Estate Planning and Wills

Excellent estate planning is a critical part of protecting your interests, and those of the people you love. It eliminates ambiguity, and provides a clear roadmap for what should happen when you die. It can also provide flexibility to meet unexpected contingencies.  This provides family members, who are otherwise left to manage complex legal issues during an emotionally distressing time, with the support and certainty they need to avoid the confusion and conflict that often surrounds matters of inheritance. 

Experts in this area

Expert legal support is an invaluable resource when you write your will, set up and manage a Family Trust, create powers of attorney, and when you die. Our team of experienced partners, solicitors and legal executives will expertly manage all your estate planning requirements, including:

• Structuring your assets for protection
• Forming and managing trusts
• Gifting and settlement on to trusts
• Distributions from trusts
• Trustees buying and selling assets (including real estate)
• Wills
• Powers of attorney
• Estate Administration

Writing a will

A well-written, up-to-date will and properly structured assets will allow you to ensure that your estate is managed in the manner you intend. In the absence of a will, the law determines where your assets go when you pass on. Contrary to common perception, your partner will not necessarily receive your entire estate if you die without a will.  Unfortunately, while the default rules that apply if you leave no will are designed to be fair, they may not do justice to the wishes of the deceased perfectly. Peoples’ lives and relationships are increasingly complex, and modern wills tend to reflect that. 

Wills allow you to protect your interests, and those of your family broadly, going beyond the distribution of your assets. For example, a will can be used to ensure that those who depend on you – pets or children – are cared for by the people, and in the manner of your choosing. Often, a will is used to appoint a new trustee of a family trust to replace the deceased.

Trusts

Setting up a trust is a great way to organise assets in a way that they can provide for a beneficiary who lacks the skills or capacity to do so on their own. This is an ideal choice for those leaving behind minor children, or an elderly spouse who can no longer manage their own finances. This allows you to, for example, ensure that beneficiaries retain the use of the family home, or that children are provided for financially with a stipend issued by the trust. Moreover, you can use trusts to ensure that assets specifically benefit named beneficiaries, not others who might otherwise have a claim on their assets, such as current or former partners. Family Trusts allow a degree of flexibility in the time and manner of asset distribution that most wills do not; this can help beneficiaries significantly.

Estate Administration

On the death of you or your loved one, we will work with you and/or your family to ensure that the deceased’s estate is administered in accordance with the deceased’s wishes, benefitting and protecting the people they love.

If you’d like to learn more about how we can help you set up your estate plan get in touch today by calling 06 835 7394 or contact us online.