Estate Planning

Has anyone in your family or social network had to suddenly pick up the affairs of a loved one? Have they tried to figure out how their banking works, how the bills are paid and where the investments are? What about someone losing some of their inheritance in a divorce or from a business failure?

These concerns can be addressed by our Estate Planning for Life service.

Review, record and plan

Our service comprises three things: 

• A review of your family situation to see if there is anything we can do to protect your children and their inheritances from things like divorce and bankruptcy;
• A record of important information that your family and advisers will need if something happens to you;
• A crisis management plan to guide the family through the financial complexity of the first few months after crisis.

Wealth preservation

Estate planning focuses on wealth preservation and wealth transfer so regardless of whether times are good or bad, your objective should still be to distribute your wealth to your nominated beneficiaries in the most effective way.

The first step is ensuring you have a current and valid will. Despite a will being a simple document to prepare, many people die without having made a will, or die leaving a will that is out of date and which does not accurately reflect their current circumstances.

A will determines, among other things:

• who will be in charge of the administration of the estate
• how the assets of the estate are to be distributed after death

More than a will

While a will is certainly important to your estate plan, it is not the only consideration. You should also think about:

• Powers of Attorney
• Medical directives
• Testamentary trusts
• Business succession planning
• Superannuation

Without sufficient planning, the trustee of your superannuation fund has discretion as to the treatment of any death benefits from your super. A binding death nomination ensures your wishes are fulfilled in the payment of benefits to your preferred beneficiaries.

Implications for SMSFs

As trustees and members, you effectively have ultimate control in the distribution of death benefits within your self managed super fund.

It is important you prepare a strategy for the payment of benefits to members’ chosen beneficiaries and incorporate the facilities to implement this strategy in your trust deed.

It will be necessary to make preparations for the wind-up of the fund in the event of the deaths of all trustees and members.

Find out more

It is never too early to start thinking about an estate plan. Contact Morgans Chatswood for more information on about our Estate Planning for Life service.

• Print this page
• Copy Link