Leaving pre-marital property to parents Guangshen young people make wills growing fast
The proportion of "post-80s" and "post-90s" in notarial wills accepted by Guangzhou Notary Office this year has risen to 10%
The elderly group is still the "main force" lawyers call on all parties to help the elderly to crack the "execution difficulty" of wills
A will is about "things behind" and family harmony.
In the past few days, the reporter visited the notary offices, will warehouses and law firms in Guangzhou and Shenzhen and found that there have been some new trends and new situations in the inheritance of wills in recent years.
He Siming, deputy director of the Guangzhou Notary Office, told reporters that since the implementation of the Civil Code, the number of notarized wills has been increasing year by year. So far this year, Guangzhou Notary Office and various notary offices have accepted more than 10,000 notarized wills for citizens; Since its establishment in 2016, the total number of wills has exceeded 20,000.
Lawyer Lin Shujing, a representative of the Guangzhou Municipal People's Congress and director of Guangdong Suiheng Law Firm, who has been engaged in community mediation for a long time, introduced that in the past two years, the consultation and mediation business on wills has increased significantly. In her view, the main reasons for the increase in citizens' wealth and wills awareness are Jie Youmin, who works as a public interest lawyer in Shenzhen Wills Bank, told reporters that although the elderly are still the "main force" in making wills, the growth rate of young people making wills is also very fast. The "post-90s" and even the "post-00s" have made will arrangements in advance, leaving the real estate and deposits under their names to their parents or partners.
new trend:
More "post-80s" and "post-90s" begin to think about "post-mortem"
According to He Siming, the structure of people who go to Guangzhou Notary Public Office to handle will business in recent years has shown new characteristics.
First, the proportion of "post-80s" and "post-90s" making wills has increased year by year, from 1% in the past to 10% today.
"We don't find it strange at all that 30-year-old young people come to make a will." He Siming said that from the trend of younger wills, it reflects the characteristics of young people's courage to accept new things; second, the distribution in the will There are more and more types of property. In addition to traditional houses, cars, and deposits, equity, contract rights, wealth management products and other properties are also gradually increasing. Many people even have virtual properties such as WeChat accounts and game accounts in their wills.
"Like some wills born in the 1980s, a considerable part involves company equity, funds, etc., and the property involved in wills will become more and more complex in the future, such as various intellectual property rights."
Shenzhen Wills Bank is a non-profit public welfare project initiated by Shenzhen Senior Citizens Association, approved by Shenzhen Civil Affairs Bureau, and founded by Shenzhen Happiness and Harmony Inheritance Service Center.
Min Qishuang, director of Shenzhen Happiness and Harmony Inheritance Service Center, told reporters that 88% of wills involve real estate, which is still the vast majority, although it has dropped by 4 percentage points from three years ago.
Min Qishuang noticed that the proportion of the will-handling group under the age of 60 has increased year by year, and the proportion of the will-making group under the age of 30 has grown the fastest, from 1.97% in 2019 to 5.38% in 2021, an increase of nearly 1.5 times. The number of people has more than tripled.
"My parents bought a house for me before marriage
I make a will for them"
Lawyer Jie Youmin told reporters that the youngest testator the Wills Bank has received so far is 22-year-old Xiaomei (pseudonym).
Xiaomei worked diligently and motivated, and was admitted to a 985 famous school in China. After graduation, she applied for an overseas postgraduate student.
"Xiaomei was worried that tomorrow or the accident would come first, so she came to the Shenzhen Wills Bank before going abroad." The staff thought she was consulting her parents to make a will, but Xiaomei said calmly, "I want to make a will, Leave the property in her name to her mother."
It turned out that Xiaomei's parents were divorced, and she had been living with her mother, and Xiaomei's real estate was purchased by her mother.
Xiaomei learned that if she did not leave a will in advance, her father would also be able to share the property in the event of her unfortunate death.
Xiaomei did not want to cause trouble for her mother, so she made a will to make arrangements in advance.
Min Qishuang analyzed that compared with the elderly, young people have a stronger awareness of property planning and legal thinking.
"Young people have a certain knowledge structure and have a correct understanding of the role and meaning of wills." Min Qishuang said that in the wills made by young people, real estate funded by parents is involved. In order to avoid unnecessary troubles and disputes in the future, they often Distribute property in advance by making a will.
Min Qishuang also found that the risk perception of future marriage also prompted some young people to make a will in advance to avoid future property disputes caused by changes in marital status.
