Do I have a legal right to see my father's will while he is alive?

No. In Singapore a will is the testator's private, revocable document until death; no child, spouse, or named beneficiary has a right to its contents, and his lawyer is bound to keep it confidential. What you can properly ask is whether a will exists, who the executor is, and where the original is held — readiness questions a family can legitimately discuss.

How do I check whether a will exists in Singapore?

Search the Wills Registry, maintained by the Singapore Academy of Law. It records the existence, date, drafter, and location of registered wills — not their contents. During the testator's lifetime only he and his lawyers may search; after death, next-of-kin may search with the death certificate and identification, for S$10. Registration is voluntary, so an empty result does not prove there is no will.

Can I get a copy of a will after someone dies in Singapore?

Yes, once probate is granted. The executor files the will to obtain the Grant of Probate from the Family Justice Courts, and after the grant issues the will forms part of the court record — a certified copy can be requested from the courts. Before the grant, you depend on the executor; after it, you do not.

What happens if no will can be found after my father dies?

The estate is administered as an intestacy under Singapore's Intestate Succession Act — in the standard case, half to the surviving spouse and half among the children — regardless of what anyone believes he intended. If a will is known to have existed but the original, last held by him, cannot be found, the law presumes he destroyed it to revoke it unless the presumption is rebutted with evidence.

Verified 2026-08-27

How do I find out what is in my father's will?

While your father is alive: you cannot. A will is his private document until death, revocable at any time, and no law in Singapore compels him — or his lawyer — to show it to anyone. What you can legitimately establish is that a will exists, who the executor is, and where it is kept, and the Wills Registry maintained by the Singapore Academy of Law records exactly that: the existence, date, and location of registered wills, never their contents, searchable for S$10 by the testator's lawyers during his lifetime and by next-of-kin (with the death certificate) after it. After death the position inverts: once the Grant of Probate issues, the will becomes a public court record at the Family Justice Courts. Asking about readiness, not contents, is the honest — and answerable — question while he lives.

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A sealed envelopePhoto: Sara Er / Pexels

While he lives: no right to contents — but readiness is askable

The privacy is not a slight against you; it is the design of the instrument. A will speaks only at death and can be rewritten until then, so the law treats its contents as nobody's business but the testator's — children, spouses, and named beneficiaries included. Pressing to see it is both futile and corrosive, and any adviser who leaked it would be breaching his duty to your father, not doing you a favour.

What the family can legitimately establish is preparedness: does a will exist, is it current, who is the executor, where is the original held, is there a Lasting Power of Attorney. These are questions about whether the family would function in a crisis, not about who gets what — which is why a father who will not discuss contents will often still answer them, and why every serious adviser encourages him to. Wanting clarity about the machinery is stewardship, not greed; the contents can remain his alone.

The Wills Registry: what it records, and who may look

Singapore keeps a Wills Registry, maintained by the Singapore Academy of Law. It is voluntary and deliberately narrow: it stores the fact that a will exists, the date it was made, who drafted it, and where the original is held — never the contents, and never the will itself. Registering neither validates a will nor does failing to register invalidate one; the registry exists so that a will made quietly in 2009 is not lost quietly in 2026.

Access follows the same logic as the will's privacy. During the testator's lifetime, the information is available to the testator and the lawyers acting for him. After death, next-of-kin (or the estate's lawyers) may search, producing the death certificate and identification; a search costs S$10. A search that returns nothing is not proof there is no will — unregistered wills are common — but a search that returns an entry ends the drawer-by-drawer hunt on the worst week of the family's life.

After death: probate opens the record — and what if nothing is found

Death inverts the privacy. The executor must produce the will to obtain a Grant of Probate from the Family Justice Courts, and once the grant issues, the will is part of the court record — a certified copy can be requested from the courts, so a beneficiary, or a family member left out, is no longer dependent on the executor's goodwill to learn what it says. Executors have no legal deadline for a formal 'reading of the will,' a ceremony that exists mainly in films, but they cannot administer the estate while keeping its instructions secret from the court.

If no will can be found, the estate is administered as an intestacy under the Intestate Succession Act — spouse and children in statutory shares, whatever anyone believes the deceased intended. And where a will is known to have existed but the original was last in the testator's own keeping and cannot be found, the law's starting presumption is that he destroyed it intending to revoke it — a presumption that can be rebutted with evidence, but an ugly fight to have. That is the practical case for the two questions worth asking while he is alive: not 'what does it say,' but 'does it exist, and where is it.'

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Sources: SAL Wills Registry — Singapore Academy of Law · Family Justice Courts — probate and letters of administration · Singapore Law Gazette — finding the original will · Last verified 2026-08-27. Corrections: see the log.