Aaker & Okley

  Why work hard to acquire your property and then leave it to chance, when you have every opportunity to decide who should get to enjoy it after you die? By failing to make a Will, you leave the control of your estate, to be administered in accordance with the rules on intestacy, which may not be what you want. In Ghana, the Intestate Succession Law, 1986, regulates your estate if you do not leave a Will.   These rules determine inheritance, based on the decease’s next of kin set out in order of priority. This may have serious repercussions, as it may leave your loved ones out of your estate.   What is a Will? A will is a legal document that allows a person to leave instructions on who should inherit property, money, and other earthly possession when he or she dies.   A Will can also be used to give other instructions not relating to your property. The Wills Act in Ghana regulates the making of a Will by providing that it must comply with certain requirements...

The Land Act, 2020, which was passed by Parliament, last July received the presidential assent in December 2020. The objective of the law is to revise and consolidate existing laws on land, with the view to harmonising these laws to ensure sustainable land administration and management, effective land tenure. The comprehensive piece of legislation which has been hugely welcomed does not only consolidate the laws on land in Ghana but also clarifies numerous positions of lands law including but not limited to eminent domain, restrictions on the power of transfer by spouse etc.

Do you know that your wife and children do not have any control over your body after your death? Under Ghanaian law, death shows the extent of authority the extended family welds over the individual. In Ghana, the law allows you unfettered power to dispose of your self-acquired properties through a testamentary will. There is no moral obligation to leave a specified portion of your estate to your wife and children. However, this freedom generally does not include the power to decide what happens to your body after death. It also does not include the power to determine how and where you should be buried. Even though a corpse is not property, the law considers it an object, which belongs to the extended family, not the spouse or children for purposes of burial. The issue of who has the final say when it comes to the burial of a loved one has been a a constant source of contention between the nuclear and extended families in Ghana. Upon the death of a loved one, members of the nuclear fam...