Making Your Will

What is a Will?

Your Will is a legal document which sets out your final wishes of the distribution of your assets after your death. A Will is an important document and must be carefully prepared an executed. Any mistake or wrongful interpretation could result in your wishes not being met. This could see your loved ones miss out and others gain from your estate.

Why you should have a Will

Having a valid Will is a clear way to detail your final wishes. It gives your executor clear instructions to whom to leave your estate to. If you don’t have a Will or the Will is defective, you may be leaving a legal and financial disaster behind.

If you don’t leave a Will or the Will is defective, then it may be considered you have died intestate. The law of intestacy has a predetermined list of beneficiaries, some of whom you may not want to leave anything to.

Some beneficiaries may also lose important entitlements such as social security payments should they be entitled to a share of your estate. Don’t leave your estate to chance and prepare your own Will. Many homemade or will kits are defective and end up costing your beneficiaries thousands of dollars to rectify when an application for a Grant of Probate is made. At Goodman Group Lawyers we can help avoid these situations.

Estate Planning and your Will

Before you have your Will prepared it is important to take into consideration estate planning. This is a process where we will examine your current legal affairs and take this into consideration for your distribution to your beneficiaries. We also examine the life circumstances of your beneficiaries and the impact of your legacy to them. Estate planning is a vital step prior to the creation of your Will.

Life Interests

A life interest is a benefit to someone which survives for their life or upon a certain event. An example of a life interest is where a Will maker gives a person a life interest in a property for that person to live in that property for the rest of their life. Upon the death of the person who received the life interest the property is then dealt with in accordance with the instructions contained in the will.

Estate Planning & Wills

Estate Planning      |      Making Your Will      |      Updating Your Will      |      Will Trusts      |      Power of Attorney      |      Guardianship