Dear Bahá'í Friend,
The Universal House of Justice received your letter of 12 November 1991 and has asked us to send you the following response.
The House of Justice was very pleased to see the degree to which you are helping those believers and Bahá'í institutions which are eager to adopt legal measures to follow the principles and laws of the Faith in relation to their estates and also to augment the income of the Bahá'í funds. Undoubtedly, once the law of Huququ'llah becomes universally applicable next Ridvan, you will receive many more questions on this subject. The House of Justice is glad to help you in these matters.
Your first two questions [1] which relate to the matters to be covered in a will as prescribed in the Kitab-i-Aqdas will be elucidated when the translation of the Most Holy Book is published. In general, the conclusions you have drawn are not incorrect, but it would be preferable not to go into them at the present time, and to confine your advice to the financial aspects of wills.
Question #3: It would seem from your description of the procedure, that a Revocable Living Trust constitutes a legal document which supplements the will. If this is so, there is no objection to its use as you outline it. The Bahá'í law leaves a believer free as to the distribution of his possessions at his death. If his will points to a document which makes clear what is to be done, that is entirely acceptable. Provisions as to the payment of debts and the balance of Huququ'llah due could also be in the Trust document.
Question #4: We do not know of any guidance on the subject of "living wills" beyond that published in Lights of Guidance.
Question #5: Since the answer to this question requires some detailed examples, the question was referred to an Ad Hoc Committee. Its memorandum on the subject is enclosed, and the House of Justice hopes that these comments will be helpful to you.
With loving Bahá'í greetings,
For Department of the Secretariat
(Baha’i Library Online)
[1] From the believer’s letter;
“To adorn its heading with the Most Great Name. I understand
this to mean that one's will should have the word "Allah'u'Abha" at
its beginning. Question 1: Is this correct?”
“To testify to the oneness of God as manifested in the Day-Spring of His revelation. I understand this to mean that in his will, a believer should express his devotion to Bahá'u'lláh as the Manifestation of God for this Day. Question 2: Is this correct?”
(Baha’i Library Online)
To: The Universal House of Justice
Date: 9 December 1991
From: Ad Hoc Committee
Re: Questions asked by Mr. xxxx in his letter of 12 November 1991
We have considered question #5 of Mr. xxxx's letter, which you referred to us, and have the following comments.
We feel that to understand the principle by which Huququ'llah becomes payable again on property when it changes hands, it is necessary to realize that Huququ'llah is payable on the accumulation of a believer's assets (other than the exempt ones) so that, by the end of his life, he will have paid 19% of his accumulated savings when they reached their highest point.
When a particular asset passes from one believer to another it is deducted from the first person's total assets, and added to the second owner's. In considering the outcome one must distinguish between an asset's becoming assessable to Huququ'llah when passing from one person to another and the consequent liability to actually pay Huququ'llah. In the illustration that Mr. xxxx gives, for example, neither Bahá'í has had an increase in the total of his-assessable possessions. One has reduced his assessable property by $81,000 in cash and increased it by $81,000 in real estate; the other vice versa. Thus, although the cash and real estate become assessable again on passing from one owner to another, neither believer would have to pay additional Huququ'llah as a result of the transaction.
In real life, however, such a transaction will be more complicated, because one s liability to pay Huququ'llah depends upon a number of factors which affect the value of the assets for Huquq purposes at the time of the transaction. We append a reconstruction of the transaction that Mr. xxxx instances, applied to two hypothetical individual believers.
From this example it can be seen that the seller of the real estate, who had bought it for $70.000 and now received $81,000 for it. made a profit of HU.11.80 (Huquq Units). Since he had a balance of HU.0.56 which had not yet been cleared, the total rose to HU.12.36, which meant that he was liable to pay the Huququ'llah on 12 units and this amounted to $1,861.42.
The purchaser of the real estate, on the other hand, used $81,000, which had been valued at HU.93.60 when brought into account, to acquire the land worth $81,000 currently valued at HU.99.21. He therefore increased the value of his assessable assets by HU.5.61. Adding to this the uncleared balance of HU.0.60, gave a total of HU.6.21, so he was due to pay the Huququ'llah on 6 units and this amounted to $930.71.
This example is, as we mentioned, purely hypothetical, and the values of the dollars entered for each year are not necessarily accurate. It is merely intended to demonstrate that it is not normally possible to calculate the Huququ'llah due on a single transaction without having other information about the financial status of the individuals concerned in relation to their liability to Huququ'llah.
In light of the above considerations it is suggested that it is unlikely to be possible to include in a will either a dollar amount to be paid in Huququ'llah or to provide a method of calculation. What a testator can do, however, is to instruct his executor in his will to pay whatever amount of Huququ'llah is outstanding at the date of his death, and to refer to an account book or list on which will be recorded an up-to-date description of which specific items of his property, which investments and which bank accounts have been cleared for Huququ'llah, what is the accumulated value of his property for Huquq purposes (in Huquq units), and what is the value in Huquq units of the property cleared. With that information in hand the executor would be able to compute the balance of Huququ'llah owing and would have authority to pay it.
(Baha’i Library Online)