ARM Trustee ‘Will’ helps RSA holder in distribution of assets

The importance of having a ‘Will’ cannot be over emphasised particularly when you consider the difficulty and challenge bereaved families go through when their dead relative passes on interstate. This means that they would have to go through the hurdle of getting letter of administration from the court and registry before they could access some of the person’s assets.

Leaving the law to dictate who inherits on intestacy is a risky business and may not be either tax or non-tax efficient. There is no substitute for executing a will; the process is not irreversible. Until death, the will is of no impact and once made can easily and readily be revoked or amended.

Experts at ARM Trustees said the Retirement Savings Account (RSA) is an important component of any employee’s assets as 18 percent (contributed jointly by the employee and employer) of an employee’s monthly emoluments is domiciled in this account.

Worthy of note is that the monies in an RSA may constitute the only liquid asset an employee may lay claim to at the end of a working career. The importance of planning for the distribution of this asset upon demise cannot be over emphasized; hence, the need to prepare a Will that provides specific instructions for the distribution of this asset, says Folashade Adeloye, MD of ARM Trustees Limited.

Adeloye stated that RSA Will service is available to all employees regardless of which Pension Fund Administrator manages their retirement savings. As such, an employee need not have his RSA with ARM Pensions in order to enjoy ARM Trustees RSA Wills services.

According to her, the RSA Wills is backed by the pension regulation which states that beneficiaries to an RSA account can access the account of the deceased only through a Will or Letters of Administration; and an RSA Will is probate tax exempt.

ARM Trustees Limited (“ARMT”) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of ARM Traditional Asset Management Limited (ARM TAM), which is the privately owned investment management subsidiary of the reputable leading asset management firm, Asset & Resource Management Company Limited (“ARM”).

In line with ARM’s objective of providing a one-stop asset management service to its Clients, ARM Trustees was incorporated in October 1997, to offer Commercial and Private Trust services to institutional and private clients respectively.

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