Xiaoqing (pseudonym) is the only daughter in the family. She has received a good education since she was a child. After graduation, she works in a well-known company.
In order to let her daughter take root in Shenzhen, Xiaoqing's parents bought a commercial house for her.
At the end of last year, Xiaoqing married her boyfriend, but in order to protect her parents, she left the property under her name to her parents through a will.
Xiaoqing believes that the house was originally bought by her parents, and if she has any accident, it should be inherited by her parents.
However, Xiaoqing also said that with the strengthening of the marriage and the birth of children, the will may be adjusted.
"Post-90s" Xiaoxiao (pseudonym) is healthy and free of disease, and is a full-time mother.
She also recently came to the Shenzhen Wills Bank, leaving a pre-marital property under her name to her parents and children.
Min Qishuang told reporters that when young and middle-aged people under the age of 40 make a will, parents and children are the preferred heirs, and more than 90% of the people under the age of 30 designate their parents to inherit property.
She believes that in the future, the proportion of young and middle-aged people will further increase.
There are young people who will deposit
For mother, brother or boyfriend
Min Qishuang told reporters that in addition to real estate, deposits, stocks, wealth management products and vehicles are also the main assets of young and middle-aged people, and now they have become the distribution objects of wills.
Jie Youmin told reporters that she had received a 25-year-old girl, Feifei (pseudonym), who had no real estate in her name but only a salary card.
In order to express her love for her mother, Feifei distributed her few savings to her mother through a will.
Jie Youmin also received a client and made a will to leave the estate to her boyfriend and brother.
Unmarried Xiaomin (pseudonym) has no real estate but has savings.
She and her boyfriend went to Shenzhen to work hard after graduating from college. Now they have been together for 5 years, and the relationship between the two is stable.
Because he is not married yet, his boyfriend will not have the right to inherit property.
And Xiaomin's parents are still alive, according to the legal inheritance, as long as the parents are alive, her younger brother has no right of inheritance, but Xiaomin said that if she left in an accident, she hoped that her younger brother could be the executor of the will.
Considering the age of her parents, in case her boyfriend may choose a new life after she leaves, Xiaomin also kept a part of the deposit for her boyfriend in her will, and then left most of the deposit to her younger brother.
family without children
Partners inherit property from each other
Jie Youmin told reporters that among the people who make wills, there are more and more unmarried young and middle-aged families and unmarried families.
"Unmarried young and middle-aged and childless families are mainly concentrated in the age range of 31 to 50 years old, and they have clearer concepts and needs for property planning." Jie Youmin told reporters that for childless families, because there are no children, they will The focus of the appointment is more on the old-age security of oneself and parents.
In families without children, it is most common for partners to inherit from each other when making a will.
Jie Youmin told reporters that a couple who are close to 50 years old and have no children, because they have no children, they came to the Shenzhen Wills Bank to make a distribution plan for the inheritance in advance: if the parents are still alive, part of the property will be distributed to the parents of both parties. To ensure that they can live decently and calmly in their later years.
After more than 20 years of marriage, the couple have been close to each other and worked hard in Shenzhen. When making a will, most of their property was left to each other.
"Main force":
Guangzhou Notary Office and Shenzhen Wills Bank account for nearly 50% of testators aged 60-70
Notarized wills are an important form of wills, and the Guangzhou Notary Office is an important place for citizens to apply for notarized wills.
According to He Siming, among the people who go to Guangzhou Notary Office to handle wills in recent years, about 50% of them are aged between 60 and 70 years old, while those between 70 and 80 years old make a will. also accounted for 30%.
According to Min Qishuang, the total number of wills registered in Shenzhen Wills Bank exceeds 20,000, and the proportion of people over 60 years old who make a testament is close to 80%. nearly half.
For the old man to make a will, Min Qishuang believes that the will should be prepared in advance.
"We once came to the door to provide a will for a centenarian. Some elderly people only thought of making a will when they entered the ICU." Min Qishuang said that people who make a will must be clear-headed, so they must prepare in advance.
Jie Youmin has worked as a public interest lawyer in Shenzhen Wills Bank for more than 3 years. She noticed that the concept of making a will has gradually penetrated into the hearts of citizens in recent years.
Jie Youmin had contact with a grandmother. She had a self-built house before. She originally wanted to make a will to leave it to her children in a hundred years, but then the self-built house was demolished and could be replaced with several houses. Grandma thought anyway. They were all left to their children, so they directly wrote the children's names on the demolition contract. However, after the real estate certificate was issued, the children who had obtained the property rights would not support her, and the grandmother could only go to the court to sue.
