Malaysia is very difficult, not so much for the resealing process, so much as selling the shares and then remitting the monies as the paperwork is enormous, and the delays are extortionate, especially the cross checking when the monies are finally transferred (see below).

What will be needed is an Affidavit as to the estate’s assets which we will prepare once we have the details of the deceased and of his estate. In order to start drafting the Affidavit, a simple photocopy of the Will, and of the Grant and of the Death Certificate will be needed. Once the needed Affidavit has been drafted, it will have to be signed by the Executors, and also the Power of Attorney in favour of the Malaysian lawyers.

You should note that in due time we will require in addition to the Affidavit and Power of Attorney above mentioned, the following documents:

If you need our help, then once we have an idea of what will be involved, we will give you a fixed quote for the cost of doing the work. We operate on a fixed fee basis, although if extra unanticipated work is involved, we may ask for a review. The disbursements are likely to be minor miscellaneous charges – such as £60 to cover postages including overseas postages; the printing costs of £35; the costs of the sealed and certified copy of the Grant – HMCTS for £10; Notarial fees and the cost of the Apostille also have to be taken into account, but these will be paid by the Executors direct to the Notary.

As regards the Resealing and the cheque re-issuing process, this will take several months to complete (the Court hearing alone is likely to be at least 6 months away) and so allowing for 9 – 12 months to complete matters will not be unreasonable.

As mentioned, once the Grant has been resealed the documents are sent to Bursa Malaysia for registration and then local stockbrokers have to be used to sell the shares.

The local authorities do not permit the shares to be transferred to Beneficiaries, but instead insist upon the shares being sold and the Beneficiaries using the proceeds to buy back the shares if the Beneficiaries wish to do so.

This is only one aspect of the problem, as when the monies are to be remitted back to the UK it will be necessary for the Executors to open their own bank account (in the name of the Executor) in to which the monies are to be remitted as the Malaysians will not transfer the monies to our instructing law firm or to any other persons (even though they are regulated in the UK).

The monies have to be transferred to the Executors, into the bank account in the name of the Executors, and the Executors have to produce a notarised bank statement of that bank account to the Malaysian authorities. Once the Malaysian authorities have seen the notarised bank statement they will not actually transfer the monies to the Executors until they have spoken personally to the Executors.

This is just nonsense (perhaps caused by Malaysia being on the anti-money laundering black list) but that is what is required.