WRITING A WILL
  
 Very Important - Please Read, Understand & Action
 Will your Nominee get the money on your death ?
 Did
 you think that your nominee is the person, who will get all the money 
legally from your Life Insurance Policy and Mutual funds investments? 
Ha! That is exactly what you think if you are not aware of the legal 
aspects. We assume a lot of things which sounds like they are obvious, 
but are not true from the legal point of view. Today, we all concentrate
 on nominations in financial products.
 
For
 whom are we earning? For whom are we investing? Who, do we want to 
leave all our wealth to, in case something happens to us? It might be 
your children, your spouse, parents, siblings etc., or just a subset of 
these. You also might want to exclude some people from your list of 
beneficiaries!. So you think you will nominate person X in your 
Insurance policy, and when you are dead and gone, all the money goes to 
person X and he/she becomes the sole owner? You are wrong, dude ! It 
does not work that way. Let us see how it actually does!
 
What is a nominee ?
 
According
 to law, a nominee is a trustee not the owner of the assets. In other 
words, he is only a caretaker of your assets. The nominee will only hold
 your money/asset as a trustee and will be legally bound to transfer it 
to the legal heirs. For most investments, a legal heir is entitled to 
the deceased’s assets. For instance, Section 39 of the Insurance Act 
says the appointed nominee will be paid, though he may not be the legal 
heir. The nominee, in turn, is supposed to hold the proceeds in trust 
and the legal heir can claim the money.
 
A
 legal heir will be the one whose is mentioned in the will. However, if a
 will is not made, then the legal heirs of the assets are decided 
according to the succession laws, where the structure is predefined on 
who gets how much. For example, if a man during his lifetime executes a 
will. In the will, he mentions his wife and children as legal heirs, 
then after his death, his wife and children are the legal owners of his 
assets. It is essential that one needs to execute a will. It is the 
ultimate source of truth and replaces the succession law. Nominee can 
also be one of the legal heirs.
 
Important
·         Mention the Full Name, Address, age, relationship to yourself of the nominee.
·         Do not write the nomination in favour of wife and children as a class. Give their specific names and particulars existing at that moment.
·         If
 the nominee is a minor, appoint a person who is a major as an appointee
 giving his full name, age, address and relationship to the nominee.
 
Why is the concept of nominee ?
 
So you might be wondering, if the nominee does not become the sole owner, why does such a concept of a nominee exist
 at all? It  is pretty simple. When you die, you want to make sure that 
the Insurance company, Mutual fund or your shares should at least get 
out of the companies and go to someone you trust, and who can further help, in process of passing it to your legal heirs.
Otherwise,
 if a person dies and has not nominated anyone, your legal heirs will 
have to go through the process of producing all kind of certificates 
like death certificates, proof of relation etc., not to mention that the
 whole process is really cumbersome! (For each legal entity! The 
insurance company, the mutual funds, for the shares, for the real 
estate..) . So, to simplify, if a nominee exists, these hassles do not 
happen, since the company is bound to transfer all your money or assets 
to the nominee. The company the goes out of scene & then, it is 
between nominee and legal heirs.
 
Example of Nomination
 
Ajay
 was 58 years old who died recently in an accident. As his children were
 settled, he wanted to make sure that his wife is the sole owner of all 
the monetary assets. This includes his insurance policy and mutual 
funds. So during his lifetime, he nominated his wife as a nominee in his
 term insurance policy and mutual funds investments. However, after 
Ajay’s death things did not turn up the way he wanted. The reason being Ajay did not leave a will.
 Though his wife was the nominee in all his movable assets, as per the 
law, his wife, along with children, were the legal heirs and all of them
 had equal right to Ajay’s assets.
One
 simple step which could have saved the situation was that Ajay should 
have made a will which clearly stated that only his wife was entitled to
 get all the money and not his children.
 
Nomination in Life Insurance
 
A
 policyholder can appoint multiple nominees and can also specify their 
shares in the policy proceeds. Nomination in life insurance has one 
limitation, as insurance policies are bought to secure your financial 
dependents, your first choice of nominee has to be your family members. 
In case you want to nominate a non-family member like a friend or third 
party, you will have to show/PROVE the insurance company that there is 
some insurable interest for the person. This happens because of a Clause
 called PRINCIPAL OF INSURABLE INTEREST in insurance. Note that 
provision of nomination in life insurance is related to Section 39 of 
the Insurance Act.
 
Note that as per LIC website –
 
Nomination
 is a right conferred on the holder of a Policy of Life Assurance on his
 own life to appoint a person/s to receive policy moneys in the event of
 the policy becoming a claim by the assured’s death. The Nominee does 
not get any other benefit except to receive the policy moneys on the 
death of the Life Assured. A nomination may be changed or cancelled by 
the life assured whenever he likes without the consent of the Nominee.
Make
 sure, you have a nominee for your policy for easy settlement of the 
claim, if you do not have any nominee mentioned in the policy, it can 
turn out to be a disaster for your dependents to get a claim.
 
Nomination in Mutual funds
 
In
 case of mutual funds, you can nominate up to three people, who can be 
registered at the time of purchasing the units. While filling in the 
application form, there is a provision to fill in the nomination 
details. Even a minor can be a nominee, provided the guardian is 
specified in the nomination form. You can also change nomination later 
by filling up a form which is available on the mutual fund company 
website. Nomination in mutual funds is at folio level and all units in 
the folio will be transferred to the nominee(s). If an investor makes a 
further investment in the same folio, the nomination is applicable to 
the new units also. A non-resident Indian can be a nominee, subject to 
the exchange control regulations in force from time to time.
 
