"2022 China Will Bank White Paper" released The testamentary population is getting younger and younger
"Post-90s" and "Post-00s" make a will with the game account
Reporter Sun Tianjiao and Chen Lei
A few days ago, 18-year-old and 1-month-old He Ping (pseudonym) contacted the China Will Bank and made a will. In her will, she said that if she suffered misfortune, all her property would be donated to a public welfare organization. Her assets include years of money and an account for games that she has played for years.
Making a will was a coming-of-age gift from He Ping, which she thought was "a precautionary act and cool."
China Will Bank is a public welfare project jointly launched by China Foundation for the Development of Aging and Beijing Sunshine Health Foundation for the Elderly in 2013. On March 3, the 21 China Will Bank White Paper was released. Through the big data analysis of 2022,25 registered and kept wills, the white paper found that the testator population is getting younger and younger, and the average age of the testator population has dropped from 10.77 years to 43.68 years in 13 years.
As of December 2022, 12, a total of 31,23814 people under the age of 60 have come to China Will Bank to consult wills, and the number of registered wills has increased from 2017 in 279 to 2022,3467 in 5, an increase of more than 10 times in five years.
Experts interviewed by the "Rule of Law Daily" reporter believe that the above data show that the people's concept of will, property and family are constantly changing, and the important role of wills in family construction and family management is constantly highlighted. At the same time, with the development of economy and society, the characteristics of property diversification and diversified needs have become increasingly apparent, the age of testators tends to be younger, and new property types such as virtual property have been included in wills, which has also posed new challenges to willary management.
Making a will is commonplace
Deal with the aftermath as you wish
Ms. Jiang is 44 years old and has been married for many years and has two children. During the marriage, she and her husband entered into a matrimonial property agreement to protect herself and her children. I originally thought that everything was foolproof, but an unexpected discovery shattered the originally peaceful life of a family of 4 - the husband raised an illegitimate child outside the country without Ms. Jiang.
"As a wife, I can get angry and even divorce desperately, but as a mother of two, I have to fight for their rights." After calming down, Ms. Jiang made a decision and made a will, so that if she had an accident in the future, the two children could be guaranteed.
After negotiation, Ms. Jiang and her husband rushed to the China Will Bank to make a will and make arrangements for their property. Walking out of the Chinese wills, her heart knot was untied and she began to discuss divorce with her husband.
Ms. Jiang said that the moment she made her will was the most comfortable moment in her past few years, and her stress and anxiety dissipated a lot.
Like Ms. Jiang, it is not unique to choose the China Will Bank to make plans for themselves and their families by making a will.
Mr. Ding, the "post-90s" often travels, and every time he encounters a bump in the plane, a car brakes sharply, etc., he always thinks, what if there is an accident, what should the elderly parents do? After learning about the Chinese Will Bank through the Internet, he decided to leave a guarantee for his parents by making a will.
"One might think it's too early to make a will at such a young age. But I think it's not early at all, it will make everyone face their lives more seriously and appreciate the meaning of life more deeply. Mr. Ding said.
This year marks the tenth year of the Chinese Will Bank. Over the past 10 years, the China Will Bank has provided more than 37,6 probate consulting services to the society, registered and kept more than 25,1 wills, and has now 6362,<> wills in effect.
Talking about the development of the past 10 years, Chen Kai, director of the management committee of the China Will Bank, sighed with emotion: 10 years ago, will service was a thing that most people never thought of, and now it has become a thing that can be put on the table, and this change is undoubtedly gratifying. The change is the result of a combination of factors, such as the increasing elderly population, singleness, non-marriage, low birthrate, empty nest, etc. are gradually recognized, and in addition to the arrangement of property, people are paying more and more attention to emotional expression.
Meng Qiang, a professor at the Law School of Beijing Institute of Technology, told reporters that making a will in advance allows people to deal with their posthumous affairs according to their own wishes, and make the most suitable arrangements for their own interests and intentions for their own property and related affairs, which can not only ensure their maximum autonomy in the handling of property, but also avoid disputes over inheritance by relatives and descendants. Otherwise, it can only be dealt with in accordance with legal inheritance.
The subject of the will is younger
Virtual property is mentioned repeatedly
The white paper shows that making wills is being paid attention to by more and more young people, including many "post-90s" and even "post-00s". As of December 2022, 12, the total number of "post-31s" wills in the China Will Bank reached 90,1787; The youngest person to make a will is 17 years old (according to the Civil Code, minors over the age of 16 who rely on their own labor income as their main source of livelihood are regarded as persons with full capacity for civil conduct).
Among the testamentary population from 2020 to 2022, there are a total of 00 "post-357s". The people who make wills after "00" are mainly university students, and some are young people who have just entered social work. The property mainly disposed of by the "post-00s" people who make a will is mainly "bank deposits" and "virtual property".
The white paper shows that since 2017, more and more young people have begun to make wills to dispose of "virtual property". As of December 2022, 12, China Will Bank has received a total of 31 wills involving "virtual property", including QQ, virtual currency, Alipay, WeChat accounts, online game accounts, etc.
