We all want to live comfortably, if not with an affluent lifestyle. But not all of us think about how to exit this life in style. Just today, I learned how that requires quite a lot of money!

A family estate at Loyola Memorial Plans, for example, now costs at least P5 million complete with an air conditioned family mausoleum. Five years ago, the same lot cost P3 million, quite a big jump in price. I think it was business columnist, author and public speaker Francis Kong who said one of his favorite investments is funeral lots! You know what they say about obstetricians and gynecologists – they are never out of business.

At The Heritage Park in Fort Bonifacio, a family estate costs P3.4 million – and that’s the cash price. The same lot goes up to P3.7 million if you pay in installment.

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Did I just say the “D” word? *looks over my shoulder like a paranoid scam artist (haha, sorry I couldn’t resist!)*

During the Registered Financial Planning course that I took last year, the lawyer who lectured about estate planning kept on using euphemisms like kicked the bucket, passed on, met his maker, gone under, crossed over. He just couldn’t say the word “death” and it was amusing to see his face contortions whenever he had to talk about it.

I’m not a linguist, but it’s obvious that language is a mirror image of culture and human behavior. Filipinos don’t like to talk of death – especially when someone’s on his deathbed. A financial planner that I know had to be hired by a family just to tell the old man that he was going to die soon and he had to figure out how to divide his estate for everyone’s sake.

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Sibling squabbles are a reality of life in the Philippines – and not just in rich families. The property in question could be a small residential lot in a province somewhere, some farmland or a business even. The size and value often doesn’t matter.

Ariel Martinez, a taxation and estate lawyer of more than 15 years, calls money a “blood thinner.” He said it could cause siblings to forget they grew up together. Martinez has the admirable trait of going straight for the jugular and it’s not difficult to imagine that he does as he claims: devote some time scolding clients during their first few meetings.

“I couldn’t help it,” he said. “I would tell them ‘Di ba kayo nahihiya, di matatahimik sa puntod ang nanay ninyo. Even if you go to the judge now to plead your case, sasabunin din kayo nun!”
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Asia’s richest woman has left her wealth – she was worth $4.2 billion – to her fortune-teller, Agence France-Presse reported today.

I bet my future millions in savings (optimistic, eh? :-)) that relatives of the astute, albeit quirky, businesswoman are right this moment chafing at the bit, ready to storm the poor lawyer who will execute her will.

The article says:

Nina Wang, who died aged 69 earlier this month and had no children, left a legacy estimated as worth at least $4.2 billion after transforming her company Chinachem into a real estate empire.

A day after her lavish funeral Wednesday, two wills she allegedly wrote in 2002 and 2006 were published separately in Next Magazine and its sister Apple Daily publication.

The 2002 document said Wang’s fortune would go to her charitable trust. But the later version named her personal fortune teller, Chan Chun Chuen, as the beneficiary.

Read the rest of the article here:

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