Having understood what a WILL is and certain terminologies (in one of our previous articles) it is now imperative to understand why at all a WILL. Let us discuss this with the help of an example.

Here is a family of 4 and Mr. A is the only working professional. He is supported by his wife and two children. Like any other individual, Mr. A is having few assets and a housing loan. He also has a car loan. He is also a proud owner of multiple bank accounts, credit cards and the likes. Due to excessive pressure from one of his family friends who happens to be an insurance agent, he also has half a dozen of insurance policies.

He has not disclosed all or complete details to his wife pertaining to his personal finance. His wife has absolutely no clue about the financial position of the family. God forbid, something happens to Mr. A, she will not know whom to contact, what are his assets and liabilities. First, she will be grief-stricken having lost her husband. On top of that, she will be under tremendous pressure to get to know the whereabouts of the financial papers and other relevant information. Do you wish your family should be in this position?

Situation is worse if Mr. A was an entrepreneur. There is an additional layer of important documents and coordination activity required in such a scenario. The drama does not end there. What if there is an outsider who claims a stake in the assets of Mr. A claiming to be the beneficiary of the assets?

On the other hand, had Mr. A written a WILL, things would have been extremely smooth. Mrs. A will exactly know whom to contact and action points to be executed for smooth transfer of assets to the name of the beneficiary. The WILL document will over-ride all nominations and other ambiguities within the family. The entire process would be completely smooth and seamless.

Estate planning and WILL is one of the best gifts we can give our family.