Estate Planning

Peace of Mind Estate Planning Package

The Smart Start Peace of Mind package provides you with the four pillars of a complete Estate Plan. Scroll down for more information about each of the four documents that will give you peace of mind.

Will

• Your Will is the document that directs your assets to the beneficiaries you choose when you die. It can be a simple document or quite complex, depending on your situation and wishes. You could choose to leave your estate to a number of people in equal portions, or to give special bequests (particular items or amounts), or to create a Testamentary Trust.
• A Testamentary Trust can help to protect your beneficiaries in a number of ways. If, for instance, your child is in a relationship that doesn’t seem to be healthy and you suspect it will not last, you can use a Testamentary Trust to protect their inheritance from the partner. Similarly, you can protect your children from losing any their inheritance in the event your spouse re-marries, divorces, or predeceases the new partner. You can also protect your spouse from predatory or financially abusive future partners by ensuring that your estate assets are only able to be accessed by your spouse as a beneficiary of your Testamentary Trust. These are just a few examples of how a Testamentary Trust can help protect your loved ones after you are gone.
• An eligible Will that meets the legal requirements of your State of residence is the only way to ensure you do not die intestate or partly intestate.
• Someone is said to have died intestate if they do not have a valid Will at the time of their death. In NSW, when someone dies intestate the administration of their estate is often referred to the NSW Trustee & Guardian. The administrator of an estate is responsible for arranging the funeral and distribution of assets. An intestate’s assets are divided between their next of kin (spouses, children, dependants etc) according to a formula.

Enduring Power of Attorney

• An Enduring Power of Attorney is a document that allows your appointed attorney to make decisions about your financial affairs when you are unable to.
• An Enduring Power of Attorney ceases to be valid upon your death, or when you revoke it while of sound mind.
• It is too late to appoint an Attorney when you are no longer of sound mind.

Enduring Guardian

• Appointing and Enduring Guardian allows your appointed Guardian to make decisions about your medical treatment, living circumstances, and lifestyle.
• An Enduring Guardianship order comes into effect when you are deemed by medical professionals to no longer have the capacity to make these types of decisions for yourself.
• It is too late to appoint an Enduring Guardian when you are no longer of sound mind.

Advanced Care Directive

• An Advanced Care Directive is a document that sets out your values and wishes around your care when you have reached an advanced stage of incapacity.
• An Advanced Care Directive works hand in hand with an Enduring Guardian to help guide your carer in making decisions that would be in line with your wishes. Because you make this document prior to losing capacity, it will assist your carer or Guardian to make difficult decisions on your behalf.
• Having an Advanced Care Directive in place can lighten the immense emotional burden of having to make decisions such as whether or not to switch off life support technologies, or whether to resuscitate you if you have a medical crisis. Your carer or loved one can rely on your words in your Advanced Care Directive rather than having to make those decisions alone.