Wills & Estate Planning Lawyers in Hong Kong

Most people know they ought to have a will. Far fewer have one. And a good number of those who do are carrying a document that no longer matches their life: made before the marriage, before the children, before the flat in Kowloon and the trading account in Singapore.

TITUS Solicitors advises individuals and families in Hong Kong on wills, enduring powers of attorney, probate and the practical business of passing on what you have built. We work regularly with cross-border families, with assets in more than one jurisdiction, and with the awkward conversations that estate planning tends to involve. Our aim is a set of documents that will actually work when your family needs them, rather than a file that looks tidy and creates problems later.

Everything you tell us is treated in strict confidence.

How we can help

• Drafting wills, including mirror wills for couples
• Reviewing and updating an existing will after marriage, divorce, a new child or a move to Hong Kong
• Enduring powers of attorney
• Appointing guardians for young children
• Advising executors, and applying for grants of probate and letters of administration
• Estates where someone has died without a will
• Cross-border estates, and assets held outside Hong Kong
• Succession planning for business owners and family shareholdings
• Claims and disputes involving estates

Wills and estate planning

A will is your written statement of how you want your property dealt with after you die. For anyone with a spouse, children or significant assets, it’s one of the most important documents you’ll ever sign, and one of the most commonly neglected.

Intestate succession: what happens without a will

If you die without a valid will, your estate is distributed under the Intestates’ Estates Ordinance (Cap. 73), not according to your wishes. Where there’s a spouse and children, the surviving spouse takes the deceased’s personal belongings, a fixed net sum set by statute, and half of what’s left, with the children sharing the other half; if there’s no spouse, the children inherit equally (Cap. 73, section 4). If there are no entitled relatives at all, the estate passes to the Government of the Hong Kong SAR as bona vacantia (ownerless property). Intestacy is rigid and often causes delay, cost and family friction. A valid will avoids all of that.

Making a valid will

Under section 5 of the Wills Ordinance (Cap. 30), a will must be in writing and signed by the person making it (or by someone else in their presence and at their direction). The signature must be made or acknowledged in front of two or more witnesses present at the same time, who then each sign in the will-maker’s presence. The will-maker must have testamentary capacity, meaning they understand what they’re doing.

One trap worth flagging: a beneficiary, or the spouse of a beneficiary, should not act as a witness. The will itself stays valid, but section 10 makes any gift to that witness, or to their spouse, void. There is a narrow rescue in section 10(3): if the will was properly executed anyway once you leave that person’s signature out of account, the gift survives. Do not rely on it. Use two wholly independent witnesses. A good will also clearly names beneficiaries, appoints executors, and deals with guardianship of any young children.

Changing or revoking a will

You can generally revoke a will at any time if you wish to change any of the terms by making a new will. Importantly, under section 14 of the Wills Ordinance marriage revokes your will automatically. There are exceptions. If the will shows that when you made it you were expecting to marry a particular person, and that you intended the will not to be revoked by that marriage, it survives, and a single gift can be saved in the same way even where the rest of the will goes. You can also amend a will with a codicil, a supplemental document that has to meet the same formalities. Because a later will overrides an earlier one, it’s worth reviewing your will after any major life event: marriage, divorce, a new child, or a significant change in assets.

Probate and administering an estate

When someone dies, their executor usually has to apply to the Probate Registry for a grant of probate, the document that proves their authority to collect in and distribute the estate. The application involves the will, the death certificate and a schedule of the assets.

A point that still confuses people: Hong Kong abolished estate duty on 11 February 2006. There is no estate duty or inheritance tax on the value of an estate. The estate pays only court and administrative fees in obtaining the grant, not a tax on what the deceased owned.

A straightforward grant typically takes several months; complex or contested estates take considerably longer. The executor then has to identify the assets, pay debts and taxes, and distribute what’s left to the beneficiaries. Executors are fiduciaries: they must act honestly and even-handedly, and they can take legal advice at the estate’s expense. Estates most often get stuck on missing beneficiaries, disputes over what the will means, or hidden debts.

Planning for incapacity, not just death

A will does nothing while you are alive. It says nothing about the situation that catches most families out: you are still here, but no longer able to manage your own affairs.

An enduring power of attorney under the Enduring Powers of Attorney Ordinance (Cap. 501) is the document that covers that gap. It lets you appoint someone now to look after your property and financial affairs if you later lose mental capacity. The formalities are strict. You sign in front of a registered medical practitioner and a solicitor, either at the same time or before the solicitor within 28 days of signing before the doctor. The document takes effect once it is properly executed, and it is not revoked if you later lose mental capacity. If your attorney has reason to believe you are, or are becoming, mentally incapable, they must apply as soon as practicable to register it with the Registrar of the High Court. Until it is registered they cannot act on it, apart from limited steps to maintain you or protect your estate.

Timing is the whole point. An enduring power of attorney has to be made while you still have capacity. Once capacity has gone, that door is closed, and the family’s route is an application to the court under the Mental Health Ordinance (Cap. 136), which is slower, more public and considerably more expensive than the document you could have signed in an afternoon.

