Families For Life | Give Your Grands a Lasting Gift

Our grandparents, granduncles and grandaunts gave us unconditional love, wisdom, guidance, and a whole lot of snacks and treats when we were young (that our parents didn’t know about). Now that we’re a little older and so are they, it’s time we celebrate our elderly family members by giving back. Why not consider the thoughtful gift of reminding them to plan for their future and the legacy they leave behind?

Take the first step by initiating a conversation about pre-planning

Pre-planning is like a gift that keeps giving, not just for our elderly family members but their loved ones, including you. It allows them to exercise control over essential life matters by appointing a trusted proxy decision-maker to make decisions on their behalf if they lose their mental capacity. This allows them to give loved ones the certainty that their preferences and wishes are respected and the reassurance that any disputes can be minimised. Additionally, pre-planning assures them that their loved ones do not have to face administrative and financial burdens when caring for them.

Gift your grands the right tools for the right job

Three crucial tools help your elderly family members with their pre-planning - a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA), Advance Care Planning (ACP), and a CPF Nomination. These are all important decisions and should be made early. Here’s a quick introduction to how these tools empower them and who they appoint or nominate to make key decisions for them:

Lasting Power of Attorney

The LPA is a legal document and a deed that allows your elderly family members to appoint one or more trusted people, called Donees, to help them make decisions regarding Personal Welfare, Property and Affairs, or both Personal Welfare and Property and Affairs if they lose the mental capacity to do so themselves. The good news is that the application fee for Singaporeans making an LPA Form 1 is waived until 31 March 2026, so getting it done sooner is better.

Advance Care Planning

The ACP, the other hand, is a non-legally binding healthcare document in Singapore that allows your elderly family members to plan for their future healthcare preferences based on their values, beliefs and experiences so that their loved ones and healthcare team understand their wishes when they no longer have the mental capacity to make decisions or speak for themselves. ACP is a continuous process that can change with our life stages and health conditions. It is not a legal document, which means they do not have to engage a lawyer to sign it. It is important for your elderly family members to make an ACP soon so that their loved ones can be relieved of unnecessary stress or guilt they may feel from having to make decisions for them when there is a medical crisis.

CPF Nomination 

A CPF nomination allows your elderly family members to decide how to distribute their CPF savings when they pass on. If they already have an existing nomination, they should review it to ensure it is up-to-date with their wishes. Making or changing a CPF nomination is free, and nominees can claim the money quickly and conveniently. Without a CPF nomination, however, CPF savings will be transferred to the Public Trustee for distribution to eligible family members according to relevant intestacy laws. This process incurs a statutory fee, and beneficiaries may wait up to six months to claim the monies. The distribution of CPG savings also cannot be covered by a will, which they should also make separately.

Make it an early surprise!

If you’re going to give your elderly family members a lasting gift, why not do this together with them? These pre-planning tools are most effective when made as soon as possible. In fact, anyone can apply for an LPA from as young as 21, so even though you are not a grand (yet), you can give yourself a lasting gift too at My Legacy!

Ready to get started? Get your grands to start on their pre-planning journey at the MyLegacy website now!