Preparing a Will in today's digital age, all you need to know

Most of us postpone writing a Will with the thought that one needs to calculate all assets and liabilities, set aside a part of assets to pay off the liabilities and then distribute the remaining assets between our wards. The difficult part is to prepare a list of all the assets and get it valued. Also a lawyer to get the Will registered becomes a major hurdle for many as they don’t know from where and how to start.

In reality, there is no specified format in which a Will is to be made. It could be drawn upon a plain sheet of paper and handwritten by the testator. According to Section 74 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925, no technical terms need to be used.

“One can prepare a simple Will to say that all my assets will go to whomever whatever. An individual writing a Will won’t require a lawyer or quite honestly, does not need to register a Will,” said Harshvardhan Roongta, Principal Financial Planner at Roongta Securities.

An individual also needs to keep in mind that while writing a will, he/she needs to appoint an executor. An executor can be a person or an institution. It is the responsibility for the distribution of the assets of the testator. Apart from appointing an executor, you need to ensure that the will has attestation from two or more witnesses. Each witness requires to see the testator sign or affix his mark to the Will or see some other people sign the Will, in the presence and by the direction of the testator.

If you still need some guidance to write a Will on the format or anything else but due to lockdown are unable to find any help, then you can look at writing an e-Will.

What is ‘e-Will’?

A unique electronic Will writing service, ‘e-Will’ assists individuals to write their personal e-Will online without making any personal visits or phone calls. A do-it-yourself service, it is not prepared or vetted by an advisor. After the ‘e-Will’ is prepared, the testator can take the printout and retain it after getting the witnesses to sign the document for its authenticity.

Drafting

To draft an e-will, the customer needs to log in to the service provider’s website and furnish the necessary information in the prescribed format. This information is then sent to a legal expert, who drafts the will, which is then delivered to you via an email.

A service provider will charge you a nominal fee for the services rendered. One can also log on ton websites such as https://www.willjini.com/, https://legaldesk.com/will, https://willstar.in/, https://www.ezeewill.com/ and take help.