Grant of Probate

Filing a Grant of Probate

A short line for the Grant of Probate - The Grant of Probate from the court gives the executor(s) legal authority to manage and distribute the deceased's asset according to the will. It is necessary where value of the deceased's estate exceeds $50,000.00 and/or there are no outstanding debts and liabilities.

I recently filed a Probate of Grant and this is what I have done (This was done back in 2017). 

1^st Filing

Prepare the following documents before filing:

a)      Certified True Copy of the Death Certificate (signed off by any solicitor)

b)      Certified True Copy of the Will (signed off by any solicitor)

c)      Caveats and Probate Application Search (Crimsonlogic will provide the search service for a fee of $24 on the same day of your filing)

If you have done the above 2 documents  a) & b), go to the Service Bureau managed by Crimsonlogic situated at Chinatown Point #19-01/02 to perform the first filing.

At the counter, you will be given a set of forms to fill up and these forms consist of various things where you have to fill up like name of the applicants, the deceased name, deceased address, etc. This is about 10 pages.

Within this set of forms, there is the Ex Parte Original Summons, Statement of Probate, Schedule of Assets, etc which are simple to fill in. This should be completed for the 1^st filing. These forms will be needed to be inserted in the Supporting Affidavits in your 2^nd Filing when they are approved.

Total cost for the 1^st filing amounts to $161.20 + $24 = 185.20.                                          s

**One important thing to do after your 1^st filing is to present the Original Will for verification the next working day at the Courts Service at 5 Maxwell Road, #04-00, Tower Block, MND Complex, Singapore 069110.

When everything has been done, make your payment at the cashier counter and you will be issued with a number for collection. You will be notified by sms/email upon approval of the 1^st filing (takes about 3 days) and you are to collect these documents by the next working day upon the notification from Crimsonlogic’s counter. Remember to bring along your collection number with the paid receipt. Notice in the documents to be collected, there will be a notice by the Family Justice Court for you to attend a hearing with respect to your filing. The date is indicated on the notice. The hearing may be waived if the court deemed it unnecessary and they will inform you through the post two or three days prior to your hearing date. 

2^nd Filing

You will have to submit these documents on your second filing:

a)      Supporting Affidavit; (you should be given this document by counter staff on the first visit)

b)      Adminstration Oath;  (you should be given on the first visit) and,

c)      Those forms approved in the first filing (collected from the counter) which should be inserted into (a). This includes the i) Statement of Probate; ii) Certified True Copy of the Will; iii) Certified True Copy of the Death Certificate; iv) Schedule of Assets

Make sure a) and b) are prepared and type-written prior to the 2^nd filing at Crimsonlogic.

Those words need deletion will need to be deleted accordingly e.g., like I/We or his/her.

Otherwise, for each undeleted word or sentence, the commissioner of Oath and yourself would have to countersign for any deletions.

2^nd Filing requires you to present these documents to be affirmed/sworn before the Commissioner of Oaths. There is a law firm opposite Crimsonlogic which provide the  service at a cost. For convenient, I used the service at the law firm. Thereafter you could proceed back to the Crimsonlogic’s payment counter to submit your 2^nd filing. There will also be cost of filing for the above documents.

- Cost of Commissioner of Oaths’ services include commissioner’s signature and rubber stamp  =  $65

- Cost of filing Supporting Affidavits and Administration Oaths at Crimsonlogic = $45.20

Total Cost for the 2^nd filing = $65 + $45.20 = $110.20

You will be informed of the acceptance of your 2nd filing in two to three days by SMS. You will have to collect you acceptance from Crimsonlogic.

Pls note - Supporting Affidavit and Administration Oaths Forms have to be type written before you present to the Commissioner of Oaths. To save you time, prepare them and submit them together during the 2^nd filing. 

This should complete the 2nd filing process while you await for the approval of the Grant of Probate from the Court. The last stage of the probate filing process requires you to file for the extract of the probate after the court has heard you or has sent you a letter of waiver from court attendance. 

Pls note - Supporting Affidavit and Administration Oaths Forms have to be type written before you present to the Commissioner of Oaths. To save you time, prepare them and submit them together during the 2^nd filing. This should complete the first part of filing process while you await for the approval of the Grant of Probate from the Court.

After the 2^nd filing, the family justice court will inform you (about 3days after) through Crimsonlogic of your application of grant of probate if you are required to attend court hearing. The date of hearing will be issued to you through the court’s letter when you collect the documents from Crimsonlogic.

A week later, family justice court, upon the decision that there is no necessity for court’s attendance, sent a letter informing you that you can proceed with the extract of probate.

You will have to go down to Crimsonlogic again to file the application to extract the grant of probate.

Cost of filing: $76.80 + $37.00 for the final searches and filing = $113.80

1 day after the filing, quite surprisingly, a SMS was received from the court informing that the extract of the grant of probate is accepted. Thereafter you could go back to Crimsonlogic to collect your applications and proceed to the Family and Justice Court at National Development Building in Maxell Road to collect the original Grant of Probate.

This completes the whole application process in Singapore.