Stanbic Trustee tasks Nigerians on wealth documentation, will

Stanbic IBTC Trustee Limited has stressed the need for Nigerians at all levels to adopt will writing before death comes to avoid crises in sharing of legacies after death among people left behind.

The Chief Executive Officer, Binta Max-Gbinije, disclosed this at a briefing in Lagos, said the estate planning could be achieved through the setting up of a private trust, a will and an educational trust.

Max-Gbinije noted that Nigerians work a lot to gather wealth to own assets, hence the need to preserve family wealth and facilitate intergenerational wealth transfer.She said will-writing should not only be done by the rich alone but any person that has savings and has been able to acquire properties from telephones to furniture, among others.

Highlighting the benefits of a will, she said it ensures that assets of the deceased are distributed to beneficiaries according to the wishes of the deceased when he or she passes on.She said there are two kinds of will service offered by the company – Simple Will service, and Comprehensive Will.

She explained that the Simple Will service covers the balance in a person’s Retirement Savings Account (RSA), and personal bank accounts irrespective of his or her Pension Fund Administrator (PFA) or bank, adding that the service is offered to individuals, who would like to write their wills to safeguard these assets.

Comprehensive Will, on the other hand, covers a person’s assets including real estate, cash in bank, shares, private companies and any other asset as determined.She pointed out that the services of a Trustee Company can cost as low as N5000 per year as fee for a Simple Will service, and N200,000 for Comprehensive Will.

She said: “A private trust is an arrangement whereby legal ownership of certain assets is transferred by you (the “Settlor”) to us (the Trustee) to be held for the benefit of your selected beneficiaries. It helps you preserve family wealth and facilitates intergenerational wealth transfer; you get to avoid the expense and delay of probate. “Most of us have left our homes very early this morning. We will go back home late. We will work for many years.