One can cancel / revoke their Will at any point of time or even by making a fresh Will. Once a Will is made all the past / old Wills get cancelled. The will can be revoked by following ways:

i) By execution of a subsequent Will;

ii) By writing and declaring an intention to revoke the Will

iii) By burning, tearing or otherwise destroying the Will;

Will I or my legal heirs be required to pay Income tax and other taxes in respect to properties under the will?

Legal heir is a person; male or female, who is entitled to succeed to the properties of the deceased person under the applicable personal law for succession. As per Hindu Succession Act – if there is no Will, the properties are allowed to be distributed to all Class 1 heirs equally, if there is no one in Class 1 heir, properties are distributed equally to Class 2 heirs, if there are no such heirs in Class 2 also, the properties are given to Agnates and lastly to Cognates. If no one is available – all properties are taken away by the Government.

“Beneficiary” is a person to whom the properties are distributed or “bequeathed” under the will, i.e., a person who gets the benefit under the will. Any person, body, trust, charitable institute, society etc can be a beneficiary under the will. A beneficiary under your will can be your family members, relatives, friends, servants, etc.. and you can opt to give your properties in charity. However, Law has set-out procedure to be followed if you have close relatives and want to give all your properties and assets for charitable purpose.

Yes it is allowed where both the husband and wife bequeath all properties to other each other and final bequeath is mentioned by which properties are distributed to family, relatives etc. as per Joint Will. , However, such joint Will can take effect only after the death of both and not during the lifetime of either one. Many a times, husband and wife prepare ‘Mirror Will’ which are separate individual Wills where each spouse gives all his / her property to their other spouse.

Yes. However, properties situated in foreign countries are governed by local laws in those countries & the procedure to enforce Will in such countries would be different from India. Therefore, it is advisable to prepare two separate wills; one dealing with properties in India and the other with properties in foreign countries. Such Wills are called as concurrent Wills and are treated independent of each other unless interlinked.

Legally a will can be stored at any place. However it is advisable to store your will at a safe and secured location where it cannot be tampered with and it can be easily found by your family after your death. It may be kept in the safe custody of a locker, with a trusted person or with professionals like banker or solicitor who will take necessary steps to inform the executor after your death. Various banks and financial institutions offer custodian services for safe keeping your will.

A person can make a new Will as many times as he wants OR for few changes,, he can also make Codicil which is a Supplementary to the main Will. However, it is necessary to mention in your Will that ‘This is the Last will and all past Wills, if any, to be treated as cancelled since only the last Will is legally valid.

A general clause is included in a Will for residual properties / assets (miscellaneous assets that were missed) which specify should receive ‘residual assets’ and similarly a general clause is added for ‘all the future assets’.

One can nominate guardians for minor children who are beneficiary in the Will, and such guardian will be responsible to look after the minor children and protect their share. Many a times, people create a Trust by way of Will for the benefit to all the Legal Heirs, Friends, Relatives or for Charitable Purpose.

One can bequeath pets, paintings, antiques, electronic items, furniture & fixtures, intellectual properties like Trademark, Patents, Copyrights, Licenses, Social Media Accounts, Personal Belongings, Books, etc.