Will & Estates

Considering a Legal Will Kit?

18 October 2010

There is a general understanding on the part of most people that they need to have a will. Many consider that a ‘will kit’ is adequate for the job. Sometimes it is, but, compared to a properly drawn will, it may lead to the loss of the substantial monetary and familial benefits.

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Sanity, Wills, and Marriage

11 June 2010

A will-maker is presumed to be sane, and to have sufficient mental capacity to make a will, unless the contrary is proved. A lack of mental capacity may derive from a congenital intellectual difficulty, trauma affecting the brain, or cognitive processes and disease, including those more commonly occurring with old age.

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Divorce and Estate Planning

15 March 2010

The effects of family breakdown extend beyond the personal to the economic, including intergenerational wealth transfers such as those created by wills.

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What Assets Can You Leave by Your Will?

10 December 2009

The first step in deciding how and to whom you wish to leave your assets is to identify what your ‘assets’ are. Broadly speaking, they can be divided into ‘estate assets’ and ‘non-estate assets’. Only the former can be left by your will.

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Reducing the Risks of a Challenge to Your Will

13 November 2009

When drafting a will it must be borne in mind that the members of the will-maker’s family will not always agree with the intentions of the will-maker as expressed in the will and that an Inheritance (Family Provision) Act (IFPA) claim may sometimes result.

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Protecting At-Risk Beneficiaries with Self-Managed Superannuation Funds (SMSFs)

16 October 2009

Sometimes a gift in a Will fails to provide the intended benefit. The possibility of this happening needs to be considered when the will is being drafted. Those beneficiaries most likely to lose or not benefit from an inheritance are known as ‘at-risk beneficiaries’.

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Asset Protection and the Family Court

14 August 2009

The Family Court possesses extensive powers to deal with the property and financial resources of parties to a marriage. The recent case of Kennon v Spry, decided by the High Court earlier this year, shows just how extensive.

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What Is Estate Planning?

11 June 2009

Your estate plan is a series of documents in the nature of, or relating to, wills, trusts, powers of appointment, property ownership, gift, insurance, superannuation, and powers of attorney designed to increase the value of your estate, protect it from creditors, marital breakdown, illness, and profligacy, to benefit from tax planning opportunities, and to benefit future generations of your family in terms of wealth and the avoidance of wasteful disputes over your assets once you die.

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Your Will Be Done

21 May 2009

Utopia: where a simple budget-priced will produces its desired results. To sleep, perchance to dream? I suppose that once you are dead, what does it matter how your hard earned is split up?

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An Introduction to Wills

14 April 2009

First, a definition: a will is a document by which the will-maker directs the manner in which his or her property shall be dealt with upon and after his or her death. There are a number of formalities that are required in order for a document to be a valid will.

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