How to keep your wealth from going to the wrong people

If you do not wish a certain member of your family to get a slice of your assets when you are no longer around, it is prudent to make such an instruction clear in your will.

- Tan Ooi Boon

The idea of having such exclusion clauses in wills was put to a test recently when the High Court looked at the will of a man who specifically excluded his wife from his inheritance.

This was an unusual case involving a sham marriage because the man married the Chinese national out of sympathy so she could remain here as a "study mama" to take care of her school-going daughter.

In his will, the man, who left his three-room HDB flat to his half-sister, wrote: "I DO NOT wish to give any of my property or personal properties to my wife."

The court implicitly recognised this term because it left the widow with only one option — challenging the validity of the entire will by alleging that her late husband did not have the requisite mental soundness when he signed it.

As she failed to prove that her late husband did not know what he was doing, she could not stake her claim on his flat.

While it is common to disinherit certain family members in wills, this is usually done by naming the deserving beneficiaries only.