A Practice Built on
Attention and Patience

Pusaka Counsel was established in Kuala Lumpur to address a particular gap in legal services: clients navigating inheritance matters — wills, probate, trusts — often found themselves treated as transactions rather than as families with specific circumstances and real concerns about what happens to what they have built.

The practice takes its name from the Malay word for inheritance, pusaka, a word that carries weight beyond the legal definition. It refers to what is passed down — not only property and accounts, but the arrangements a person makes to reflect what they value and who they wish to provide for. This is the work Pusaka Counsel does.

Over eighteen years of practice, the firm has developed a careful approach to estate planning for Malaysian families whose circumstances are often more complex than a standard engagement covers — multiple beneficiaries, assets held in different jurisdictions, or a wish to put multi-generational trust arrangements in place during the client's lifetime.

We work from a single office in Menara Maxis, Jalan Ampang, by appointment. Clients are not seen in batches or hurried through consultations. Each matter is given the reading time it requires, drafts are reviewed in stages, and revisions are accommodated patiently before any signing is scheduled.

Our mission is straightforward: to prepare legal arrangements that reflect what the client actually intends, drafted with enough precision to hold up when they are needed, and explained clearly enough that clients understand what they have put in place.

Malaysian estate law draws from multiple legal traditions — the civil law framework governing probate and administration under the Probate and Administration Act 1959, the specific provisions applicable under Islamic family law for Muslim clients navigating faraid inheritance, and the trust law principles derived from English equity. Navigating these overlapping frameworks requires legal counsel familiar with each.

Pusaka Counsel works with clients from diverse backgrounds and faiths. For Muslim clients, the interaction between wasiat (bequest) and hibah (gift) alongside estate planning instruments requires careful consideration — a will alone may not achieve what the client intends without accompanying trust or hibah arrangements. We discuss these interactions in plain terms so clients can make informed decisions.

For estates that include property or financial assets held abroad — in Singapore, Australia, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, or elsewhere — additional legal steps are required in each jurisdiction. We maintain working relationships with law firms in these territories and coordinate on behalf of executors who would otherwise need to navigate multiple foreign legal systems independently.

Private trust arrangements, including those established under the Trustee Act 1949 and related legislation, provide an effective way to provide for family members in circumstances that a will cannot address — minor children who will reach majority at different times, a family member who requires ongoing care, or a wish to provide assets to grandchildren in a structured way. Trust deeds prepared by Pusaka Counsel are written to the family's specific situation, not adapted from standard forms.