. 18(2) Probate and Administration Act - 3: Minimum number of executors or personal representatives to administer an estate with a beneficiary who is a minor - At least 2 administrators for the estate needed - D. OTHER ISSUES RELATING TO ESTATES - 1\. Inheritance (Family Provision) Act 1966 ("IFPA") - \(a) Scope of application; IFPA does not apply to Muslims (Section 1 IFPA) - \(b) Principles and procedure -- concept of dependent and reasonable provision of maintenance (Sections 2 and 3 IFPA) - **[s3 IFPA - Requirements]** to make IFPA Application? - s4 and s6 IFPA - **[Time]** limits = [ **6 months**] - s3(2) IFPA -Power for court to order payment out of net estate of deceased for benefit of **[surviving spouse or child]** - **[What]** the Court can order under IFPA? - 3(5), 3(6), 3(7), 3(8) IFPA - \(d) Interplay between just and equitable division under the Women's Charter 1961 and reasonable provision of maintenance under the IFPA (AOS v Estate of AOT \[2012\] 3 SLR 721 (CA)) - 2\. Maintenance of Parents Act 1995 ("MPA")