BEIJING (CHINA DAILY/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - More young people in China have been preparing wills, and they are including a number of digital assets that previous generations would not have considered.
According to a white paper released recently by the China Will Registration Centre, more than 1,200 people born in the 1990s have registered wills with the centre, with 553 doing so last year, 80 per cent more than in 2020.
More than 220 people born this century, the oldest of whom would only be in their early 20s, have also registered wills at the centre.
Most of the assets set out in young people's wills are bank deposits, Alipay and WeChat Pay balances as well as accounts for virtual or online games.
The centre said 71.6 per cent of those born in the 1990s included real estate in their wills, but many of the properties were purchased by parents under their children's names.
For those born in the 1980s, their main assets were also real estate and bank savings, however, 13.1 per cent of their wills involved company equity and 14.1 per cent involved securities funds.
Mr Chen Kai, director of the centre's management committee, said those born in the 1980s are faced with ageing parents and young children with multifaceted interests, pushing them to think about making wills early.
The paper said there are many reasons for young people to make a will. The survey found that many young people believe accidents can happen at any time and it would be a shame to leave this world without input about what happens to their possessions.
According to the centre, a 17-year-old made a will early last year. He told the centre's workers that he had helped a hospital in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic and witnessed a number of critically ill patients. That experience made him realise the future is unpredictable and he wanted to leave all his savings to his mother.
Mr Chen said such cases show that people are deciding to make a will at a younger age and people's ideas about making a will are also changing. A different attitude towards life and death also shows that people are becoming more rational when they review their past and plan their future in the process of making a will.