Superannuation and Wills
I spoke to a new client the other day. He is unsure if he has a Will. If he were to pass away without a Will, his principal asset is about $700,000 in superannuation would be split between his spouse and 4 kids: For tax-effective Wills, see Michael Paterson & Associates.
Tax- Effective Wills
We received a reminder from the provider of our SMSF deeds the other day. If you nominate your legal personal representative to be the recipient of your superannuation proceeds, make sure that they are dealt with separately in your Will, especially if your will has discretionary testamentary trust provisions. For example, if you leave your […]
Enduring Power of Attorney
Enduring Powers of Attorney: We only ever allow our clients to execute the first type, because the other defeats the purpose of having an EPA, given that the same evidence is needed if you need to go to the SAT for an administration order if your loved one does not have an EPA. We have […]
Evil Step-Mother Takes Inheritance
A sad story this week. My client’s father died a month ago. My client understands that her father’s intention was that he would leave everything to his second wife, my client’s step-mother, including superannuation and the proceeds of a life insurance policy, but that the survivor would leave everything to his 3 children, 2 from […]
Transferring a Farm
We recently had a query about a mother who wishes to transfer a farm to her daughter. There are transfer duty exemptions for transfers of farming property to relations, including trusts of which relations are beneficiaries, as long as no one other than family members are the beneficiaries. The exemption is not available if the […]
Bequest of Houses
Another case was handed down involving the bequest of a house where the house had been sold prior to the testator’s death. Usually, the gift simply fails, because the testator is assumed to realise the implications, but in this case, the owner was legally incapacitated and an administrator had been appointed to manage his affairs. […]
SAT Applications for Disabled Children
We saw a new client whose 30 year old daughter has Downs syndrome. The daughter is not mentally capable of managing her own affairs, but has $220,000 in the bank from her disability pension and work that she does as a cleaner for the Police under an assisted placement programme. Her mother wants to buy […]
Estate Planning for 80 Year Olds
I met a very fit and healthy couple in their 80’s to discuss some estate planning. They showed me their current Wills, which they had prepared themselves. There were 2 major issues. They meant to leave everything to each other, and then the survivor was to make specific gifts, but the Wills were worded such […]
A Few Good Reasons for Having a Will
Today I had the pleasure of talking about the importance of having a Will on 89.7FM with the hosts of “In Good Company”, Lisa Evans and Louise Kelly – see HERE for their Facebook page. You can listen to the recording below:
Wills and Enduring Powers of Attorney
I provided some advice to a lady who is the enduring attorney for her mother. Her mother now has dementia. She wanted to change her mother’s Will because the 2 named executors are now deceased. Unfortunately there is no power under the EPA to alter the person’s Will and an application needs to be made to […]