At 83, Albertha H. is clear about one thing: she will not be tempting fate by making a will.
“You a invite dead?” she fires back, half-laughing, half-challenging, when asked if she worries about dying without one. Then, with the kind of sprightly sauciness that belies her age, she adds: “Mi naah mek none.”
Albertha, a returning resident who has lived back in Jamaica for the past 23 years, sits firmly rooted in her Manchester home, surrounded by memories, land titles, and a lifetime of certainty.
Her husband, Cecil, died in England 30 years ago, prompting her return to the island.
Since then, despite repeated nudges from well-meaning visitors and professionals, she has refused all efforts to formalise how her estate will be divided after her death.
“You think is one or two people come here and try to tell me to make a will?” she asked The Sunday Gleaner last week. “Look here, I have two children. They each know what they getting. I have told them so. I have given them the titles of what they will get. And I certainly will not be buried on any of them (lands she gave children). I am going beside my old people. So why I have to make a will?”
Her resistance is deeply personal, shaped by family history and belief. Albertha recalls that her sister died in England just three months after making a will; her brother followed six months later making his. Her parents, she notes pointedly, never made wills – her mother lived to 99, her father made it to 102.
Her two children, now grandparents themselves, live overseas. Neither they nor her grandchildren, she says, have any interest in settling in Jamaica. Albertha lives with her 79-year-old brother, who also has no will, along with a housekeeper and his eldest daughter, 43.
The belief that making a will somehow invites death is not unique to Albertha. It is a sentiment echoed quietly, and sometimes loudly, across church halls, family verandahs, and rural communities.
Janice*, who has worked as a paralegal and legal secretary for more than 20 years, told The Sunday Gleaner that said she encountered the resistance firsthand while trying to address the issue in her church.
“In my church, I was asked to deal with the issue of will-making amongst the membership. The biggest resistance came from the older members. It was their belief that making a will is calling down death on them, while for others, they did not want anyone to know what they have. I was not successful,” she recalled.
That deeply ingrained reluctance, however, is colliding with a stark national reality.
Almost $4 billion in cash
More than $50 billion in assets and almost $4 billion in cash are currently under state management because Jamaicans continue to die without making wills, according to Justice Minister Delroy Chuck. The estates are being handled by the Administrator General’s Department (AGD), which steps in when individuals die intestate.
“To the best of my knowledge, I know they are managing in excess of $50 billion,” Chuck told The Sunday Gleaner. “I know they have almost $4 billion worth of cash in hand. At one time, it was in excess of $5 billion, so they are making payments to beneficiaries. But they are under constant pressure, because if they clear up 100 cases in a year, by next year, they have another 100 cases coming.”
In his 2025 Sectoral Debate presentation, the minister revealed that 5,100 estates were under AGD management, an increase since March 2023. The cases span all social classes, including high-profile matters that have required DNA testing to determine lawful heirs.
“It is because people don’t make wills why the AGD’s office – while they do admirable work, and close several hundred files every year, a similar amount come in – they are under constant stress and pressure to open new files,” the minister said.
Chuck has gone further, suggesting that certain groups should not even have a choice.
“I want it to be mandatory for, like, the Jamaica Defence Force members to make a will,” he said. “It should be mandatory for all civil servants, nurses, teachers, firemen, and especially policemen. They should all be mandated to have an up-to-date will. Most people wait until they retire to make a will, but it should be when you start to earn, you should make a will.”
A Jamaica Constabulary Force spokesperson noted that officers are currently required to name a next of kin for administrative purposes, but that falls far short of formal estate planning.
Single most
effective safeguard
Attorney-at-law Ayisha Cunningham said a will remains the single most effective safeguard against family conflict and prolonged estate administration.
A will, she explained, is a document that tells how a person want his/her assets to be distributed when they pass.
“It names and executor to manage the process, and it names beneficiaries. It ensures that your wishes are followed, and prevents potential family disputes, though sometimes there are those challenges. It should clearly state who inherits property, money, and belongings; names guardian(s) for minor children or dependents; selects a trusted person (executor) to carry out the instructions, and may include instructions for funeral arrangements,” Cunningham told The Sunday Gleaner.
With more than 20 years’ experience, Cunningham said she has witnessed firsthand the disputes and delays that arise when people die intestate, and she urges deliberate, clearly documented distribution of assets to minimise conflict after death. To guard against later challenges to a testator’s mental capacity, she also supports the use of video recordings at the time a will is executed.
Without a will, she said, matters can quickly become contentious and end up in the hands of the AGD.
“In one instance, an attorney was dealing with a case with a number of ‘baby mothers’ and it became very contentious and was sent to the AGD. But certainly, as a matter of law, once there is a child, who is a beneficiary, and there is no will, the AGD has a duty to handle that estate until the child or children become adults,” she explained.
Cunningham added that legal requirements must be strictly observed: the testator must be of sound mind, and the will must be properly witnessed. Without that, estates can be tied up for years.
While lifetime gifting and property transfers are alternatives, Cunningham noted that high transfer taxes previously discouraged many Jamaicans. Chuck said that barrier has now been reduced, with the transfer tax lowered from 7.5 per cent to two per cent to encourage early planning.
“So they can easily transfer the property to whoever they want to give it to, or put it in a company. I would recommend that people do their estate, and if they don’t make a will, they can transfer the property to a company – in which whoever they want to benefit is part of company – that is owned by all the beneficiaries. So when the person dies, the company owns all the properties. The benefactors can choose to dissolve the company and distribute the assets accordingly or it remains the same,” said Chuck.
Still, even the most carefully laid plans can unravel.
Keep your wills updated
Chuck noted that in the event of the death of the witnesses to a will – or if they can no longer be located – a will should be rewritten.
“You should, because just in case there is a challenge and if the witnesses are not available to verify that you are the maker of the will, then [the executor] may have to administer the will … . So, you always need to keep your wills updated. And, at least to ensure that your executors know how to find the witnesses,” he suggested.
On the suggestion of recording the process to for later proof in the event that a will is contested, Chuck cautioned that such measures are not foolproof, particularly in an era of rapidly advancing technology.
“That is always possible, but with AI these days, you’re not even too sure that it is valid. The most important thing is that when you make a will, you have at least two witnesses who are trustworthy and who can swear that when you made the will, you were of sound mind. And once you make it – and you can make as many wills as you want, but it’s always the last one that will be considered – it must be properly signed and witnessed,” Chuck said.
*Name changed.