Will registration becoming more popular with Chinese residents
A center staffer reads out a will.
Will registration has gained increasing acceptance in China over the past decade and the residents registering their wills are younger, according to a white paper released by the China Will Registration Center on Thursday.
The number of will registrants is growing year on year and hit a peak in 2023, surpassing 60,000. This was in sharp comparison to only 6,804 in 2013 when the service started, according to the white paper.
A survey by the center found that only 12.4 percent of respondents believed a will was necessary in 2013, and that figure grew to 46.87 percent in 2019.
Under the impact of COVID-19 between 2020 and 2022, more than 50 percent said they planned to register a will and people in metropolises such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou showed a more open attitude and acceptance of will registration, the center said.
People aged between 60 and 70 accounted for the majority of will registrants between 2013 and 2023, reaching 49.28 percent, followed by those aged between 71 and 80 (34.47 percent.)
Females accounted for 56.67 percent of will registrants between 2013 and 23, and reached 58.41 percent last year, according to statistics.
Among young and middle-aged registrants, those aged below 30 accounted for 16 percent.
A will template makes the process easier.
Marriage risk prevention, asset protection, and avoiding disputes were the major reasons given to register a will, the center said.
A 44-year-old woman surnamed Ye found her husband had an extramarital affair and fathered a son as a result. She did not divorce him but registered a will, leaving all her property to her own children.
As of the end of last year, 41,333 people in Shanghai had registered wills at the center, accounting for 14.07 percent of the nation's total.
Between 2017 and 2023, 4,343 young and middle-aged Shanghai residents registered wills, accounting for 24.01 percent of the total in China.
Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou witnessed the largest number of will registrants in the nation, and that growing trend is continuing, the center said.
Real estate and bank deposits were the most mentioned assets in wills for among Shanghai registrants, while assets had become more diversified since 2019 with an increasing number of stocks and funds involved.
"Financial investment and money management are topics people in Shanghai are widely aware of due to its advanced financial development, and some residents turned to the financial sector in pursuit of a diversified allocation of assets to cut risks, which is behind the scenario," said Huang Haibo, head of the center's branches in Shanghai and the provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