"Post-00s" Tu Lei (pseudonym) is currently working as a firefighter, and his professional nature allows him to see the fragility of life. Once, they received a call for help, and the construction of the subway was crushed by people, and they needed firefighters to come to the rescue. When they arrived, the scene was very tragic, which reminded him of the saying "I don't know which will come first tomorrow or accident."
Once he happened to watch the news and saw that some young people had made a will, he immediately felt that he should also make a will. But he didn't have much property in the general sense after working for a short time, the most important property was two game accounts, he had been playing for 5 years, invested a lot of energy and money, he decided to leave it to his younger brother. After making a will, he felt like he had untied a knot in his heart.
Chen Kai said that people before the "post-80s" are more traditional, they will think more about their families, parents and children, and most of them make wills for the consideration of property safety and family life; The attention needs of the "post-90s" generation are more diversified, and there are relatively more types of property, such as electronic heritage and digital heritage; The "post-00s" are more imaginative, paying significantly less attention to material things, and they try to make a will as a new thing, thinking that it is "a cool thing".
Whether virtual property can be inherited
There are difficulties with the application of the law
Faced with the use of virtual property as an important property type when young people make wills, Chen Kai admits that this does cause certain troubles in the application of the law, such as the way to make a will.
"The formal requirements of a will are very strict, even if the true intention is expressed, as long as it does not meet the formal requirements of the will, it is not legally recognized. Today's young people prefer to adopt some online and electronic methods to conveniently accomplish something, but this form of the will requires that it is impossible to make a legal and valid will through the Internet and electronic means. Chen Kai said.
In addition, not all virtual property can be inherited.
"The Civil Code and related separate laws have provisions on data and online virtual property, which is a form of property protected by Chinese law." Meng Qiang said that for people living in the Internet era, various payment accounts, social accounts, game accounts and equipment, online store accounts, etc., are an indispensable part of their lives and their very important assets, so they are willing to let their heirs inherit, "but these accounts and virtual property are not all objects that can be inherited."
The Civil Code stipulates that inheritance is the legal property of an individual left behind by a natural person at the time of death. Inheritance that cannot be inherited in accordance with the law or by its nature shall not be inherited.
In Meng Qiang's view, many of the above-mentioned accounts, according to the agreement between users and the platform, the platform does not allow users to inherit them as personal property. Because some accounts have personal attributes, giving them to others for inheritance may cause some negative effects, such as after the account of someone who made a statement is inherited, if the heir continues to publish various articles, comments, and remarks in the name of the decedent, then it will cause trouble to readers; Some accounts are mainly reflected in the value of property, and can be inherited.
"Therefore, whether these accounts and online virtual property can be inherited, one depends on whether the platform and supplier providing network services are allowed to inherit, and the other depends on whether it violates the provisions of relevant laws and regulations, so it cannot be generalized." Meng Qiang said.
Establish a system of estate administrators
Ensure the smooth execution of the will
After the testator dies, who will execute the will?
According to the provisions of the Civil Code, after the inheritance begins, the executor of the will is the administrator of the estate; If there is no executor, the heirs shall promptly elect the administrator of the estate; If the heirs are not elected, the heirs shall jointly serve as the administrator of the estate; Where there are no heirs or the heirs renounce the inheritance, the civil affairs department or villagers' committee of the place where the decedent lived before his death shall serve as the administrator of the estate.
The administrator is essential for estate administration and will execution. Because it is difficult to execute a will, in order to ensure the smooth execution of their will, many people choose to appoint an administrator in their will. According to the white paper, 1542,<> wills have appointed an administrator in the custody of the Chinese Will Bank.
Chen Xiaoyan (pseudonym), 36, is a remarried person with two daughters. In recent years, many property disputes involving reorganized families have always made her feel uneasy - if she has an accident, how can her young daughter's life be guaranteed? Will it be due to the problem of property distribution that will lead to the breakdown of the relationship between the sisters when they grow up? Will there be outsiders coveting their property? At the China Will Bank, she learned that an estate administrator could be set up to take care of and administer the estate, and she decided to appoint her cousin as the estate administrator.
"With the appointment of an estate administrator, the will is no longer a simple inheritance of property and the transfer of a house, but a transfer of emotions and more warmth. Now the big stone in my heart has finally landed. Chen Xiaoyan said.
Chen Kai believes that the estate administrator system solves at least two problems: inheritance cases tend to take a long time and litigation costs are high, and according to the provisions of the Civil Code, the court can hand over a lot of work to the estate administrator, thereby saving litigation costs; There is often a family or personal bond between the estate administrator and the heir, and it is possible to be reasonable, rather than simply talking about evidence, which is conducive to achieving better social results in inheritance cases.
He introduced that the next step of the China Will Bank will be to continue to promote the professional estate administrator talent pool project, and the first national estate administrator platform will also be officially launched, and on this basis, build a standard system, evaluation system, assessment system and supervision system for estate administrators, so as to meet people's needs for estate administrator services after the promulgation of the Civil Code.
"The legislature and judicial organs need to carry out legislative and judicial interpretations on estate administrators, and at the same time introduce supporting systems in administrative law to ensure the implementation of relevant provisions of the Civil Code, especially in the administrative field, such as real estate registration." Chen Kai suggested. (Rule of Law Daily)