Treatment decisions sit in a third place again. The Advance Decision on Life-sustaining Treatment Ordinance (Cap. 651) came into operation on 31 July 2026 and puts advance medical directives and do-not-attempt-CPR orders on a statutory footing for the first time in Hong Kong. If you want your treatment wishes to be recognised, that is now the framework to work within, and we can advise on how it fits with the rest of your planning.

If your assets or your family are not all in Hong Kong

Cross-border is normal in Hong Kong, and it is where most home-made estate plans come apart.

A good starting point is that Hong Kong wills can generally govern global assets. However, other jurisdictions may have specific requirements as to certain assets or have fixed inheritance rules that override what your will says. Assets in the Mainland raise their own questions again, both on succession and on getting a Hong Kong grant recognised. If you have significant assets in other jurisdictions, it would be prudent to confirm that any will you have now would apply as you desire in the foreign jurisdiction. If not, you can consider doing a will specifically in relation to assets in that jurisdiction. Where a second will or a foreign grant is needed, we can work with local counsel in that jurisdiction as well.

Another point to keep in mind is that certain assets, such as bank accounts, insurance policies and pension or retirement scheme benefits, may pass outside your will altogether, depending on how they were set up.

None of that is a reason to avoid making a will. It is vital to map the assets first, decide which jurisdiction’s documents are doing what, and make sure the documents do not contradict each other.

When an estate is disputed

Most estates are administered without argument. The ones that are not tend to take one of three shapes.

The first is a challenge to the will itself, on capacity, undue influence or the formalities. The second is a disagreement about what the will actually means, or about how an executor is handling the estate. The third is a claim for provision from the estate by a family member or dependant under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Ordinance (Cap. 481).

All three reward early advice, because there can be strict time limits, and because the cost of an estate dispute is paid, one way or another, out of what the family was meant to inherit.

How we charge

We try to be straight about cost from the start.

We will tell you what the first meeting costs before you book it, and you get a written fee arrangement before any work begins. For a straightforward single will, or a pair of mirror wills for a couple, we can usually give you a close estimate at the outset. Probate and estate administration depend on the size and complexity of the estate, so there we give you an estimated fee range in writing, and we tell you promptly if the estate turns out to be more involved than it first looked.

What happens at your first consultation

1. You tell us about your family, your assets and what you want to happen, in strict confidence.
2. We explain what documents you need, what each one does, and where the pressure points are in your particular situation.
3. We set out the next steps and what they would cost, with no obligation to go further.

You leave knowing where you stand, whether or not you decide to instruct us.

Frequently asked questions

What happens if I die without a will in Hong Kong?

Your estate is distributed under the Intestates’ Estates Ordinance (Cap. 73), on a fixed statutory order rather than according to your wishes. Where there is a spouse and children, the spouse takes the personal belongings, a fixed net sum and half of the remainder, with the children sharing the other half. If no entitled relative exists, the estate passes to the Government of the HKSAR.

Does getting married cancel my will?

Usually yes. Under section 14 of the Wills Ordinance, marriage revokes your will. It survives only where the will shows you were expecting to marry a particular person and intended it not to be revoked by that marriage. It is one of the most common reasons a family discovers, too late, that there was no valid will.

Is there inheritance tax in Hong Kong?

No. Estate duty was abolished on 11 February 2006, and there is no inheritance tax on the value of an estate. The estate pays court and administrative fees to obtain the grant, which is not a tax on what the deceased owned.

Can a beneficiary witness my will?

They should not. The will remains valid, but under section 10 of the Wills Ordinance (Cap. 30) a gift to a witness, or to a witness’s spouse, is void. Section 10(3) can rescue the gift where the will was properly executed without counting that person’s signature, but it is not something to plan around. Use two independent witnesses.

I already have a will from another country. Do I need a Hong Kong one?

Often yes, or at least a review. A foreign will may be perfectly valid and still be slow and expensive to use for Hong Kong assets, and two wills drafted in different places without reference to each other can conflict. Bring both, and we will tell you whether one document or two makes more sense.

How long does probate take?

A straightforward grant typically takes several months. Complex or contested estates take considerably longer, and the estate cannot usually be distributed until the grant is issued.

Who should I appoint as executor?

Someone you trust, who is organised, likely to outlive you, and preferably in Hong Kong or willing to deal with Hong Kong procedure. You can appoint more than one, and you can appoint a professional executor. The job is real work: collecting in assets, paying debts, and accounting to the beneficiaries.

Do I have to leave something to my spouse or children?

Hong Kong does not impose fixed shares on a will-maker, so you have considerable freedom over who inherits. That freedom is not unlimited: certain family members and dependants can apply to the court for provision from the estate under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Ordinance (Cap. 481). If you plan to leave out someone who would expect to inherit, say so at the outset and we will draft with that risk in mind.

Where should I keep my will?

Somewhere safe, findable, and known to your executor. Hong Kong has no central register of wills, so a will nobody can locate is worth very little. We hold wills in safe custody for clients who ask, and we give your executor the details.

Talk to us

If you have been meaning to sort your will out, or you have been appointed executor and are not sure what happens next, a short conversation will tell you what you actually need. We advise plainly, in confidence, and we will tell you if you need less than you think.

This page is for general information only and is not legal advice. You should obtain advice from a qualified solicitor before acting. TITUS Solicitors accepts no liability for reliance on this content.