Estate Planning Lawyers Penrith

Estate planning is essential to the short term and long term goals of your family. The process of estate planning will depend on the individual circumstances of your family.

Estate planning is the legal process of documenting and structuring matters relating to your assets, your Will, superannuation, your business, loans, wishes for dealing with a family trust or other trust, and perhaps putting a Power of Attorney in place.

There are many different factors that will affect what is most suitable for you, including the make up of your family (i.e. second marriages, de facto partners, step-children etc).

If your circumstances are fairly straight forward, it may be as simple as preparing a new Will and a Power of Attorney.

However if your assets and circumstances are more complex, sometimes your accountant, financial planner, banker and insurance consultants are involved to assist with their own area of expertise and give the best possible outcome.

Many people think they can leave all of their ‘family assets’ to their beneficiaries under the terms of their Will. This is not always the case, particularly with regard to superannuation, companies, jointly owned assets, trusts and life insurance policies, for example. It is also important to determine who has ultimate control over these assets.

It is crucial that you seek legal advice with relation to your assets so that appropriate arrangements can be made now, to ensure your intentions are fulfilled in the future.

There are certain rules that apply to superannuation entitlements and how they are dealt with after you die. There are different rules that govern who the beneficiaries of your superannuation will be, and types of beneficiary nominations you make. These rules dictate who will receive your superannuation entitlements. Most people are surprised to learn that unless they have made a ‘binding nomination’, their superannuation is distributed at the discretion of the trustee of the superannuation fund in accordance with the trust deed.

You may run or be involved in a business for which you have particular intentions to take effect in the future either during your lifetime, in retirement or after your death. To action your intentions, it may be necessary to transfer ownership or restructure the ownership of assets, including shares in companies, any trusts, or other business assets. One pertinent feature of your business arrangements should be to achieve the highest possible protection of your assets.

We can offer advice on the issues relating to the legal aspects of your future business arrangements.