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Wills, Living Wills & Trust Planning in India

Prepare wills, codicils, living wills, trusts, and structured estate documents in India for families, seniors, and NRIs with assets across jurisdictions.

Clear Planning Creates Family Stability

A well-planned will or trust does more than distribute assets. It reduces confusion, protects intentions, clarifies responsibilities, and helps prevent avoidable disputes. Where a family has multiple properties, bank assets, vulnerable dependents, special-care concerns, or different branches living across countries, careful planning becomes even more important.

Will Drafting and Review

A will should reflect the real family and asset position, not a generic template. We help structure the document so that intentions are clearly recorded and later interpretation risks are reduced. Key considerations include: naming executors, addressing all asset categories, specifying residuary estate, making provision for contingencies, and addressing NRI-specific complications such as properties under FEMA jurisdiction.

Important: NRI families are often advised to prepare separate wills for their Indian assets and their overseas assets, each clearly limited to assets in the relevant jurisdiction, to avoid inadvertent cross-revocation under the Indian Succession Act, 1925.

Living Wills and Advance Medical Directives

Where families want to plan for future medical incapacity and end-of-life decisions, living wills create a more thoughtful and organised framework. The Supreme Court of India in Common Cause v. Union of India (2018) has upheld the legal validity of advance directives. We help families navigate this process with appropriate sensitivity.

Trusts and Private Family Structures

Trust-based and settlement-based approaches may be useful where there are minors, long-term family support needs, business continuity concerns, or where a testator wishes to impose conditions on inheritance. A private discretionary trust may also provide certain tax and succession advantages for NRI families.

When to Update Estate Documents

  • After marriage, divorce, or significant relationship changes
  • After the death of a beneficiary, executor, or witness
  • After major property acquisitions or disposals
  • After relocation abroad or change in residential status
  • After the birth of children or grandchildren
  • When the value or composition of assets changes significantly

Under Section 70 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925, a later will generally revokes all earlier wills. NRI families with wills in multiple jurisdictions must ensure that revocation clauses are carefully limited to avoid inadvertent revocation of the Indian will.

Succession & Estate Services

Wills, Living Wills & Trusts
Probate, Succession & Estate Administration
Family Settlements & Asset Structuring
NRI & Cross-Border Succession

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