More than two years after his death, the descendants of Stanley Ho are still wrangling over the rumoured US$6 billion estate of the saurian casino magnate, who did not leave a will. His 17 children, whom he fathered with four "wives", are fighting for control of his empire, with challenges to marital status and tussles over choice of accountants for the estate swirling overhead. In short, had the size of Ho's estate and his wishes been made clear before his death, his family would have been saved a lot of hassle.

"Regardless of how much we are leaving behind, it's a lifetime of hard work that we are passing on," said politician and businessman Bernard Chan in a South China Morning Post op-ed in May in which he urged his peers to have plans in place. He points out that without a will or enduring power of attorney (a legal document in which a person names who they want to take care of their affairs should they become incapacitated or die) in place, some people get caught out by an inability to take care of their affairs.

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In cases like this, it falls to a committee of representatives from the family who a court deems responsible for the deceased's financial matters-and your petty feuds or family rifts won't be taken into account. It's not just money that needs to be accounted for: a deed of guardianship should be made to ensure any children under 18 are taken care of if they become orphaned. 

But what about when secret lovers come out of the woodwork? Or it emerges that the deceased had children that nobody knew about? These scenarios can be tricky for both sides, but a secret lover or child has a legal case to contest a will—they just need to have a paper trail.

"People say as long as you don't get married, it's fine: you're not obliged to provide any financial subsidy to the person. That's mostly correct," says Ko, most of whose clients are wealthy men in their late thirties. "With this exception: if you are financially dependent on the deceased at the time of death, then you can make an application to the court against the estate or financial provision."

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Ko cites a case currently going through the courts where the mistress of a deceased man is fighting to prove she is entitled to maintenance from his estate after having received financial support from him since the 1980s. "He had a stroke and fell into a coma, so his finances were managed by a committee. And subsequently, he passed away," Ko says. "Being a mistress, it's highly unlikely that she will be liked by the family. So that's why all these arguments arise. With proper wealth planning, there would have been no need to spend eight years of time and also legal costs on this matter." 

In an ongoing case, one of Ip's clients is an adult child whose father lived alone after their mother died. After the father himself died, another woman turned up at the hospital, not only claiming she was his second wife, but brandishing a will drafted by a lawyer and signed by the testator saying everything was left to her. "The family had never met her, despite asking their father many times whether there was a friend, a lover, a wife, but the father refused to acknowledge any of this and even got angry about their questioning. Now, there's a widow coming out of nowhere. The only way to resolve it sensibly is through mediation," says Ip.

Ip advises against going to court in such instances, as the cases will be raked over in granular detail, which can be very embarrassing, especially for high-profile families who value privacy above all else.

Meanwhile, Ip also successfully represented a dependent in a same-sex relationship, who was cut off by her deceased spouse's family members after the death, in a demonstration of how Hong Kong's complicated stance on gay marriage can confound things further. "They changed the lock on the matrimonial home," Ip says. "During the deceased's lifetime, the family took a don't-ask-don't-tell policy. She fought that for four years, and she got around a third of her partner's estate." 

In his 13 years of practice, Ko has seen it all: family members. claiming wills were forged, or that their dead relative was incapacitated when they signed their will. Cases like those can require calling in specialists to confirm that the signature was real, racking up costs. He suggests that one solution is to have a doctor present during the signing to prevent claims of forgery.

Ultimately, Ko says, it's about people talking more frankly about death and what happens beyond. "It's mostly about public awareness. We need to let people know that there are tools to protect your interests. And it's not only just about the wealthy; it's also about more [average-income] people."

Ip believes that it isn't superstition holding people back from making wills: it's avoidance of lawyers and fear of the perceived associated costs. But last wishes scribbled on a piece of paper aren't worth much in the eyes of the law. His firm offers will writing for a fixed fee to show people that a visit to the lawyers doesn't always equal spiralling costs. "It is important to have someone experienced to write this kind of legal document because we've seen so many homemade wills. We're currently working on a dispute that has been going on for ten years that stems from a homemade will," he reveals.

Both lawyers' enduring advice is to make a will early to avoid ambiguities: name the person who will act on your behalf after you've passed or are on life support. "What we're trying to do is to raise the awareness of having everything in place by approaching lawyers that understand the situation and can give proper advice," says Ip. In short, make sure everything is tied up and clear, and that any skeletons that could come tumbling out of the closet are accounted for.

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