WILLS

A will is the legal declaration by a person of his wishes or intentions regarding the disposition of his property after his death, duly made and executed according to the provision of the Law of Succession Act.

Requirements of a valid will:

1. In order to make a will, a person must be of sound mind and have reached his majority.

2. A person may dispose of all or any of his free property by will and may make any disposition by reference to any secular or religious law that he chooses.

3. A female person (whether married or not) has the same capacity to make a will as a male.

4. When a person makes or purports to make a will, he shall be deemed to be of sound mind unless, at the time of executing the will, he is in such a state of mind, whether arising from mental or physical illness, drunkenness or from any other cause, as not to know what he is doing.  The burden of proof that a testator (i.e. the person who makes the will) was, at the time, not of sound mind, shall be upon the person who so alleges.

5. A person may, by will, appoint an executor or executors.  An executor is a person to whom the execution of the last will of a deceased person is, by the testator's appointment, confided.

6. If a will, or any part of a will, was made by fraud or coercion, or by such importunity as takes away the free agency of the testator, or has been induced by mistake, the will, or that part of it, is void.