Is there a guarantee that my Will won’t be contested?
Nina Wang, Asia‘s richest woman, died on 3rd April 2007. It was said that her estate was worth $4.2 billion. Days after her death, newspapers around the world reported that Wang named one individual as the sole beneficiary in her will. It was further reported or alleged that this individual was not a member of her own family nor that of her late husband.
As the widow of Hong Kong business tycoon, Teddy Wang, Nina was at the center of one of the most well-publicized disputes in history over the succession of a business. This dispute pitted Nina Wang against her father-in-law, Wang Din-shin. Chinachem Group, the subject matter of the dispute, was established by Teddy Wang as a pharmaceutical company but eventually became one of Hong Kong’s largest and most prominent companies. Teddy and Nina have no children.
As the story goes, in 1990 Teddy Wang was kidnapped and later thrown into the sea by his abductors. After his disappearance, Nina took the helm of Chinachem. In 1999, nine years after his disappearance, Teddy Wang was declared dead, although his body was never found. The fight over the late Teddy’s estate which began sometime in 2000 was not because he did not leave behind a will. There were two wills and the court had the difficult task of determining which was the last valid will.
Din-Shin, Teddy’s father presented a 1968 will, in which Teddy left him the entire estate after he discovered that his wife was cheating on him. The authenticity of the 1968 will was contested by Nina who produced another will made in 1990. Nina’s will which was dated a month prior to her husband’s abduction, left the entire estate to her. Whether the wife or the father of Teddy Wang would take control and ownership of his multi-million-dollar business empire would rest solely on whether 1990 Will naming Nina as the sole beneficiary was a forgery.
Usually, where the authenticity of a will is challenged, the witnesses to the will are called to give evidence in court. In this case, however, as the last witness died of cancer, both sides in the dispute brought in their own handwriting experts to provide testimony which supported or challenged, as the case may be the authenticity of the 1990 will. Even with a group of highly-paid experts, it was difficult to determine whether the will was a forgery.
Initially, after a much publicized 171-day courtroom battle featuring some of Hong Kong’s most prominent lawyers and accusations of adultery on the part of Nina Wang by Wang Din-shin, the High Court declared Nina’s 1990 will to be a forgery and Din- Shin was awarded all of Teddy Wang’s estimated US$128 million estate. Nina was thereafter formally charged with forgery of the will and perverting the court of justice. However, the matter did not end there.
Things took a turn when Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal overturned the previous High Court ruling and gave control of the multi-billion dollar Chinachem group to Nina. The Court held that there was no real cause for suspicion that the document naming her as the sole beneficiary was a fake, as alleged by her father-in-law Wang Din-shin throughout the long-running civil dispute. The court also said, “It was far more likely that he would leave his portion of that empire to the appellant who had built it with him and who would be able to continue operating it, than leave it to an octogenarian who had already been in retirement for 13 years.” In addition, Judge Patrick Chan said “Such naturalness and style of writing is inconsistent with that of a person trying to commit a forgery.” Nina was later exonerated when prosecutors in the fraud case dropped all criminal charges against her for allegedly forging the will of her husband.
End of the day, Nina’s victory over her father-in-law was a balance of probability. If it was another judge, the decision could have gone the other way. With Nina’s death, the Chinachem empire will now pass on to whomever Nina bequeath under her will and such persons may or may not be members of the Wang family.
What are the rules for the successful prevention of disputes? There are none. Even with a will, there may be disputes. You cannot prevent a will from being challenged. But you can take measures to ensure that there are no grounds for it to be challenged successfully. Very few wills, perhaps less than 1% of the total, are contested and these usually involve large estates.
The most common grounds in which a will is challenged are:
- Mental incapacity of the testator; or
- Undue influence on the testator by the beneficiaries named under the Will; or
- Forgery (i.e. the Will was forged and the testator didn’t make that Will);
- Will was not the final one.
Some simple rules to follow to minimize disputes are:
- Be sure to have a will and that your will is valid
- Be sure that the will can be found
- Be sure that the witnesses can be found – you cannot stop them from dying but you should ensure that these individuals have a good chance of surviving you and the probate application or your estate
- Be sure that the beneficiaries and their spouses are not witnesses
- Be sure to review your will from time to time to ensure that they still reflect your wishes (including your executors and successors are still that of your current choice)
Reference: Can Wealth Last Three Generations? Succession Planning for Business Owners. Business insurance: Million Dollar Concept. Estate Planning MFPC.
