Does an old will or insurance policy written in favour of a minor change now that majority begins at eighteen?

The problem this clause was written for

Countless instruments say minor without saying an age, because when they were drawn the word carried a settled meaning: under twenty-one. Then Unless otherwise provided, majority commences at the age of eighteen years. Left alone, that would have quietly rewritten every one of those documents, cutting three years off a benefit that a testator, donor or policyholder had deliberately conferred. Nobody would have decided to reduce it; the reduction would simply have happened by operation of a definition changing underneath the text.

A shield, not a sword

Upon the effectivity of this Act, existing wills, bequests, donations, grants, insurance policies and similar instruments containing references and provisions favorable to minors will not retroact to their prejudice. The protection runs one way. It prevents the change of age from taking something away, and it says nothing about conferring anything new. So a beneficiary cannot invoke it to claim that a benefit expressed to end at majority now runs longer than the instrument ever intended; the clause preserves the position, it does not improve it.

Which documents it covers

The list is broad — wills, bequests, donations, grants and insurance policies — and it closes with similar instruments, so comparable arrangements conferring a benefit on someone described as a minor fall within the same idea. The load-bearing word is existing. The clause speaks to instruments already in place when the Act took effect. Anything drawn afterwards is written against the current law, and a document executed today that says minor means under eighteen, because that is what the word now means.

Read the instrument before reading the statute

In practice most disputes here dissolve on the face of the document. Many wills, trust arrangements and policies state an age outright — until he attains the age of twenty-one, or upon reaching twenty-five — and where an age is specified, the drafter's own definition governs and this clause never has to be reached. It matters only where the document relies on the bare word minor. So the first step is to find the operative clause and see whether it names a number, and the second is to check when the instrument was executed.

Related provisions

• RA 6809, Section 1 — Majority At Eighteen
• RA 6809, Section 3 — Effect Of Emancipation
• RA 6809, Section 4 — Existing Instruments Protected