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Estate planning and Wills

We build the plan that gets what you have built to the people you meant it for.

You know you need to sort this out, and every time you sit down to start you find a reason not to. That is normal, and it is not really about paperwork. It is about picturing a day you would rather not picture. Meanwhile your affairs get one year more complicated each year you leave it, and the parts that matter most (the trust, the business, your super) are the parts a basic will does not reach at all. The cost of leaving it lands on the people you were trying to look after, in money, in delay, and sometimes in an argument that outlives you.

Speak to a lawyer What is included

The whole estate, not just part of it

The trust, the super and the business are dealt with alongside the will, rather than discovered afterwards to have gone somewhere else.

No formula deciding for you

Your estate passes under your plan instead of under intestacy rules written for a family that is not yours.

Something you can leave alone

You finish knowing what the plan does and what to come back about, so it stays current instead of quietly going stale.

What does an estate plan cover that a Will does not?

A will directs the assets you own personally. An estate plan deals with everything else as well: who administers the estate, how trusts, business interests, superannuation and life insurance each pass on death, and what happens if a beneficiary dies before you do. Several of those sit outside your will entirely and are governed by their own rules, which is why a will on its own often moves a much smaller share of an estate than people assume.

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What does an estate plan include beyond a Will?

It covers how each kind of asset passes. Trust assets, superannuation death benefits, jointly held property and life insurance are none of them necessarily controlled by a will. It also sets your executor and considers a testamentary trust where a beneficiary needs protection. It deals with business interests and co-owners, and covers incapacity through enduring powers of attorney and guardianship.

What happens if I die without a Will?

Your estate is distributed under the intestacy rules of your state, which are a fixed formula setting who inherits and in what shares. They take no account of your relationships or your intentions, and in a blended family the result is often not what anyone expected.

Does my superannuation pass under my Will?

Not automatically. Superannuation is held by the fund trustee and passes according to the fund’s rules and any death benefit nomination you have made. Without a valid binding nomination the trustee decides, and many nominations lapse after a set period without anyone noticing.

How often should I review my estate plan?

Whenever something structural changes: a marriage or separation, a birth or death, selling or buying a business, or a significant change in what you own. Marriage and divorce can affect a will directly, which catches people out.

Not sure your will covers what you think it does?

We build estate plans for people whose assets sit across trusts, companies and superannuation, so every part of the estate is accounted for rather than just the part a will can reach.

The document is easy. Picturing the day is the hard part

You know you need something in place, you are not sure where to start, and you would honestly rather think about anything else. So it waits. The difficulty is that your estate does not wait with it: assets change hands, the trust grows, the business gets bigger, and the gap between what you own and what your will actually controls widens quietly the whole time.

We will map your assets and tell you which ones your will actually controls.
We will advise on your will structure, your executor and your beneficiaries.
We will coordinate your trust, business interests and superannuation with the will.
We will prepare your will and the supporting estate planning documents.
We will tell you what to review when your circumstances change.

Is this your situation?

You have done well, and what you own is no longer simple. There is a family trust, an interest in a business, superannuation, some life insurance, and a mix of assets held jointly and in your own name. You have a rough idea of who you want to benefit, and no real sense of how the pieces connect. You suspect that if something happened tomorrow, some of what you built would not land where you intend. You have not found the time, or the motivation, to work through it properly, and the longer it sits the more uncomfortable the thought becomes.

What's included in your estate planning service

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Asset and structure review, including what passes outside the will.
Will preparation.
Executor, beneficiary and testamentary trust advice.
Trust deed and business interest coordination.
Superannuation death benefit nomination advice.

What the law decides if you do not

Dying without a plan does not mean your assets go where you would have wanted. It means they go where a formula says. If there is no valid will, the intestacy rules of your state set who inherits and in what shares, built around a generic family and blind to yours.

The bigger problem is usually the assets a will was never going to reach. A family trust does not pass under a will at all. Superannuation does not either, unless a binding nomination says so, and those lapse. A business interest with no succession arrangement can freeze at the moment your co-owners most need it to move. You can have a perfectly drafted will and still watch most of the estate travel by a different route to a different person.

How we build your plan

We start with the whole picture: what you own, how each asset is held, and what happens to each one on your death if nobody intervenes. That last question is the one that surfaces the gaps, and it is usually the trust, the super and the business.

From there we settle the structure. Who should be executor, whether a testamentary trust earns its place for any beneficiary, how the binding nomination and the trust deed need to line up with the will so they point the same way. Then we draft it, and we walk you through what you are signing rather than handing you a folder. You finish knowing what your plan does, and what to come back to us about when something changes.

Three steps to a plan that holds

From what you own now to documents that do what you intend.

See the whole picture

We map your assets, how each is held, and what happens to each on your death if nobody intervenes.

Settle the structure

We decide the will structure, the executor, any testamentary trust, and how your trust and superannuation line up with it.

Draft and explain it

We prepare the documents and take you through what you are signing, including what to review when things change.

Estate lawyers who work on structures, not just documents

Not wanting to dwell on your own death is not procrastination, it is human, and it is exactly why people with complicated affairs leave this undone the longest. The relief when it is finished is real, and it is less about the documents than about not carrying the question around any more.

We do this work for people whose assets sit across trusts, companies and super rather than in a single name. Two of our lawyers are full members of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners, and the firm is ISO 9001 accredited, so what gets checked on your plan and who checks it is set down rather than left to the day. We will tell you plainly which of your assets your will controls and which it does not.

Our great lawyer guarantee

Six principles we hold to, whatever you bring us and however long it takes.

Take the time

We listen carefully to understand what you want to achieve, then step you through the advice and the documents.

Share our knowledge

We pass on as much as we can, so you can make your own informed decisions.

Stick to our knitting

We only do what we are good at, so you never pay for our learning.

Work as one team

Someone is always available to answer your question or point you the right way.

Fair pricing

A fixed or capped quote for advice and documents, so you do not carry the price risk.

It is your show

We are in it for a front row seat to witness your success, not for our egos.

Been meaning to get to this?

Tell us roughly what you own and how it is held. We will tell you what your will would actually control today, and what it would miss.

Speak to a lawyer 1300 654 590