The estate of a person who dies intestate with an estate in Hong Kong shall be distributed in accordance with the provisions of the Intestates' Estates Ordinance, Chapter 73, Laws of Hong Kong, as follows
(1) If there is only a spouse and no children, parents or full blooded siblings or heirs of full blooded siblings, the estate shall be inherited by the spouse.
(2) If survived by a spouse and heirs, the spouse shall receive first an interest in the estate of HK$500,000 and the remainder shall be divided into two shares, one to be received by the spouse and the other to be equally divided among the children.
(3) If the deceased leaves no children but leaves a spouse and any of the following: a parent, a full-blooded sibling or a child of a full-blooded sibling, the spouse shall receive first an interest in the estate of HK$1,000,000 and the remainder shall be divided into two shares, one for the spouse and one for the parent, if the parent survives him or her, or if there is no parent, the whole of the estate, or the whole of the children, and the remaining part shall be divided into two shares, one for the spouse and one for the children. If there is no surviving parent, the remaining portion shall be divided into two shares, one for the spouse and the other for his or her father or mother, both of whom shall receive the same share if they are survived by their parents, and if there is no surviving parent, then the share shall be divided equally amongst all the brothers and sisters.
(4) If the deceased is survived by children and does not leave a spouse, the children shall share his estate equally.
(5) If the deceased does not leave a spouse, children or parents, the following persons shall be beneficiaries, in that order of priority
(i) brothers and sisters of full blood; (ii) brothers and sisters of half blood; (iii) brothers and sisters of half blood.
(ii) siblings of half-blood; (iii) grandparents and grandchildren; and
(iii) grandparents; and
(iv) siblings of full blood (i.e. half-brothers and half-sisters) of their parents, i.e. uncles, aunts, uncles, aunts and aunts; (v) half-brothers and half-brothers of their parents, i.e. aunts, uncles, aunts and aunts; and
(v) siblings of half blood (i.e. half-brothers or half-brothers) of their parents, i.e. uncles, aunts, uncles and aunts.
Such a distribution of estate may cause great problems and bring a lot of inconvenience to the heirs.
Example 1
A family of four, the father died, leaving the mother with a son and a daughter. The estate consists of a residential unit valued at HK$12,000,000 and HK$500,000 in cash, which the father held separately and lived with the mother. After the death of the father, according to the "Intestates' Estates Ordinance", the mother can get HK$500,000 first, and the remaining residential unit with a market value of HK$12,000,000 has to be divided into two, with the mother getting HK$6,000,000, and the son and the daughter getting the remaining HK$6,000,000, i.e. HK$3,000,000 each. 000, i.e. HK$3,000,000 each. The problem arises that if the son or daughter asks to sell the flat to get his/her share of the money, the mother cannot refuse and the mother may lose her home.
Example 2
Many young couples in Hong Kong nowadays do not want to have children. If the husband dies and they have no children, but they have surviving parents or siblings, the total value of the husband's estate is HK$11,000,000, and the wife receives HK$1,000,000, and the rest of the HK$10,000,000 has to be divided into two parts, each of which is HK$5,000,000, and the wife receives one part, and the other part has to be given to her. The wife gets one share and the other is to be given to the deceased husband's parents, or if the parents are deceased, to the husband's siblings in equal shares, which may not be the couple's wish.
Of course, if the family is characterized by filial piety and brotherly love, the situation mentioned in the above examples will not occur. Family members may be willing to transfer their benefits from the estate to a certain family member, such as the children in Example 1 may transfer their interests to their mother, the in-laws in Example 2 may transfer all the benefits from their son's estate to their daughter-in-law, or the siblings may transfer all the benefits from their brother's estate to their sister-in-law. The parties concerned need to sign a Deed of Family Arrangements. However, the signing of this Deed requires the payment of additional solicitor's fees, and if the interests to be transferred include properties, stamp duty may have to be paid, and all these troubles can in fact be avoided by the signing of a will by the deceased before his death.
Some people may think that there is no problem if the deceased's spouse is allowed to hold all the deceased's estate without signing a deed of family arrangement or asserting his/her rights on the basis of mutual trust, as the family members are harmonious anyway. However, things change. If a beneficiary has financial problems and goes bankrupt, the Official Receiver may recover his/her interest in the deceased's estate on behalf of his/her creditors; or if a beneficiary is divorced, his/her divorced spouse may recover his/her interest in the deceased's estate in the Family Court as part of the distribution of the divorced couple's property.
So, a will is better than no will at all!
