What is Estate Planning?
Estate planning encompasses putting in place plans should your health deteriorate, you become incapacitated or incapable of looking after your own affairs and also includes putting in place how your assets will be preserved, managed or distributed in the event of your death.
In its simplest form, estate planning involves drafting and executing a Will, an Enduring Power of Attorney and, possibly, an Advance Health Directive.
There are complexities to putting in place all three of these documents. There are many things to be properly considered and with a Will by way of example, the more assets there are, the more complicated the Will is in dealing with those assets. In preparing to make a Will you will need to consider:
- Who you will select as the executors of your estate, the people you trust to oversee your wishes,
- What you wish to occur to each and every asset you own and who will receive what,
- Consideration of any potential tax consequences for the beneficiaries and minimising any tax payable,
- Whether the beneficiaries are under 18 and at what age the beneficiaries will receive any asset, whether there needs to be a trust established for the beneficiaries,
- If you have children who are minors, who will be the guardians of the children,
- Your funeral arrangements e.g. burial or cremation and any details around that,
- Whether a trust needs to be established for any of the beneficiaries.
and this is just to name a few of the more basic issues you need to consider for a Will.
For an Enduring Power of Attorney, you will need to consider carefully who will be your attorney. They can act on your behalf immediately upon your incapacitation or at a specific time or date as nominated by you. Your attorney can also act on your behalf for both financial and health matters or just either of these. You can have different attorneys for health and finances.
Fill in the form to book a free initial consultation to draft your Estate Planning documents.
