Intestate Succession Act

(CHAPTER 146)

(Original Enactment: Act 7 of 1967)

REVISED EDITION 2013

(31st December 2013)

An Act to make provision for the distribution of intestate estates.

[2nd June 1967]

Short title

1. This Act may be cited as the Intestate Succession Act.

Application

2. Nothing in this Act shall apply to the estate of any Muslim or shall affect any rules of the Muslim law in respect of the distribution of the estate of any such person.

Interpretation

3. In this Act —

“child” means a legitimate child and includes any child adopted by virtue of an order of court under any written law for the time being in force in Singapore, Malaysia or Brunei Darussalam;

“intestate” includes any person who leaves a will but dies intestate as to some beneficial interest in his property;

“issue” includes children and the descendants of deceased children.

Law regulating distribution

4.—(1) The distribution of the movable property of a person deceased shall be regulated by the law of the country in which he was domiciled at the time of his death.

(2) The distribution of the immovable property of a person deceased shall be regulated by this Act wherever he may have been domiciled at the time of his death.

Property of intestate to be distributed

5. If a person dies intestate after 2 June 1967, he being at the time of his death —

(a)	domiciled in Singapore and possessed beneficially of property, whether movable or immovable, or both, situated in Singapore; or
(b)	domiciled outside Singapore and possessed beneficially of immovable property situated in Singapore,

that property or the proceeds thereof, after payment thereout of the expenses of due administration as prescribed by the Probate and Administration Act 1934, shall be distributed among the persons entitled to succeed beneficially to that property or the proceeds thereof.

Persons held to be similarly related to deceased

6. For the purpose of distribution —

(a)	there shall be no distinction between those who are related to a person deceased through his father and those who are related to him through his mother nor between those who were actually born in his lifetime and those who at the date of his death were only conceived in the womb but who have subsequently been born alive; and
(b)	those related to a person deceased by the half blood shall rank immediately after those of the whole blood related to him in the same degree.

Power of Commissioner to require change of charity’s name

7.—(1) The Commissioner may, with respect to a charity to which this subsection applies, give a direction requiring the name of the charity to be changed, within such period as is specified in the direction, to such other name as the charity trustees may determine with the approval of the Commissioner.

(2) Subsection (1) shall apply to a charity if —

(a)

it is a registered charity and its name (referred to in this Act as the registered name) is the same as, or is in the opinion of the Commissioner too like, the name, at the time when the registered name was entered in the register in respect of the charity, of any other charity (whether registered or not);

(b)

the name of the charity is in the opinion of the Commissioner likely to mislead the public as to the true nature of —

(i)	the purposes of the charity as set out in its trusts; or
(ii)	the activities which the charity carries on under its trusts in pursuit of those purposes;

(c)

the name of the charity includes any word or expression which in the opinion of the Commissioner is likely to mislead the public in any respect as to the status of the charity;

(d)

the name of the charity is in the opinion of the Commissioner likely to give the impression that the charity is connected in some way with the Government or any public authority, or with any other body of persons or any individual, when it is not so connected; or

(e)

the name of the charity is in the opinion of the Commissioner offensive,

and any reference in this subsection to the name of a charity is, in relation to a registered charity, a reference to the name by which it is registered.

(3) Any direction given by virtue of subsection (2)(a) shall be given within 12 months of the time when the registered name was entered in the register in respect of the charity.

(4) Any direction given under this section with respect to a charity shall be given to the charity trustees; and on receiving any such direction the charity trustees shall give effect to it notwithstanding anything in the trusts of the charity.

(5) Where the name of any charity is changed under this section, it shall be the duty of the charity trustees to notify the Commissioner, within 7 days after such change or such longer period as the Commissioner may, in his discretion, allow, of the new name of the charity and of the date on which the change occurred.

[26/2001 wef 01/03/2002]

(6) A change of name by a charity under this section shall not affect any rights or obligations of the charity; and any legal proceedings that might have been continued or commenced by or against it in its former name may be continued or commenced by or against it in its new name.

(7) Any reference in this section to the charity trustees of a charity shall, in relation to a charity which is a company, be read as a reference to the directors of the company.

(8) Where any direction is given under this section with respect to a charity which is a company, the direction shall be taken to require the directors of the company to take the necessary steps to effect the change of the name of the company, including applying to the Registrar of Companies for the reservation and approval of the new name under section 27 or 378 of the Companies Act [Cap. 50], as the case may be.

(9) Nothing in this section shall apply to an exempt charity.

Special provision if the intestate leaves lawful widows

8. If any person so dying intestate leaves surviving him more wives than one, such wives shall share among them equally the share that the wife of the intestate would have been entitled to, had the intestate left one wife only surviving him.

Children’s advancement not to be taken into account

9. Where a distributive share of the property of a person dying intestate is claimed by a child or any descendant of a child of that person no money or other property which the intestate may during his life have given, paid or settled to or for the advancement of the child by whom or by whose descendant the claim is made shall be taken into account in estimating such distributive share.

Application to cases of partial intestacy

10. Where any person dies leaving a will beneficially disposing of part of his property, the provisions of this Act shall have effect as respects the part of his property not so disposed of, subject to the provisions contained in the will:

Provided that the personal representative shall, subject to his rights and powers for the purposes of administration, be a trustee for the persons entitled under this Act in respect of the part of the estate not expressly disposed of unless it appears by the will that the personal representative is entitled to take that part beneficially.

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