(Articles taken from New Straits Times newspaper dated January 22, 2007)
KUALA LUMPUR: A whopping RM40 billion. This is the amount of cash and non-cash assets left by the dead and yet to be claimed by their heirs.
Of this, land and property account for about RM38 billion; RM1.5 billion is with the Registrar of Unclaimed Monies; and more than RM70 million in the Employees’ Provident Fund.
About a million land titles are also still in the names of dead people.
Amanah Raya Bhd general manager of sales and marketing, Rafie Omar, attributed this sad state of affairs to the fact that most Malaysians die without leaving a will.
"The sudden death of a family member, without leaving a will, not only creates problems of inheritance, but also leaves the family stranded with outstanding loans and other obligations the deceased may have," he said.
"Though the deceased may have left lots of cash and property, the family members cannot get their hands on them if there is no will."
As for unclaimed money in the EPF, this happens when the deceased fails to name a beneficiary.
When one fails to name a beneficiary, the next of kin has to go through a long process before he or she is able to make a claim.
In some cases, the next of kin does not even know the deceased had been making EPF contributions and that such money existed.
Rafie said Malaysians still considered estate planning as taboo as it involved talking about a person’s death, while others did not recognise the importance of naming a beneficiary.
"This is why many die intestate (without a will)," he said, adding that there were also many cases where the beneficiary died without making the necessary changes in the names of the benefactors.
When a person makes a will, it allows the testator to distribute the estate according to the person’s wishes.
It will reduce the likelihood of a prolonged estate administration case, prevent family disputes over rights of ownership to the estate, and allows for the appointment of guardians for any minor.
Rafie said most of those who die without leaving a will were Malays.
"This is because many of them depend on the faraid system to distribute their assets, not realising that this system does not cover loved ones who were adopted."
The money with the Registrar of Unclaimed Monies is from savings accounts and fixed deposits with banks and financial institutions which had not been claimed for seven years.
According to Saw Leong Aun, who is the chief executive officer of Rockwills Corporation Sdn Bhd, more than 90 per cent of Malaysians have not made a will.
"This is due to several reasons. The first is procrastination.
"It is sad, but normally after a major disaster, like the Sept 11 incident or Asian tsunami, we had a higher number of people suddenly wanting to make a will," he said.
Others, he said, lacked urgency and think death is far away. There are also those who believe that only the rich should leave a will.
"A survey on will writing conducted by Rockwills from December 2004 to March 2005, showed that Malaysians drag their feet when it comes to writing a will," Saw said.
"They think they need to accumulate wealth first - a misconception that probably stems from equating ‘estate’ with wealth or money."
"In the survey, of the 81 per cent respondents who did not have a will, 40 per cent stated that they would only write a will when they had accumulated wealth."
Rafie said his officers always stressed the importance of having a will through tie-ups with banks, co-operatives and related bodies, educational and promotional programmes and also through the print and electronic media.
