Wills and Estate Law
Wills and Codicils
Will
A Will is a legal document that clearly sets out your wishes for the distribution of your assets after your death. Having a clear, legally valid and up-to-date Will is the best way to ensure that your assets are distributed according to your wishes.Your Will is probably the most important document you will ever sign, so it is important that you have it prepared by an experienced lawyer rather than trying to do it yourself.
Why do you need to have a legal Will?
There are many reasons why you need to make a legal Will.
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Wills and Marriage or Divorce
Many Australians are unaware that their Will becomes invalid when they get married.
Divorce also has an impact on your Will.
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Codicils
A codicil is used to make minor changes to an existing will such as changing an executor or appointing another one. A codicil can also be used to make specific gifts to a specific person.
Smart Choice Law can help you to make sure that your Estate Plan will work once you are gone. If you need help with the preparation of a Will or a Codicil please contact our office.
Enduring Guardianship and Power of Attorney
A Power of Attorney is a legal document appointing a person of your choice, to manage your financial and legal affairs while you are alive.
An Enduring Guardianship document is a legal document that appoints someone as your enduring guardian to make lifestyle, health and medical decisions for you when you are not capable of doing this for yourself. You can make directions as to whether you want to be on life support or receive life prolonging treatment.
It is important that these documents are prepared and executed correctly to ensure they are valid when they are needed.
We can help you to prepare these documents for you.
Estate administration
If you are the executor of an estate we can help you to obtain a grant of Probate, if there is a valid Will, or Letters of Administration, if there is no valid Will. You will need this in order to be able to administer the estate.
We can then help you to collect all the assets of the Estate, including the transfer of property into your name, and collecting funds in bank accounts and superannuation entitlements.
Once all assets are collected and six months have passed since the date of death and the Supreme Court has been put on notice that the estate will be distributed we can then help you to distribute the estate in accordance with the Will.
If you need assistance with the administration of estates please contact us.
