1. In the absence of a surviving spouse, all the assets mentioned in the will are passed on to their children or any other beneficiary who has been named in the will.
2. The surviving spouse is the beneficiary even if no longer of sound mind.
3. Thereafter, the surviving spouse, being of unsound mind, cannot write a will which would stand in a court, so the assets would get distributed intestate upon death as per the natural law of succession.
4. If the spouses are holding all their assets jointly, they can bequeath property to each other after death through "simpler" mirror wills, popular in the West, which are two separate wills that are drafted exactly like each other, with just the name of testator— the person who is making the will—being different on both documents.
5. In the event of the simultaneous death of the husband and wife, there should be a third person who can act as the executor of the mirror wills.
6. If you have minor children, you should also appoint a guardian to look after them in the mirror will; appointing at least two guardians is desirable so that there is someone to look after the children if one of the guardians passes away.
7. A drawback in case of mirror wills is that your spouse is not legally bound to keep the will unchanged, and if either spouse changes the will without informing the other, the latter can do nothing about it.
8. Therefore, couples with such will have to be prepared to work in tandem to change both the wills whenever there is a change in the joint properties held by them.
9. A change in the husband's will does not automatically get registered in the wife's will, and vice versa.
10. For including ifs and buts while writing a will, it is best to write individual "conditional" wills, where stipulations for inheritance can be laid down.
11. However, the conditions cannot be outside the ambit of the law, and if they are immoral or impossible in the eyes of law, the legacy will automatically lapse.
12. After the testator's death, a proper death certificate is essential to transfer any of his assets as per his will.
13. Every will has an executor who should then get the will probated (i.e. certified) by the competent court as the last and final will.
14. Thereafter, if the family agrees to the contents of the will, the executor distributes the property accordingly, for enabling transfer.
15. If any of the legal heirs have an objection, he has to file a caveat to record his objection within the prescribed time limit.
16. If the family disputes the contents of the will, the executor files a probate petition, along with documents related to all the assets, for a probate court hearing.
17. The executor then distributes assets according to the court's judgement.
2. The surviving spouse is the beneficiary even if no longer of sound mind.
3. Thereafter, the surviving spouse, being of unsound mind, cannot write a will which would stand in a court, so the assets would get distributed intestate upon death as per the natural law of succession.
4. If the spouses are holding all their assets jointly, they can bequeath property to each other after death through "simpler" mirror wills, popular in the West, which are two separate wills that are drafted exactly like each other, with just the name of testator— the person who is making the will—being different on both documents.
5. In the event of the simultaneous death of the husband and wife, there should be a third person who can act as the executor of the mirror wills.
6. If you have minor children, you should also appoint a guardian to look after them in the mirror will; appointing at least two guardians is desirable so that there is someone to look after the children if one of the guardians passes away.
7. A drawback in case of mirror wills is that your spouse is not legally bound to keep the will unchanged, and if either spouse changes the will without informing the other, the latter can do nothing about it.
8. Therefore, couples with such will have to be prepared to work in tandem to change both the wills whenever there is a change in the joint properties held by them.
9. A change in the husband's will does not automatically get registered in the wife's will, and vice versa.
10. For including ifs and buts while writing a will, it is best to write individual "conditional" wills, where stipulations for inheritance can be laid down.
11. However, the conditions cannot be outside the ambit of the law, and if they are immoral or impossible in the eyes of law, the legacy will automatically lapse.
12. After the testator's death, a proper death certificate is essential to transfer any of his assets as per his will.
13. Every will has an executor who should then get the will probated (i.e. certified) by the competent court as the last and final will.
14. Thereafter, if the family agrees to the contents of the will, the executor distributes the property accordingly, for enabling transfer.
15. If any of the legal heirs have an objection, he has to file a caveat to record his objection within the prescribed time limit.
16. If the family disputes the contents of the will, the executor files a probate petition, along with documents related to all the assets, for a probate court hearing.
17. The executor then distributes assets according to the court's judgement.