Assets You Cannot Give Away in Your Will

1. CPF

Many of my clients tell me to include their CPF in their Will. Unfortunately, CPF cannot be given away in a Will. This is a very common mistake that we see during probate of home made Wills and even Wills drafted by law firms!

To give away your CPF money, you will need to download a nomination form at the CPF website, sign it before two witnesses and send it back to CPF for processing.

You can also go down to CPF personally and sign it before two of the CPF employees.

After you die, CPF will notify the beneficiaries (that you have stated in your nomination form) of the amount that they will inherit and the monies will usually be credited to their bank account.

2. Joint property

You cannot give away joint property e.g. joint bank accounts and condos / HDB flats that are held as joint tenants.

This is because under the doctrine of survivorship, when one of the joint owners die, the other automatically gets the property.

Usually, all is required is showing a copy of the death certificate to the bank / HDB.

However, you can include joint property in a Will if both joint-tenants execute a mirror Will.

They should also include in a clause to state that if one party dies first, and the other gets the property, then it can only be distributed after the second persons death e.g. In the event my wife Annie dies first, and I become the sole owner of the HDB Flat known as 123 Pasir Ris Drive 6, then I direct my Executor and Trustee to sell the said flat and distribute the net proceeds thereof equally to A, B, C and D.