Thursday, September 3, 2015

063 How to claim a deceased's shares?

Mary's uncle passed away few years ago without leaving a will. His wife managed to transfer the assets to her name. However, one asset was left out. They are the shares Mary's uncle bought before he get married.

Mary wants to know how to deal with the shares.

We went to the securities form to enquire on this. The staff said the family needs to present a Letter of Administration, Death Certificate and Administrator's NRIC for them to get necessary documents from Bursa. When the securities firm received documents from Bursa, the Administrator will need to go to securities firm to do the necessary transfer.

But since this shares was left out during the previous Letter of Administration application, a fresh application of Letter of Administration is needed. For this, the family needs to engage a lawyer to file the papers. Costs will be involved. Therefore, it is better to know the value of the shares - is it worth the efforts.

That aside, this reminds us the importance of a will. A will is a proper document to spell out clearly the distribution of assets to intended beneficiaries. The deceased's family will get things done faster when will is present.

Apart from it, a proper record of assets is also important. Trustee company will normally give testator (person who make the will) a personal inventory booklet. The purpose is for the testator to list an updated list of assets. If the testator finds it a hassle to do so, he may photocopy a copy of all his assets and keep together with the booklet.

Inform family member where the will and booklet is kept. If the will is kept with trustee company, it is importance for family members to know so. If the will and booklet are kept by testator, not only it is important for family member to know the location, equally important is it must be properly kept - to avoid intentional / unintentional damage.

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