Expertise - Batreman Battersby

While it’s legally possible to prepare your own Will, mistakes can be costly and may invalidate your Will entirely. Professional Will preparation ensures your document meets all legal requirements, clearly expresses your wishes, and minimises the risk of disputes. The cost of professional preparation is minimal compared to the potential problems of a DIY Will.

Your Will should be reviewed whenever you experience major life changes such as marriage, divorce, births, deaths, significant asset changes, or moving states. We recommend reviewing your Will every 3-5 years to ensure it remains current with your circumstances and any changes in the law.

Clear, comprehensive estate planning significantly reduces the risk of family disputes after your death. We draft Wills that minimise ambiguity and ensure fair provision, helping preserve family relationships. Learn about Will disputes we help resolve.

Simple Wills can typically be prepared within 1-2 weeks from our initial meeting. More complex estate planning involving trusts or business succession may take 3-4 weeks. We’ll provide you with a realistic timeline based on your specific requirements during your consultation.

We believe in transparent pricing with no surprises. During your initial consultation, we’ll provide a clear cost estimate based on your specific situation. Many of our services offer fixed-fee options for straightforward Wills, while complex estate planning is billed at competitive hourly rates. We always explain costs upfront before you commit.

If you die without a Will (intestate) in NSW, your assets are distributed according to a predetermined formula set by law. This may not reflect your actual wishes and can create complications for your family. The court appoints an administrator to manage your estate, which can be time-consuming and expensive.

A Will is one component of comprehensive estate planning. While a Will directs how your assets are distributed after death, estate planning includes strategies for incapacity, tax minimisation, asset protection, and succession planning. We help you understand what level of planning is right for your situation.

When you retire your regular pay cheque stops but the bills do not. You will require at least enough income to pay for some of the following:

• Food
• Clothing
• Rent
• Rates
• Household repairs and maintenance
• Telephone
• Gas and electricity
• Car Registration, insurance, repairs, maintenance, and fuel
• Medical insurance
• Household insurance
• Income tax

There are a number of options. You could consider continuing to live in your present home while you are able to manage it, or downsize to a smaller home, for instance a unit, live in rented accommodation or move into a retirement village. Other possibilities include granny flats (or dual occupancy) where a self-contained dwelling is added to an existing house or an existing house is converted into two dwellings.

If you have funds to cover entry charges and ongoing expenses, a retirement village may provide the environment and support that you may need.

Bateman Battersby can help by explaining the implications of the various options and by advising you on the sale and purchase of property, as well as carrying out any legal work involved in your change of residence. For instance, some retirement villages have complicated contracts and agreements and you may need legal assistance to understand them as well as your rights and obligations as a resident. These agreements are not standardised and tend to be lengthy and reasonably complex. The type of agreement varies according to whether you are entering a retirement village, hostel, or nursing home.

These agreements cover a range of topics such as: – purchase price or other amounts payable by residents, the repayment of money on termination, vacation or death; the proportion or amount retained by the operator (usually based on the length of residency); whether the operator or the residents estate has carriage of the re-sale; whether any increase in value (or a proportion of such increase) accrues to the benefit of the resident (or the resident’s estate).

Many facilities offer different levels of accommodation for example; self-care, hostel and nursing homes. Many residents are able to transfer to a hostel or nursing home if their health requires it but the authorities can give no guarantees that these different levels of accommodation will be available.

Taking up residence frequently requires the sale of the resident’s home. Arrangements can usually be made for residents to move in with provision for payment of the “purchase price” within a period of time sufficient to enable the sale of the home to be completed.

Depending on the type of accommodation involved and the assets of the resident, there may be Centrelink or health benefits or implications concerning the length of the vacancy of the home prior to sale or the levels of Commonwealth health benefits payable for hostel or nursing home accommodation.

There are two types of Power of Attorney:

*‘General’ Power of Attorney*

This Power of Attorney can start at any time you choose, but will terminate if you lose mental capacity. Therefore this type of Power of Attorney is most suited to a short term appointment, for example if you are going overseas.

*‘Enduring’ Power of Attorney*

This Power of Attorney continues to operate even after you lose mental capacity. Because you will have lost control over your decision making ability by this stage, the Enduring Power of Attorney allows your attorney to keep making decisions for you. The requirements for making an Enduring Power of Attorney differ from those for a General Power of Attorney. We can advise you about these differences.

Your attorney must, by law, act in your best interests when it comes to dealing with your financial affairs. The attorney is not allowed to use your money to benefit themselves or anyone else unless you have specifically stated this in the Power of Attorney document.

The attorney must also keep your money and property separate from their own. Your attorney must also keep proper accounts and records of how they have handled your money and assets.

Unless the Power of Attorney document provides otherwise, your attorney cannot pay themselves from your money for their work in being an attorney. But an attorney can normally be compensated for out of pocket expenses arising directly from being an attorney.

If an attorney does not carry out their duties properly, then the attorney may be liable to pay compensation to you.

Unfortunately, we see many situations where people come to us after experiencing medical conditions such as a stroke or dementia where they have lost the mental capacity to appoint a Power of Attorney. At this stage it is too late to appoint a Power of Attorney.

Where a person has lost mental capacity, it is up to their family members or other people close to them to make an application to the Guardianship Tribunal. The Guardianship Tribunal can appoint a person (called a “Financial Manager”) to do the job that a friend or family member would have otherwise done under a Power of Attorney.

This process can be time consuming, burdensome and expensive. Furthermore, the Guardianship Tribunal may appoint a government body to act as your Financial Manager (which can be expensive), or a seemingly unsuitable family member. The Guardianship Tribunal will supervise the actions of the Financial Manager and will need to consent to certain decisions.

Not having a Power of Attorney is also a problem if family members require immediate access to your bank accounts in order to pay for any medical treatment you need, your everyday living expenses, or if a property needs to be sold urgently.

You can prepare for this possibility and prevent complications for your family by making a Power of Attorney while you are able to do so.