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The Star
by Roger Tan
 When a non-Muslim dies without making a will, his estate
will be distributed according to the law, except in the case of insurance and
EPF savings, where the nominees are the beneficiaries.
AS WE are all mortals, and death often comes like a thief in the night, we owe
it to our loved ones to make a will during our lifetime. I would like to advise
our readers on the importance of making a will, and the consequences of not
making one.
By not making a will, you will not be able to distribute the assets according to
your wishes after your death. Instead the state will define who will actually
benefit from your death.
When a person dies without making a will, he is said to have died intestate. His
property is called his “estate”, and his children, his “issue”.
The relevant law which deals with the distribution of the property of an
intestate is the Distribution Act, 1958 (“Distribution Act”), which only applies
to non-Muslims in Peninsular Malaysia.
Under the Distribution Act, the word “child” means a legitimate child, and where
the deceased had more than one lawful wife, includes a child by any of such
wives and any child adopted under the Adoption Act, 1952.
The word “issue” means the deceased’s children and includes the descendants of
his deceased children. It also includes any child who at the date of the
deceased’s death was still in the womb but subsequently born alive.
On the other hand, “parent” is defined as the natural mother or father of a
child, or lawful mother or father of a child adopted under the Adoption Act
1952.
An intestate’s estate will be distributed among his surviving family members
according to the Distribution Act. The same law applies to male and female
deceased persons.
Section 66(1) of the Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act 1976 provides that
the wife who is judicially separated from her husband at the time of the
latter’s death is still entitled to the property of the deceased husband in the
same way as a surviving spouse as if no judicial separation had been made, but
not vice versa.
As for divorced spouses, they remain surviving spouses until the decree (divorce
order) is made absolute.
Generally, the estate will be distributed among the deceased’s immediate family:
his parents, his spouse, and his issue.
The distribution of the estate of an intestate is shown in the accompanying
table.
If a person dies leaving no parent, spouse and issue, his estate will go to the
following persons in equal share in the following order of priority:
(a) brothers and sisters, (b) grandparents, (c) uncles and aunts, (d) great
grandparents, (e) great grand uncles and grand aunts.
If a person dies leaving no parent, spouse, issue, and any of the family members
mentioned, then the whole estate goes to the Government.
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It remains one of the non-Muslims’ gravamina that they find it increasingly difficult to build their places of worship. But recently, the Johor state government not only approved the building of a church, it also contributed RM200,000 to its construction.