I have encountered many people who tell me their house is paid off when it isn’t. It might have a fully offset loan against it, but it is still a...
When making a will you should consider what could happen to your estate if your children die before you. Most people don’t want to consider this...
Loans can be great tools in estate planning. One strategy is the gift and borrow back which I have described at Legal Tip 115: The Gift and...
When setting up a discretionary trust generally people want to set it up in such a way the class of beneficiaries is wide. Often the deed is...
When preparing a will for a client I had to ask the question ‘what if your wife remarried?’ He started yelling “I will kill the *******, who is...
Most readers would probably say yes, all children should be treated equally, but what if: a) There is a large gap in wealth between them? b)...
Hi All, We’ve been given the bad news that a loved one has the big ‘C’ (the father) and the family is now looking into estate planning. The...
Under NSW law certain people have a right to inspect the will of a deceased person. (Similar rules apply in other states too). These include -...
Some people see no reason to leave their estate to their adult children, and so want to bypass them to benefit their grandchildren. I have had...
There are several issues which can arise when a member of a trust loses their mental capacity. Trustees – a trustee must have mental capacity to...
Some people set up bucket companies where the shares of the company are held by themselves personally not as trustee. This makes it very difficult...
I often see discretionary trust deeds which nominate the next appointor, upon the death of the current appointor, to be the Legal Personal...
A Grandparent wants to leave some money to their children, but they want their grandchildren to benefit too and are worried that if left to their...
Where a child is severely disabled and over the age of 16 a special type of discretionary trust can be set up for them, these are known as a...
For a trust to exist there must be at least one beneficiary, but there is no legal requirement that the beneficiary must be alive at the date the...
Get some legal advice before trying this. Some people want to help their elderly parent(s) purchase property. This might be the parents moving...
This is a more detailed version of a previous post first written in May 2016: Legal Tip 131: Legal Tip: Estate Planning Implications of Bucket...
I would like to tell you, but it is a secret. These are trusts, usually set up under a will, where property is left to a person on an undisclosed...
Where there are 2 spouses and children if one of the spouses dies and the other inherits the assets of the deceased this can pose a risk to the...
When making a will you would generally need to consider 3 situations which could play out (most commonly). 1. You die first The reason you...
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