Found cheaper? We match it — see conditions. Incorporation and secretary transfer also carry a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Until authority is granted, nothing that needs your signature moves. Not because anyone refuses it. Because nobody has it yet.
Without a valid will, the law decides by a fixed formula. Whoever you'd choose still needs the court's authority before they can act on any of it.
4
decisions this document makes for you — and for the business you own
What a will actually decides
Four things, one document
INSTRUCTIONS
Who gets what, in your words
Specific instructions for your assets — not the formula the law applies when none exist.
AUTHORITY
An executor, with authority to act
The person you name, and the one a court is later asked to grant authority to. Naming them and granting them authority are two separate steps.
GUARDIANS
Guardians for minor children
Decided by you and your partner while you're both able to decide it — not left for a court to work out afterward.
TRUSTS
Trusts, where they help
Control over timing, not just amount — an inheritance held and released in stages, rather than handed over in full on a fixed birthday.
+ without a valid will, the law applies its own formula to what you leave behind — one that doesn't know your relationships or who actually needs what
+ that same formula also decides who's appointed to administer the estate, and it isn't automatically the person you'd have chosen
What a spouse or partner can actually do
What it looks like
My spouse or partner can just step in and handle things.
What's actually true
Only what's genuinely held jointly passes to them directly. Everything solely in your name — a sole bank account, a property, shares in a company — needs someone with legal authority to act, and that authority doesn't exist automatically. It's granted, by application, before it's usable.
That's the actual mechanism, not a worst case: authority is applied for and granted, not assumed. Naming who you want to hold it is what a will does.
The grant still comes from the court
A lawyer drafts a will that reflects exactly what you want and is far more likely to hold up as written. The legal authority to act on it afterward — the grant that lets an executor deal with what you've left — is issued by a court, not by whoever drafted the document.
Before anyone can deal with what a person leaves behind, they generally need a court to grant them legal authority to do so: as the executor named in a valid, properly executed will, or, where there is no valid will, as an administrator appointed under the rules that decide who administers an estate in that case. Exactly which provisions apply, and how, is being confirmed with legal before this page names them more specifically.
The one question that decides this
Anyone can draft a will. Almost nobody can also tell you what happens to the shares you hold in your own company.
What a will-writing service can't see
Any competent will-writing service and OCTIS produce an equally valid will. The difference is what neither one is looking at while they draft it:
From what you own to what the will says
Your shares are recorded in the company's register of members
the account that already tracks who owns what, and how much
Your will names who should receive them
a separate document, saying what you want to happen
Both live in the same account
so the register and the will can point to the same person, not two paper trails that never meet
What you actually hold can be checked against what the will says
rather than reconstructed from company records after the fact
A standalone will-writing service only ever sees the document it drafted — it has no visibility into a company's register of members, because it doesn't hold the company's records. It would have to ask, and wait for someone else to look.
One shareholding, no will
Take a founder who owns 40% of a company and has no will:
Signed and witnessed, or not
There's no partial credit. A will that says exactly what you wanted, executed incorrectly, carries the same legal weight as no will at all — which is why signing is guided, not mailed out as a template to execute alone.
Where your situation actually sits
This is also the honest reason the price is a quote, not a number on this page:
| Situation | What it usually needs |
|---|---|
| Single, no dependants, few assets | A simple will — most of the work is deciding, not drafting |
| Married and/or with minor children | A will plus named guardians, often with a trust for anything a child would otherwise inherit outright at a fixed age |
| Shareholder in a company | The shareholding named in the will, and checked against what the company's own register shows |
| Multiple properties, cross-border assets, or a blended family | Scoped individually — this is where a fixed package stops fitting and a proper quote starts |
Most people are the first two rows. The fee reflects which row is actually yours, agreed before drafting starts — not billed by the hour afterward.
