Everyone knows what a Will is, and yet more than half of Australia’s population haven’t got one. In your Will, you can specify who receives your possessions when you die. You may want to leave gifts to your friends, family members, charities or other organisations. Having a valid Will in place can ensure that your wishes are carried out and avoid conflict among your loved ones once you’re gone.
| New Simple Will | $440, or $660 for couples |
| New Enduring Power of Attorney | $220 |
| New Binding Death Benefit Nominations (superannuation) | $165 |
| New letter of wishes | $165 |
| Other documents like stat decs, revocations etc. | starting from $220 |
OR, package up a simple Will and whatever other documents you may need for $660 for an individual or $990 for a couple.
Testamentary Discretionary Trust (“TDT”) Wills are more complex and depend on your circumstances, like whether you have self-managed superannuation, whether you own businesses and/or trusts and how complicated your family situation is. Generally a TDT Will starts from $2,500.
Our expert Estate Planning Lawyers will talk to you about your personal circumstances, your family, and what’s important to you to make sure that your wishes are carried out. We will put together a personalised plan that gives you the peace of mind knowing that your loved ones will be taken care of.
It is simply not true that Wills are just for the wealthy. We have all heard stories about someone who has died without a Will, leaving their family to try and figure out the Estate.
A Will makes it easier for your loved ones to close your bank accounts, deal with your Super, talk to the relevant government agencies. Without a Will, most of these institutions will instead ask for a copy of “letters of administration”. Letters of administration are issued by the Supreme Court and will cost your loved ones thousands.
The time and expense involved in obtaining letters of administration, compared with the simplicity of producing a signed Will, means that it is almost more important if you have a small estate to have a Will to avoid depleting your estate with the additional expense of obtaining letters of administration.
This is a tricky one, and a lawyer’s favourite answer is always “it depends”. For newly-separated families, sometimes the best option is a very simple Will to update the old one where you left everything to your spouse, to ensure that instead everything goes to your children. Often we will prepare one simple Will in the early stages of separation, then review it once the dust has settled and your financial future is more secure.
If you’ve been separated a while, and your children are all grown up, our conversation might be less about asset protection and more about how to maximise the benefits to your children.
If you have a blended family with all the glorious chaos that entails, then we can almost guarantee that a personalised plan and lots of advice will be your best approach.
When your estate plan is created by a lawyer, you get more than just a legal document.
Firstly, a lawyer will look at your overall circumstances and advise you on issues not covered in your Will, like superannuation nominations, joint property, and who would have power of attorney if you lost capacity. An online Will might be legal, but there’s no guarantee it is effective. To make sure that your Will takes into account your personal circumstances, you need legal advice.
Also, keep in mind the grounds for contesting a Will include the Will-maker’s capacity and whether they were pressured or influenced by another person to draft their Will a certain way.
A trained estate lawyer keeps detailed notes about these issues, which are retained for at least seven years. If there is a dispute about capacity or undue influence when you pass away, an online Will most likely provides you with no protection at all from these claims.
If you want to have peace of mind that your wishes will be carried out, and your loved ones provided for, one of our expert Estate Planning lawyers can assist you to create a specialised plan.
Chances are, if you’ve started reading about testamentary discretionary trust (“TDT”) Wills and have made it this far, you’re probably thinking about how to create and protect generational wealth. There are two main benefits to a TDT Will; first is asset protection, and the second is reducing income tax.
A “simple” Will creates a fixed interest in an estate, ie each of your two children receive 50%.
However, with a TDT Will, a Trust is created and all the assets are beneficially held by a Trustee appointed by you for the benefit of (usually) your spouse, children, grandchildren and so-on.
The Trust assets are not the property of any individual person and are generally protected if a family member becomes bankrupt. There is also some protection in the event a loved one gets divorced.
Each beneficiary of a TDT may also benefit, in many cases for multiple generations, from the income tax savings of a TDT. In particular, infant beneficiaries (under 18) would be treated as separate taxpayers in relation to the income earned from that Trust. Each of those infant beneficiaries would be entitled to the normal tax free threshold and would thereafter be assessable at the lowest income tax rate of 15c in the dollar. This benefit is only available in respect of Trusts arising from deceased estates.
TDT Wills however, are not for everyone. They can be expensive to set up and maintain, and may not always be appropriate in every situation.
For an in depth conversation about whether a TDT Will is right for you, book an obligation-free initial appointment with one of our lawyers today.