Therefore, Jie Youmin suggested that the elderly should have a good sense of planning when making a will.
Although the concept of "arranging things before and after death" is gradually gaining popularity, there are still some special circumstances that make wills "difficult to execute" in practice.
"Post-Wife"
Difficult to transfer accounts with wills
Recently, Lin Shujing received Aunt Liu, a nearly seventy-year-old helper. Her wife died less than 4 months ago, but the three children born to her ex-wife refused to cooperate with the will left by her wife.
"They didn't think my father should have left the house to my stepmother."
Aunt Liu married her husband Wang Gui (pseudonym) in 1997. Both were second marriages. At that time, Wang Gui and his ex-wife had three sons.
After marriage, Aunt Liu has been running the family. In 2017, Wang Gui made a notarized will, stating that after her death, she would leave a commercial house in Haizhu District to Aunt Liu to inherit.
Since then, Wang Gui's health has deteriorated and he passed away in a nursing home in April this year. When he died, Aunt Liu wanted to go through the procedures for the transfer of property with his will, but was hindered by Wang Gui's sons, who refused to hand over the property certificate. Cooperate with Aunt Liu to transfer the house.
"Although I'm a stepmother, this house is the only place my wife left me. If they don't cooperate with the transfer according to the will, where will I live in the future?" Recently, Aunt Liu has entrusted a lawyer to file a lawsuit in the court.
"In such remarriage families, disputes between the original spouse's children and the 'step-wife' due to wills are more common, and such disputes have shown an increasing trend in the past two years. In families with multiple children, the remarriage wife usually inherits in accordance with the will after the death of the husband. There will be resistance. Such disputes often drag on for a longer time, and ultimately require a court judgment to be enforced. Usually, the parties are willing to accept mediation when the house is auctioned. In some cases, there are also adopted children and stepchildren. The problem is related to the scope of the heirs. These factors will make the case more difficult to mediate." Lin Shujing said.
Worry about children's conflict
Mother never makes a will
In recent years, He Siming has seen many cases of old people and children fighting for inheritance.
"Many elderly people retire on the first day and come to make a will the next day. Because in their opinion, making a will is not the end but a new beginning. After making a will, they can enjoy their retirement happily." He Siming said.
Granny Wu (pseudonym) is in her 70s this year. She has to rely on a wheelchair to travel because of her inconvenience in her legs and feet. She has two sons and a daughter.
After the death of her wife, Granny Wu's health began to deteriorate, and later she could not take care of herself.
Because she was worried that her mother would only distribute the inheritance to her two older brothers, in the past two years, the daughter of Grandma Wu used a wheelchair to push her to the notary office to make a will many times.
The notary talked to the old man alone.
In the early stage, in order to know whether Granny Wu had a clear mind, the notary first chatted with her about family affairs. Granny Wu’s answers were all relevant. 's answers became vague.
Seeing the old man's behavior, the notary probably knew it, so he asked the old man's daughter to take her back.
Grandma Wu's daughter also went to a notary several times by herself, trying to understand the specific reasons why the will could not be notarized.
However, the notary said that the specific reasons could not be disclosed, because the process of making a will must be kept confidential.
After doing this a few times, Grandma Wu's daughter probably understood what was going on.
He Siming said that the old man once confided his helplessness to the notary: the palms of the hands and the backs of the hands are full of flesh, and I hope that the children can get along in harmony and not cause conflicts over inheritance issues.
old man making a will
Giving inheritance to "outsiders"
In addition to the children of the elderly, there have also been cases of "outsiders" such as nanny participating in the distribution of the elderly's property in recent years.
Lin Shujing once took over a will dispute. An old man in his 80s made a will before his death and presented his house with an area of more than 100 square meters to his nanny.
After the old man died, the nanny took the old man's will and asked for the transfer of the property, but several sons of the old man said that the nanny used the means to coerce the old man to give her the house while he was sick, so he did not want to admit the validity of the will.
The court's first-instance judgment recognized the validity of the old man's will held by the nanny.
Later, the old man's sons went to the hospital and learned that the old man had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage during the hospitalization, which proved that the old man was unconscious at the time and did not have the capacity for civil conduct. This self-written will has no legal effect.
In the end, the nanny failed to get the house.
"But it is true that some nannies are very attentive to take care of the elderly, so the elderly will have the idea of giving the house to the nanny." Lin Shujing explained.
