My sister-in-law called me this morning to tell me the good news.
The title deed to her house in Simpang Ampat, Penang, was finally with her. It had been a patient wait of almost five years to complete the estate administration process after her husband’s death.
Her husband passed away of a heart attack on 3 Oct 2002, aged on 42 and leaving her with two small children and an aged mother-in-law.
I could understand her distress and confusion at that time. After settling all the funeral necessities, reality sank in soon afterwards when she had no one to turn to for help and assistance.
All that her husband left behind was the single-storey house and a small car. Luckily, her husband’s MRTA policy was enough to pay off the outstanding mortgage on the house but there was still a hefty credit card bill to settle too. Anyway, she managed to resolve all that.
As her brother-in-law and one who is keenly aware of estate planning, I helped by running to all the banks and government departments and agencies. I wasn’t the appointed administrator but my task was to help her apply for a Letter Of Administration from the Land Administration Office.
I have to admit that it took a lot of my personal time to achieve all this because I had to explain the administration process in detail numerous times to my sister-in-law and her husband’s own sister and brother until they understood me fully (this was an unenviable job), visit all the banks where her husband had his credit cards and normal savings accounts, inform the Employees’ Provident Fund, the Socso office and the Income Tax department, take them to the Commissioner For Oaths, see the lawyers and finally apply for the Letter of Administration. These weren’t easy.
Estate administration isn’t easy. Anyone who has gone through this will agree. It’s not a Work Experience that you’d want to include inside your Resume. What are you going to say: “I made a mess out of administrating my father’s estate” or “I took 10 years to settle a simple estate administration problem.” What, indeed!
Whether you have a Will or you die intestate, administration can be a very messy task if you do not have the right professional help. Of course, it’s even messier without a Will. Can you count on your spouse, your brother or sister, your brother-in-law or sister-in-law, your other relatives or friends to have the experience or expertise to help you as the Executor and Trustee of your estate when you pass on eventually? Can you trust them to complete administering the estate in the shortest possible time? Or can you only hope that they’ll be able to do this to the best of their ability?
If you have doubts, please think about getting some professional service. Don’t think that you can save some money by leaving it to your spouse to do it on his/her own. In the end, the time wasted may cost your family more than what they need to pay for the professional services.