Which shape of will yours is
Both are drafted by a lawyer and quoted as a fixed fee before any drafting starts — the difference is scope, not process:
A will
Fixed feequoted upfront
- Drafted from a single scoping conversation
- Executor and guardians named, reviewed by a lawyer before signing
- Signing and witnessing arranged and guided
A will with a trust, and/or a shareholding
Custom quoteafter scoping
- Trust structuring for minor beneficiaries or staged distribution
- Your shareholding checked against the company's own register
- Power of attorney drafted alongside it, where relevant
Who does the work
Licensed lawyers on our panel
The legal work is undertaken by licensed practitioners we work with. OCTIS runs the intake, the records and the process around it — so nothing has to be assembled and re-explained first.
Price
Quoted after a short scoping conversation
A single will is a different job from a will with trusts, guardianship and a shareholding attached — the fee reflects which one is yours, agreed before drafting starts.
Guarantee
Not covered by the 30-day money-back guarantee
The Appendix covers exactly two services — new company incorporation and transfer of company secretary. This isn't a subscription either, so there's nothing to cancel: it's a fixed fee for a document you keep.
After signing
Stored, and flagged for review when you tell us your circumstances have changed
A marriage, a child, a new shareholding — you tell us, and we check whether the will still says what you want.
Not covered
- The 30-day money-back guarantee does not cover this service — it covers only new company incorporation and transfer of company secretary. There's no subscription to cancel either; this is a fixed fee, agreed before drafting begins.
- Legal advice on a contested estate, a family dispute, or a challenge to a will's validity is a separate, larger engagement — scoped and quoted on its own, not part of a standard will.
- If you have no dependants, no business, and you're comfortable with the law's default formula deciding where things go, a will may not be worth the fee to you. That's a legitimate call, and this page isn't trying to talk you out of it.
- Advice on foreign tax residency or overseas asset rules, where you or your estate has assets outside Malaysia, is flagged to a specialist rather than drafted from a template.
What determines the cost of drafting a will or estate plan?
Scope: a simple will for someone with no dependants and few assets is a different job from a will with trusts, named guardians and a shareholding to account for. A short scoping conversation identifies which situation applies, and the fee is a fixed amount agreed before drafting starts, not billed by the hour afterward.
What happens to someone's assets in Malaysia if they die without a valid will?
The law distributes the estate according to a fixed formula that doesn't account for individual relationships or who actually needs what. Separately, nobody — not a spouse, not a business partner — can act on any of it until a court grants them legal authority: as the executor named in a valid will, or, where there's no valid will, as an administrator appointed under the rules that decide who administers an estate in that case.
I hold shares in my own company — does having a will change anything for them?
Yes. Shares are treated as property in an estate like anything else a person owns: without a will naming who should receive them, nobody can vote them, sign for them or sell them until a court grants someone the authority to, and the other shareholders can't have the shareholding reassigned in the meantime either. A shareholding is recorded in the company's own register of members, and where that's the same account as the will, the two can be checked against each other.
My spouse and I own everything jointly — do I still need a will?
Genuinely joint assets usually pass directly to the surviving joint owner, so that part is already covered. Anything held solely in one name doesn't work that way, though — and for a shareholder, that usually includes the shares themselves — so it's worth checking which category each asset actually falls into before deciding a will isn't needed.
Who drafts a will, and who decides what goes into it?
A lawyer drafts and advises; the person making the will decides every detail of it. 
uses AI to capture what you say faster, but the judgement stays with a person, not a model.
Is drafting a will covered by OCTIS's 30-day money-back guarantee?
No — the guarantee covers exactly two services, new company incorporation and transfer of company secretary. This isn't a subscription either, so there's nothing to cancel: it's a fixed fee, agreed before drafting begins, for a document that's kept.
Authority isn't assumed. It's granted — decide who holds it while you're still the one deciding.
Tell us about your family, what you own, and what you hold in the company. We'll scope it honestly and quote a fixed fee before any drafting starts.