The pandemic is behind us.  Do I still need to make a Will?

Why do i need a Will?

At the beginning of March 2020 when Australians were facing potential death in the hundreds of thousands, the thought may have crossed your mind, ‘perhaps I should make a Will.’  Now with the pandemic in the rear view mirror, you may be thinking – ‘Nope all good. I dodged that bullet. I don’t need to worry about a Will just yet.’  COVID-19 aside, we are all going to ‘The Good Place’ at some point, so stay focused!

Some people die with no Will, for example The Artist formerly known as Prince.  When the court ordered Prince’s estate to be distributed to his siblings, up to 700 people came forward to have their DNA tested on the off chance they were his long-lost brother or sister. Okay, our source is The Daily Mail, but you get our point – why should any of these strangers have an equal claim with Prince’s known and loved family?  Other people like Aretha Franklin die with multiple ‘Wills’.  In Aretha’s case, her formerly close family is in disarray and plenty of dirty laundry has been aired.  In both examples there have been years of litigation, disputes, claims and counter claims.  The estates have yet to be distributed and millions of dollars have been spent on lawyers and accountants.

We have chosen some rather extreme and high-profile examples to make our point, which is this, the negative effects of your failure to properly consider the needs of your family will be felt for generations and can be avoided.

Here are some of the excuses we hear for not putting in place an estate plan and our responses:

Wills are successfully challenged all the time so what is the point in making one?

Let’s suppose this is true (it isn’t, but let’s pretend).  In every jurisdiction in Australia, bar NSW, the assets vulnerable to a Will challenge are those assets that pass through your Will, i.e. assets owned in your own name.  Part of the job of your estate planning lawyer is to assess the risk of a successful challenge and suggest ways to reduce the value of the assets that are vulnerable.

Your lawyer can advise on the best way to own your assets so that they end up with the right people.  We may suggest you transfer assets to a trust, change the way you own your house, perhaps put bank accounts in joint names or make a binding death benefit nomination for your superannuation death benefits.  There are many things you can do to reduce the possibility of your estate going to the wrong people.

I trust my family “to do the right thing”.

The ‘right thing’ inevitably means different things to different people.  Just read Jane Austen’s ‘Sense and Sensibility’ (or watch the movie). Giving one family member the power to decide what another family member inherits just causes problems.  Surely, ‘iso’ has taught you that your children can fight over anything!  Further, you have now lost your opportunity to leave your family their inheritance in a tax efficient and protective way.

I don’t like lawyers

‘The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers!’ Shakespeare didn’t like members of the legal profession and neither did Aretha Franklin, hence her three handwritten Wills that are now being disputed (by lawyers).  You may be tempted to have a go yourself or even purchase a Will Kit.  Either way, inevitably you will get something wrong and it all ends up with the lawyers anyway.  Ring around, get recommendations, check out some websites and find a lawyer that speaks your language.  Finding a legal adviser you can trust is going to make life better.

There are too many decisions to make – I’ll do it later.

There are decisions that must be made in making your Will, sometimes hard decisions, but trust us, your hospital bed is not the place to be making them!

Blended families often struggle with the question of how to look after both your current spouse and your children from a previous relationship.  The solution needs to be considered early in the piece so you can maximise your options.  At least consider putting in place a workable solution rather than a perfect solution.

What about estranged family members or vulnerable family members?  How do you deal with them?  We’ve been doing this for a while now (over 20 years) and we have come up with plenty of useful and fair options for families that have some ‘skeletons’!  Don’t try and reinvent the wheel.  Most of the issues you have struggled with are not unique to your family and there are some good solutions available.

I’m too young to need a Will.

We wish this were true but bad things can happen to even young, single people.  Your death or incapacity is not the time when your grieving family should have to start doing a lot of paperwork or applying to court for the right to make decisions for an adult child who has suffered a devastating work or holiday injury.

Even with the simplest estates, you can make things easier for your families by having in place Wills, binding death benefit nominations, enduring powers of attorney and advance care directives. We have summarised some key reasons why age is just a number when it comes to putting in place a Will here.

How can we help?

We can help you with the decision-making process involved in the making of an estate plan and prepare the necessary documents on your behalf.  If you need more information about estate planning and the sorts of things you need to think about, we have a treasure trove of information on our website.  Call us on 1300 654 590, we will help you to understand what you need to do and guide you through the process.

The information contained in this post is current at the date of editing – 22 September 2023.

Our Great Lawyer Guarantee

We want to be part of your team over the long term. We'll achieve this by sticking closely to the following principles:

  • We'll listen carefully to understand what you want to achieve. Then we'll thoroughly explain our advice and step you through the documents. You can be sure you'll know the full consequences.
  • Our lawyers work as a team, so someone will always be available to answer your questions, or point you in the right direction. You will also benefit from a range of perspectives and experience.
  • One of our key goals is to pass on as much knowledge as we can, so you can make your own informed decisions. We want to make you truly independent.
  • We only do what we're good at. You can be confident that we know what we're doing and won't pass on the cost of our learning.
  • For advice and documents, we provide a fixed or capped quote so you don’t take price risk. If you're in a dispute, we'll map out the process and costs so you know what to expect.
  • We're not in this game for our egos. We're in it for a front row seat to witness your success.

We measure our success on how efficiently we have facilitated your objectives, enhanced your relationships, and reduced the level of stress for all involved.

If we sound like people you can work with, call us now on 1300 654 590 and speak directly with a great lawyer.

Have your founders assigned their IP to your enterprise?

Have your founders assigned their IP to your enterprise?

As the founder of an enterprise you must ensure that the legal entity you set up to exploit your business concept owns all of the IP associated with the concept. This includes the IP that is created directly on behalf of the company, but also any IP created by parties outside the company or in the time period before the company was formed.

read more
Private and Confidential

Private and Confidential

So you want send a message to someone, but you don’t want anyone else to read it, and you also don’t want the recipient to tell anyone else what you have said. Is writing ‘Private and Confidential’ on the correspondence, enough?

read more