Wills and Estates Newsletter – April 2017
Published on March 31, 2017 by Hanaan Indari and Josephine Heesh
INTRODUCTION
In this edition our team recap the topics presented at our Wills and Estates Seminar held at Mittagong RSL on Tuesday, 28 February 2017.
The Carroll & O’Dea Wills and Estates Team
Why you need a Will and what to do if your Will needs changing
After years of working hard and accumulating wealth, it is surprising how many Australians don’t have a Will or don’t have an up-to-date Will. Whilst there is no legal obligation to have a Will, the key benefits of having a Will include:
- your estate passing to those people who you wish to benefit;
- the ability to stipulate the age beneficiaries must attain in order to take their inheritance;
- the ability to select who to appoint as executor and trustee; and
- the ability to appoint guardians to care for your minor children.
If you die without a Will, the laws of intestacy (in NSW, these are contained in the Succession Act 2006) will determine how your estate will be distributed. These laws may result in your estate passing to people who you don’t wish to benefit instead of to those who you do.
Josephine Heesh, Partner
Michael Crowe, Associate
Why you should appoint an Enduring Power of Attorney and Enduring Guardian?
What is an Enduring Power of Attorney?
An Enduring Power of Attorney (POA) allows you to appoint a person to manage your legal and financial affairs, even if you lose capacity.
What is an Appointment of Enduring Guardian?
An Appointment of Enduring Guardian (AEG) allows you to appoint a person to make lifestyle, health and medical decisions on your behalf, if and when you are not capable of doing so for yourself.
Josephine Heesh, Partner
Lara Piercy, Associate
What happens when it all goes wrong? Estate law disputes – what you need to know
A claim under the Succession Act 2006 may arise if someone believes you have not provided a sufficient share of your estate to them in your Will, or you have left them nothing at all.
Who can make a claim?
To make a claim, the Court must be satisfied that the applicant falls within the category of ‘eligible persons’. These include:
- the husband or wife of the deceased;
- a child of the deceased;
- a de facto spouse with whom the deceased was living at the time of death;
- a former spouse of the deceased;
- a grandchild of the deceased who was wholly or partly dependent upon the deceased at some time during the lifetime of the deceased person;
- any other person who was wholly or partly dependent upon the deceased at some time during the lifetime of the deceased person and was a member of the deceased’s household; and
- any person with whom the deceased was living in a close personal relationship at the time of death.
Hanaan Indari, Partner