There are many thresholds for wills "landing"
Lawyers suggest that streets and communities provide wills and public welfare services for the elderly
Attorney Lin Shujing and her team members receive hundreds of business consultations or dispute mediations on wills every year, and there is a growing trend.
Wills written by the elderly are often flawed or invalid, she said.
"Common flaws include: the testator does not sign the will, the date is not written in the will, and the witnessing procedure is flawed; the testator lacks the ability to make a will, such as being a person with limited capacity, confusion, serious illness, etc." Due to the flaws in the will, the lawsuit Both China and China will apply for handwriting appraisal or civil conduct appraisal, resulting in a longer trial period for the case.
Lin Shujing said that in addition to the flaws in the will, there are the following common situations that will make the will difficult to "implement".
First, the elderly sometimes write multiple wills, and it usually takes a long time to verify which will is valid.
Lin Shujing once encountered a case where one of the old man's son took out a will written by the old man.
But then the other children of the old man also came up with their own wills, the contents of which were different from the first will.
"It was later discovered that the old man wrote three wills in one day, and the children determined that the old man was no longer conscious at the time, and finally the old man's will was deemed invalid."
The Civil Code stipulates that the testator has made several wills, and if the contents conflict, the last will shall prevail.
In Lin Shujing's view, this allows testators to have more choices when making a will, but new situations will also be encountered in practice, that is, a person may be in a notary office, the China Wills and Wills Bank and law firms, judicial offices at different times. Various organizations have made many wills.
"Because of the non-public nature of wills, the outside world is not aware of the existence of other forms of wills, and it takes a long time to examine wills, which will lead to the shelving of wills."
Second, the kinship relationship cannot be ascertained, making the will difficult to execute.
Proof of kinship is required when applying for notarization of real estate inheritance, but sometimes there are "hurdles".
Lin Shujing encountered this situation when she asked for help in the will. When she checked the family relationship of the elderly, she found that the elderly had other heirs besides the existing children, and even the children of the elderly did not know.
"This is to find the 'other heir' of the old man, otherwise the testamentary inheritance cannot be realized. But usually only the name of the 'other heir' can be found, and his ID number, contact information, etc. cannot be found. It's like looking for a needle in a haystack. A lot of testamentary successions just don't work for this reason."
Third, the elderly have children overseas, which makes it difficult to achieve testamentary inheritance.
Lin Shujing once encountered such a case. The old man had multiple properties in Guangzhou and listed in his will that the property would be left to his younger son who was less financially able.
However, the old man's eldest son and second son are both abroad, and the family relationship between the brothers is relatively weak, so the two older brothers are reluctant to return to China specifically to assist the younger brother in handling the inheritance.
Therefore, the old man passed away for two years, and the inheritance of the house has not been completed.
"So sometimes it seems that the old man's will clearly explains the things behind him, but the implementation of the will is not easy. Some wills have been delayed for several years and still cannot be inherited." Lin Shujing told reporters.
"Only Child Parents
A will should also be planned.”
Lin Shujing said that the inheritance of the estate of the elderly is the most involved in will inheritance disputes.
"A house now costs several million yuan or even tens of millions of yuan. If a will is not made, disputes will easily arise after the death of the elderly. Streets and communities should provide public service of wills and provide necessary help for the elderly." She suggested that, first of all, normalized will witnessing services should be established in communities, streets or other departments, so as to confirm the civil capacity of the elderly at the time of making the will, which will help to enhance the legitimacy of the will and avoid "wrangling" later; secondly, it is necessary to cultivate The elderly's will consciousness, such as the establishment of an estate executor in accordance with the Civil Code, to supervise the inheritance and distribution of the estate.
In response to the situation of the elderly making multiple wills, Lin Shujing suggested that the notary office and the real estate registration center should first conduct will inspection when dealing with inheritance affairs.
"An information sharing platform can be built by the China Wills and Testament Office, the Notary Office, the Judicial Office, etc., to break the information island and reduce the difficulties in the execution of wills."
The "post-80s" and "post-90s" are mostly only children.
Min Qishuang reminded that parents of only children should also make a will.
"Many people think that the only child should continue all the property of the parents." Min Qishuang said that according to our country's law, the legal heirs in the first order are parents, children and spouse. If there is no will, they can share the property of the deceased equally. .
In order to avoid unnecessary disputes in the future, parents of only children should also plan their wills in advance.
"We suggest that children should respect the wishes of the elderly when dealing with inheritance, give more consideration to family affection, and do a good job of filial piety for children." He Siming said.
Guangzhou Daily all-media reporters Zhou Weiliang and Xiao Huanhuan