Estate Planning

To ensure that your estate (including superannuation assets) will be distributed in accordance with their wishes, it is important to seek professional legal advice.

Unfortunately over 40% of Australians do not have a valid Will at the time death and this causes additional strain on family and loved ones.

As a part of our comprehensive financial planning process, we can assist your to identify their estate issues and recommend a number of leading specialists in estate planning. We also recommend investors review their Power of Attorney at the same time.

In considering estate planning matters it is worth taking into consideration the following points:

What is a Will?

A Will is a document that allows you to choose who should benefit from your estate. It is important to ensure that the Will is correctly drafted and it should take into account any relevant estate planning strategies. Therefore, it is best to obtain help from a solicitor or similarly qualified people.

Most assets can be included in your Will; however, there are a number of important exceptions. These include assets that are held as joint tenants, life insurance policies, superannuation benefits and assets of a discretionary trust. Appropriate measures needs to be put in place to ensure these non-estate assets are dealt with.

What if you don't have a Will?

If you die without a Will you are said to have died 'intestate'. When this happens, you have left no lawful instructions as to how you wish your estate to be distributed. Laws in each State and Territory in Australia operate to determine who will inherit assets of the estate. The general rule is that the estate will pass to the next of kin of the deceased such as your spouse and/or children.

What is a Power of Attorney?

A power of attorney is a legal document appointing a person or organisation to act on your behalf. By appointing an attorney, you are giving authority for the attorney to make decisions for you, sign documents and generally act in your best interests. For example your attorney could buy and sell shares for you, manage your finances and pay your bills.

What is Enduring Guardianship?

Where the enduring power of attorney allows someone to make financial decisions for you, an enduring guardian is allowed to make personal and lifestyle decisions for you. You can nominate what 'functions' your guardian can make for you in the document.

One thing you may consider is to have a "back up" executor, attorney and guardian nominated (in each document as appropriate) to cover the event of your nominated person being unable to act for any reason.

What is a Testamentary Trust?

Another powerful estate planning tool is a testamentary trust. A testamentary trust can best be thought of as a trust that you create to look after some or all of your estate after your death.

The testamentary trust is established by your will. If correctly written it can reduce the amount of tax that your beneficiaries will pay on income earned from the estate. In particular, it will reduce the impact of the penalty tax that children under the age of 18 pay on unearned income.

It can also protect beneficiaries from the possible loss of inherited assets through divorce or bankruptcy.