PROPOSAL

"What You Should Know After A Death:
The Laws Of Will-Making & Estate Planning"

Background of the project

It is worth mentioning that if a person dies without leaving a valid will or wasiyyah which is known as the legal instrument wherein it allows a person's intention for how their estates should be dispersed after death and who should take care of it until its final distribution as expressed in a will or wasiyyah, that person would not be able to allocate their estates according to their own desires.

It goes without saying that creating a valid will or wasiyyah is essential to prevent situations where a deceased person's estate is distributed against his or her wishes and disagreements that may arise regarding the distribution of estates in terms of portion among the beneficiaries as well as the authority granted to the executors or executrix to execute the will or wasiyyah.

However, the writing of a will, or wasiyyah, is still widely misunderstood in today's society. The most common misunderstandings towards the issue of making a valid will or wasiyyah is lack of consciousness that there is a need to make a valid will or wasiyyah as majority perceived that the afterlife estate administration matter is not their concern and the topic of afterlife is a taboo in certain superstitious community in Malaysia or even worst, they have never considered estate planning after the event of demise.

This can be well indicated from the news by Malaysian Institute of Estate Planners (MIEP) whereby it is provided that there is an approximate of 80% of Malaysians who do not make a valid will or wasiyyah for the Muslims. This can be further supported by the data shown in MIEP whereby there is approximate RM90 billion worth of unclaimed assets or even more than that value due to the lack of awareness on the knowledge of estate administration as well as distribution rules or existing administrative bodies and relevant governing laws that focus on the execution of will or wasiyyah in the country.

Therefore, there is a need for the public to be exposed or educated towards the general knowledge on law of succession and probate in terms of the estate planning in executing the will or wasiyyah regardless of Muslims or non-Muslims. This effort has to be conducted as earlier as the stage of education level where the issue of lack of awareness towards the importance of having a valid will or wasiyyah before a person dies must be conducted at the university level for the university community from different educational background, age or racial to learn and be educated on the relevant existing laws in governing the execution of will or wasiyyah. Thus, by doing so, it not only can prevent the new generation from facing the dilemma of having an unfair division of estates that supposed to be inherited but also can save the cost from hire those professional in the effort of acquiring the estates left by the deceased and similarly save more time from facing lengthy or more difficult ways of claiming the estates from the administrative bodies as well as the Central Bank of Malaysia.

Objectives

To educate the UUM community on the jurisdiction of relevant administrative bodies and the governing Acts in executing a will or wasiyyah.
To raise awareness among the UUM community on the significance of making a valid will or wasiyyah before a person passes away and the requirements for the validity of a will executed by both Muslims and non-Muslims to determine the distribution of estates based on the rules of testament.
To increase the understanding of the UUM community about the concept and procedures in estate administration division in the event of testacy and/or intestacy.

Justifications

As abovementioned part of the proposal, there are higher rates of Malaysian that lack of awareness of making a valid will or wasiyyah for the purpose of executing their wishes after passing away. This same goes to the issue where majority of Malaysian not truly concern with the consequences of passing away without leaving a valid will or wasiyyah and the requirements of creating a valid will or wasiyyah and most of the them in intestacy situation ended up burden their legal heirs in the efforts of obtaining the estates from the administration bodies or encounter the dilemma of receive unsatisfied distribution portion on the estates that supposed to be received by them.

The justification of the project is to, first and foremost, expose and educate the UUM community on the topic of law of succession and probate in terms of will or wasiyyah for the Muslim in Malaysia, whereby there will be differences of procedures and governing rules in terms of distribution rules on estates for Muslims or non-Muslims, including relevant knowledge on the jurisdiction conferred for the administrative bodies as well as the governing laws that focus on the execution of a valid will or wasiyyah.

Moreover, the project is aim to increase awareness of the UUM community in terms of importance of creating or leaving a valid will or wasiyyah as a legal instrument that able to express the wishes of the testator regarding the distribution of estates for the legal beneficiaries to ensure that the intention of the testator can be carried out accordingly and fairly for every beneficiary in regard of the division of estates.

Lastly, we aim to justify that the project by holding this legal aid booth service is to disseminate the information regarding the idea as well as the procedures for the potential beneficiaries or legal heirs in applying the estate administration in order to acquire the estates left by the deceased in case of testacy or intestacy. The reasons we hold this legal aid booth service is to allow the targeted community as stated to learn, inquiry, or raise any issues in order to gain more knowledge about the execution of a valid will or wasiyyah in Malaysia

The Events/Programme

Targeted Community

The community we targeted to conduct the legal aid booth service based on our project title is UUM community which consists of lecturers, students and staff. Meanwhile, we also targeted to assist at least 30 to 50 respondents that come from different educational background, age and racial in order for us to get accurate and trustworthy information from the community we targeted in order to provide a better solution to eliminate the community's misperceptions or doubts
regarding those mentioned objectives in our project.

Conclusion

By carrying out this project, we firmly believe that we are achieving our goal of ensuring that the UUM community has a basic understanding and knowledge of the jurisdiction of pertinent administrative bodies as well as the current governing acts relating to the execution of wills or wasiyyah in Malaysia, thereby preventing any misunderstandings regarding the authority granted to the pertinent administrative bodies in governing the execution of wills or wasiyyah. In addition, we want to affirm that the UUM community understands the importance of making a valid will or wasiyyah before a person passes away. In keeping with that, we want to educate the UUM community about the concept and the procedures for requesting the administration of decedents' estates in situations where there is testacy or intestacy to prevent those legal heirs who eager to inherit the estates from bearing additional cost charged by the relevant professional as well as avoid time consuming or lengthy court proceedings that may encounter by the legal heirs in the efforts of obtaining the estates from the deceased.

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