Singles

Estate planning complexities for singles with dependents, bachelors, and divorced parents emphasise unique challenges and pitfalls.

Overview
As a single individual with the responsibility of caring for elderly parents, siblings or maybe, a minor, the task of estate planning and retirement brings a unique set of concerns. Being the sole income earner, you must balance your current financial obligations while planning for future needs, both for yourself and your dependents. Your primary concerns include ensuring that your parents will be taken care of if something unexpected happens, managing health care costs, and securing a retirement fund that supports them in old age. The challenge of wealth distribution becomes even more complex, as you need to prioritize both the continued care of your loved ones and your own financial stability. Additionally, you face the difficult decision of how to structure inheritances in a way that provides long-term security for your dependents without creating financial strain during their lifetime.
Challenges & Pitfalls

Appointing the right candidates to be the executors and trustees of your estate is the top priority. The absence of a default decision-maker or beneficiary is one of the key challenges. Unlike married couples who often have a spouse automatically to step up as the next decision-maker and beneficiaries, singles need to carefully consider who will make decisions on their behalf.

The lack of a built-in support system is the next top concern. As singles often do not have a partner to rely on for emotional, financial or healthcare-related decisions, it becomes imperative for you to establish a network of trusted individuals. But here with us, we have a network of professional services which can make up for the lack of the built-in system for you.

Long-term care and healthcare decisions are another aspect of challenges when it comes to adequacy and liquidity. In the event of mental incapacity, you might not have sufficient preparation in places. Most of the singles with dependents that we have worked with need to allocate their limited resources to provide for their dependents, as a result, the planning for themselves is often not found to be inadequate.

Most singles with dependents tend to have the misconception that their circumstances are straightforward and thus, oversimplifying the arrangement. For example, appointing someone who is too old to be their representatives, selecting beneficiaries who are minor, or getting their friends onboard without discussing the potential conflicts that may arise when a non-blood related person needs to deal with you direct family members.

Overview
Staying single and childless is often a personal choice. As more young adults embrace non-traditional lifestyles, the number of single, childless households is expected to rise. Although many people neglect estate planning, being single without children doesn’t mean you can skip it. In fact, estate planning can be even more critical in such cases. As a single individual without children, you may face unique estate planning challenges, regardless of your wealth. Without proper planning, your assets—and even your well-being—could be at risk. Plus, it could lead to unnecessary conflict and costs for your loved ones. With that in mind, consider these three important points before dismissing the need for an estate plan.
Challenges & Pitfalls

You may have amassed a significant amount of assets, but when it comes to distributions, it’s always on the opposite spectrum where you have the dilemma of “who is there to gift?”. Hence, most singles would rather focus on wealth decumulation and neglect the risks of pre-mature death or mental incapacity preparation.

For those that are interested in planning, a huge part of the challenge is to find the right candidates to be our legal representatives on our welfares and properties. Often not, we discover that the majority of singles are unaware of what are the available professional services, i.e. professional donee, corporate trustees etc.

Regardless of the size of the estate, in the event of your death, the intestacy laws establish which family members has the priority inheritance. If you’re unmarried with no children, these intestacy laws can be potentially troubling. For instance, what if your closest living relative is your estranged brother with serious addiction issues? Or what if your assets are passed on to a niece with poor money-management skills, who is likely to squander her inheritance? If your estate contains significant wealth and assets, this could lead to a costly and contentious court battle, with all your relatives hiring expensive lawyers to fight over your estate. In the end, this could tear your family apart.

Estate planning isn’t just about passing on your assets when you die. In fact, some of the most critical aspects of estate planning have nothing to do with your money at all but are aimed at protecting you while you’re still very much alive. For example, if you’re incapacitated due to a serious accident or illness and unable to give doctors permission to perform a potentially risky medical treatment, it would be left up to someone you can’t control over to decide who gets to make that decision on your behalf. Family members who don’t share your values about the type of food you eat, or the types of medical care you receive, could be the ones making decisions about how you’ll be cared for.

Overview
If you are divorced or in the middle of separation awaiting the Final Judgement, the situation would be trickier. For those who have not completed the divorce proceeding, your estranged partner is still legally your spouse. Under the Intestate Succession Act, he or she is entitled to receive your estate. Even if you are officially divorced, and your ex-spouse are not entitled to your estate according to the Intestate Succession Act, but having a minor dependent would indirectly bring your ex-spouse back into the picture as your ex-spouse would likely to be the natural guardian of your minor dependent. The set of challenges faced by you are like the other Single demographic, but trickier.
Challenges & Pitfalls

Most, if not all, would like to ensure your assets are protected and ringfence against your ex-spouse regardless. Yet, majority of the single parents are unaware how the ex-spouse may directly or indirectly come back into the picture and may even lays their hands onto your estates.

Guardianship for the minor under your custody. Appointing a joint guardian to work jointly with the natural guardian (ex-spouse) of the children is tricky work. The majority of single parents made an uninformed decision to appoint a guardian that does not have a good affinity with their children. In the worst-case scenario, when the minor’s welfare is neglected under the custody of their natural guardian, the minor may not approach the appointed guardian to seek respite.

Healthcare and Retirement concerns. Splitting of matrimonial assets could leave a void in your net worth. Furthermore, previously in the marriage, there is another partner to depend upon for retirement in the silver years. But a divorce would leave the whole future in doubts and upheavals. Hence, planning for finding the right candidate to be your legal representative in decision making over your healthcare and properties become one of a pressing concern.

Marriage revokes nominations and wills, but a divorce does not. This left many single parents to overlook the nominations completed prior to the divorce. Nominations can be on CPF assets or Insurances. Without amending the nominees, which may potentially still be your ex-spouse, would open opportunity for your ex-spouse to claim on your estates.

Appointing minors as beneficiaries is another pitfall. Now that your child matters the most to you, it is natural that you would want to leave your estates behind for them. But a minor is unable to inherit any form of assets until they reach the legal age. Hence, most single parents are stuck with the limited options they have, or unaware about that a Trust is a solution to it.

What We Do

We are committed to offering comprehensive planning and solutions for wealth distribution, wealth succession, and estate administration for both individuals and families.