Nomination in Shares
 
Quiz
 for you . Now you know what a nominee means and who actually gets the 
money. So if there is a husband H, with wife W and nephew N, and he has 
nominated his nephew N to be the nominee of his shares in demat account,
 who will have the legal right to own the shares after husband’s death? 
If you answer is wife, you are wrong in this case! In case of stocks, it
 does not work the usual way, if a will does not exist.
 
In
 the verdict, Justice Roshan Dalvi struck down a petition filed by 
Harsha Nitin Kokate, who was seeking permission to sell some shares held
 by her late husband. The Court noted that as she was not the nominee, 
she had no ownership rights over the shares. Ms Kokate’s lawyer had 
argued that as she was the heir of her husband who had died intestate 
(without a will), she should have ownership rights of the shares, and be
 able to do anything with them as she wished. In this case, Ms Kokate’s 
husband had nominated his nephew in favour of the shares. Justice Dalvi 
however noted that under the provisions of the Companies Act and the 
Depositories Act, Acts which govern the transfer of shares, the role of a
 nominee was different.
 
A
 reading of Section 109(A) of the Companies Act and 9.11 of the 
Depositories Act makes it abundantly clear that the intent of the 
nomination is to vest the property in the shares which includes the 
ownership rights there under in the nominee upon nomination validly made
 as per the procedure prescribed, as has been done in this case.
It
 means that if you have not written a will, anyone who has been 
nominated by you for your shares will be the ultimate owner of those 
stocks, The succession laws on inheritance will not be applicable but in
 case, you have made a will, that will be the source of truth.
 
Nomination in PPF
 
Let
 me give you some shock first. If you have Rs 10 lakh in your public 
provident fund (PPF) account and you have not nominated anyone for your 
PPF account, your legal heirs will get maximum of Rs1 lakh only! Yes, it
 is so important to have a nominee, now you get it . You can nominate 
one or more persons as nominee in PPF. Form F can be used to change or 
cancel a nomination for PPF. Also note that you cannot nominate anyone 
if you open an account for a minor.
 
Nomination in Saving/Current/FD/RD Account in Banks
 
FD’s
 also come with nomination facility. While opening a new account, there 
is a column for nomination in the same form and you should fill it. You 
can nominate two persons with first and second option. Note that in case
 you have not done any nomination till now, you should request Form No 
DA-1 from your Bank which is used to assign a nominee in future. 
(Examples of ICICI Bank , HDFC Bank , Canara Bank) . In the same way to 
change/cancel the nomination you need to fill up Form no DA-2. Read 
about Corporate Fixed Deposits
As
 per a famous case, A Bench of Justices Aftab Alam and R M Lodha in an 
order said that the money lying deposited in the account of the original
 depositor should be distributed among the claimants in accordance with 
the Succession Act of the respective community and the nominee cannot 
claim any absolute right over it.
Section
 45ZA(2)(Banking Regulation Act) merely put the nominee in the shoes of 
the depositor after his death and clothes him with the exclusive right 
to receive the money lying in the account. It gives him all the rights 
of the depositors so far as the depositors account is concerned. But it 
by no stretch of imagination make the nominee the owner of the money 
lying in the account, the Bench observed.
 
Conclusion
 
Now
 you know! Taking Personal finance for granted can be fatal Just 
investing knowledge, is not enough to have a great financial life. You 
also need to be well versed with basic legal aspects and make sure you 
carry out all due arrangement . Nomination is one important aspect you 
should seriously consider, when checking for the financial products you 
have bought or plan to buy in future.
 
Mistakes in Personal Finance
It’s
 important to make sure that your loved ones do not face legal issues 
and only say and think lovely thoughts about you when you are not 
around, rather than crib & grumble.
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A SUGGESTED DRAFT WILL
 
JOINT WILL OF ABC AND DEF
We, ABC and DEF, husband and wife, resident of..... . hereby declare this as our last WILL and testament.
We got married on..... according to ...... rites. We have.... children. Particulars of our children are as under:-
1.     GHI (son), Date of Birth.... He is currently residing at....
2.    JKL (son), Date of Birth.... He is currently residing at....
We,
 ABC and DEF, declare that in the eventuality of anyone of us 
predeceasing the other, we bequeath our property, both moveable and 
immoveable and of any nature whatsoever, to the survivor. He or she will
 have the sole ownership and rights and power of disposal.
We hereby appoint the survivor as EXECUTOR of this will.
Further,
 in the eventuality of us both dying within short span of each other or 
without the survivor making a WILL, we bequeath all our property, both 
moveable and immoveable and of any nature whatsoever, to be equally 
shared between our sons. For this purpose we appoint our son, GHI, as 
the EXECUTOR of this WILL.
In
 witness whereof, we ABC and DEF, have signed at ....... (place), on 
this ......... (date in words)   day of ....... (month in words), year 
2014.
 
 
 
(ABC)                                                              (DEF)
Signed
 by the said ABC and DEF in the presence of us, present at the same 
time, who in their presence and presence of each other, sign as 
witnesses hereto.
 
 
(MNO)                                                                        (PQR)