144 Birth Certificate is Important in An Intestate Estate Claim

Birth Certificate is Important in An Intestate Estate Claim

Previously, I shared about claiming estate for a person who does not leave behind a Will through Amanahraya.

In such a claim, the spouse, the parents and the children become the valid parties to inherit the estate. Therefore, the relationship must be established / proofed. The needed documents for this will be:-

• IC of all beneficiaries
• Marriage Certificate - to prove legal husband / wife
• Birth Certificte of deceased - to prove legal parents
• Birth Certificate of children - to prove legal children
• Death Certificate - in case where any parties is had pass away, death certificate is needed

For older peoples, especially those born before / right after independence, they may not pay high attention to Birth Certificate. They were more concerned with Sijil Kerakyatan, and blue IC. To be able to stay in Malaya with all the legal rights was the main concern. So they may not have / care to keep their Birth Certificate.



However, Birth Certificate is needed to prove their relationship with their children. So, if any of your parents who has lost their Birth Certificate, please spend some effort to go to Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara (JPN) to see whether JPN has record. Maybe JPN has to refer to the original branch where the Birth Certificate was registered.

For those born outside of Malaya (particularly Singapore before Malaya/Singapore splitted), JPN will not have the record. Maybe has to refer to Singapore relevant department.

In case where Birth Certificate really cannot be produced, Amanahraya will require additional Witnesses to prove they know the deceased. The witnesses must be almost same age with deceased, probably relatives or neighbours or friends.

I would encourage all readers to go to JPN to print a latest copy of Birth Certificate, especially for us who still hold the handwritten one. JPN has digitalise all into new format. Just make sure all the info is correct.

By the way, Amanahraya's process can be quite fast (around 4-6 months) if the documents are complete, no arguments between beneficiaries and not complicated estate.

Of course, the best way to avoid any complication and to make sure estate are distributed according to a person's intention, is to do it through Will and/or Trust.