Wills & estate planning

WILLS

Your ‘estate’ refers to all of your assets/property (e.g., belongings, physical and intangible assets, land, real estate and investments).

A Will is a legal document which sets out the way in which you would like your estate to be divided and who you would like to put in charge of ensuring that your estate is divided in accordance with your wishes.

A badly written Will often leads to delays and disputes. Using a lawyer rather than writing your own Will, can avoid costly mistakes.

What else can you include in your will?

• Specific gifts to family/friends (e.g. personal items, sums of money, etc)

• Specific gifts to charitable organisations

• Appointments of guardians (i.e., to look after your minor children in the event that you pass away before they reach the age of eighteen)

• Exclusion clauses (i.e., to exclude certain eligible people from inheriting under your estate)

“Having a valid Will provides you with the best chance of making sure that your assets go where you want them to go. Without a valid Will, it will ultimately fall on the State to decide on how to divide your estate.”

Enduring Power of attorney

An EPA is a legal document that allows you (the ‘donor’) to appoint a trusted person (the ‘donee’ or ‘attorney’) to make financial and property decisions on your behalf during your lifetime in the event that you have lost legal capacity or are physically unable to manage your finances. More than one attorney can be appointed. Substitute attorneys can also be included in your EPA.

Sometimes people lose legal capacity for a variety of reasons – such as dementia, stroke, coma, Alzheimer's, mental illness, trauma, or acquired brain injury.

Unlike a Will, which only operates after your death, an EPA is effective during your lifetime and enables you to contemplate the management of your financial affairs in anticipation of you experiencing a sudden deterioration of physical and/or mental health

If you own real estate, we recommend you consider registering your EPA with Landgate so that if transactions relating to your real estate need to be made in the future by your attorney, their authority to do so will be recognised.

Enduring power of guardianship

An EPG is similar to an EPA in that it also operates during your lifetime and is used in anticipation of you experiencing a sudden deterioration of physical and/or mental health.

However, unlike an EPA, it only authorises a person of your choice (the ‘guardian’) to make important personal, lifestyle, and medical/treatment decisions on your behalf when you are unable to do so (rather than financial or property decisions).

More than one guardian can be appointed. Substitute guardians can also be appointed.

What are the benefits of having an EPG?

EPGs are particularly useful because it is not always possible in an Advance Health Directive (‘AHD’) to anticipate every scenario that might happen to you.

Accordingly, having someone who can speak on your behalf is another way of ensuring that your wishes are met when you are unable to communicate.

Your guardian should be someone who is aware of your personal values, beliefs and lifestyle preferences (including religious/spiritual/cultural practices).