Wasiyah (Islamic will)‎ Writing service in Malaysia : an investigation of the supply channel

Abstract EN

Islamic estate planning has not been given much attention in Islamic finance until recently.

This paper attempts to shed light on the wasiyyah (Islamic will) writing service in Malaysia-the main instrument for Islamic estate planning-within the context of wealth management and financial planning in general.

The paper seeks to obtain direct information from the supply side regarding the operational structure and product detail of the wasiyyah writing service in Malaysia.

The paper discusses the nature and operation of the wasiyyah writing providers, their qualifications, and how wasiyyah writing services vary across providers in terms of their structure, cost and the name given for the product.

It is an explorative and qualitative research which employs semi-structured interviews with a purposive sampling of 11 wasiyyah writing providers from Kuala Lumpur and Selangor.

The narrative approach, with thematic analysis, was used to analyze the data.

It argues that, firstly, having a wasiyyah cannot resolve estate problems.

Secondly, wasiyyah has been used as a means to avoid fara’id (Islamic law of inheritance)-whereby testators have been misinformed by wasiyyah writing providers that they can provide instructions through a wasiyyah on how they wish to distribute their estates and that such instructions would overrule fara’id.

Thirdly, it has been found that the wasiyyah writing service has become profit oriented while the delivery of accurate information is of secondary importance.

This study suggests that some technical aspects of the wasiyyah writing service should be upgraded; notably, the setting of minimum qualifications for wasiyyah writing providers; encouraging product innovation; imposition of a measurement of quality control; and education of clients.

The paper argues for these mechanisms to be implemented in order to provide a conducive environment for the industry to grow