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Four pillars, one plan.
Estate planning is more than just making a will. It's about creating a coordinated structure that protects you during life and provides for your family after.
Many people address estate planning piecemeal. They make a will when they buy a house, set up a trust when an accountant suggests it, and think about powers of attorney when a parent's health declines.
This approach creates gaps. Instruments created at different times by different advisers may not coordinate properly. Comprehensive estate planning takes a whole-of-life view, considering your situation now, anticipating changes, and creating structures that work together.
The four pillars of estate planning.
Most comprehensive estate plans include four core elements. Not everyone needs all four, but understanding each helps you see what might be relevant to your situation.
Your Will
Directs distribution of your personal assets after death. Names executors, specifies beneficiaries, appoints guardians for minor children.
EPAs
Protect you during your lifetime. If you lose mental capacity, your chosen attorneys can make decisions on your behalf.
Trusts
Not everyone needs a trust. They protect assets, manage wealth for vulnerable beneficiaries, and facilitate business succession.
Beneficiary Designations
Some assets pass outside your will through nominated beneficiaries. KiwiSaver, life insurance, and superannuation schemes.
Why integration matters.
The real value of comprehensive planning is seeing how these instruments interact. Each document affects the others.
Will and trust coordination
If you have a trust, your will should work with it, not against it. Your will can appoint replacement trustees, provide for assets not held in trust, and ensure your wishes for trust property are clearly expressed.
EPA and trust interaction
If you lose capacity, who makes decisions about trust property? Your Property EPA attorney may not have authority over trust decisions. Trust deeds should address what happens to your role as trustee.
Consistent decision-makers
The people you name in different instruments should work together coherently. Your executor, attorney, and trustees may be the same or different people, but the relationships should make sense.
Family understanding
When planning is done comprehensively, your family understands the overall picture. They know where to find documents, who to contact, and what your wishes are. This reduces confusion at difficult times.
When to review.
Estate plans should be reviewed when significant life events occur, or every three to five years regardless.
Trust review is critical
The trustee tax rate increased to 39% from April 2024. The Trusts Act 2019 imposes new compliance obligations. Many trusts established for tax benefits or rest home planning may no longer serve their original purpose.
Not everyone needs everything.
Comprehensive planning doesn't mean maximum planning. The starting point is understanding your situation: your family structure, your assets, your concerns, and your goals. From there, the appropriate instruments become clear.
For straightforward estates with no complex protection needs
For asset protection, business owners, or vulnerable beneficiaries
For intergenerational wealth, complex assets, or business succession
Related Services
Learn more about each element of estate planning.
Related Guide
Start with your will - follow our step-by-step guide to the process.
Read the Creating Your Will GuideRelated Reading
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Trusts have changed. Tax rates increased. Asset protection is harder. Here's how to evaluate whether a trust still makes sense.
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Certain life changes should prompt you to review your will. Marriage revokes your will automatically. Other events may mean your existing will no longer reflects your wishes.