Wills and estate planning

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COVID-19 made us all stop and think about a lot of things. One of those things is mortality.

It’s grim, but people will die. And that’s terrifying.

Planning for death is never fun but it’s better than leaving a mess for your family to sort out. Our job is to make it as simple and stress-free as possible. The estate planning process is an opportunity to make things easier for your family when you’re gone. But it’s also about you: feeling in control and confident that you have done everything you can do to take care of things.

When you make a will there are some important things that you need to think about. Firstly, drawing out a detailed family tree is important to understand all the individuals who might be affected by your will and who might have an interest in the decisions you make. Modern family relationships are often complex and can have implications for your planning.

Secondly,  it is critical to review your estate: the things you own, the things you control, the assets that you otherwise have an interest in and your debts. The nature of your estate often has an impact on how your will is prepared.

Thirdly, you need to decide on your executor – the person who will be in charge. this can be more than one person. And you can nominate a back up too. The executor takes care of everything when you’re gone.

Finally, you’ve got to decide who gets what. These are your beneficiaries. you also need to think about when they will get their benefit and how they will get it.

When doing a will it’s important to consider doing a power of attorney and appointing an enduring guardian too. We can take care of this for you.

In this unusual and uncertain time, you’ve got control over your will and we’re ready to help you tick it off your list of things to do. We can organise estate planning by telephone or video conferencing. At the moment the government social isolation rules still allow us to see people in person. We’re also set up to do it all remotely too: if you’re overseas, in a remote area, or are fully self isolating, we can take care of you.

When you’re ready to sort your estate planning out, we’re here to help.