So today's podcast is all about estate planning. So the information we're about to give is relevant to New South Wales, Australia. It is similar in other states and territories within Australia, but slightly different. And I would expect that it's probably similar throughout the world. So when I talk about estate planning, people freeze up. They think they don't need it. They think estate planning is cursed because they're going to die. um it's too overwhelming or whatever it might be so I really want to normalize estate planning because it is very very important what I'm going to go through are the three common documents that we refer to when we say estate planning now I've had clients and friends who in the past who have not wanted to to use me because of the relationship because we're friends or family which is completely fine but they've gone to get estate planning documents sorted and the only document that was mentioned to them was a will the enduring pair of attorney and the enduring guardianship was never mentioned now to me that's negligence So you can't say your estate planning is done with a will because the other two documents are just as important as the will. So estate planning for us is a will, a power of attorney and enduring guardianship. So the will is a document that comes into effect when you pass away. And in that will, you choose executives. So the people that will work with a lawyer to administer your estate and to make sure that your wishes under the will are carried out. You will have beneficiaries in that will. So the beneficiaries are the people who will benefit from your estate. So it could be a partner, might be kids, might be a sibling, parents, whoever. In the document, you can also appoint a guardian. So if you have kids under the age of eight, you can choose a guardian for where those kids can or who they can live with if you were to pass away. Now, things that I have heard over the years, I don't need a rule. Everything is going to go to my partner. I don't need a will because my dad made a will and he was perfectly healthy and a few days after he died. So they're jigs. So if I were to make this will, I will also die like my dad. It's too overwhelming. I don't know what to do. But overall, heard it all. You've also had some people do their own wills, which usually ends up with issues. So the do-it-yourself will kits, I don't recommend. They are often signed wrong. They're usually filled out wrong. And they're not suitable in every circumstance. So if you think that you don't need a will because it's going to go to your partner or spouse, Generally, that is probably what will happen, but it is going to be a lot more stressful for that spouse or for the person or the people that remain to administer your estate because you die intestate, which means you don't have a will. You also have to think that you have worked really, really hard to get all of your assets or even if you have minimal assets or you don't consider you have assets, you have worked really hard for what you've got. So why would you not want to make sure that your hard-earned work, so it could be super, it could be property, it could be money, it could be heirlooms, whatever it is, why would you not want them to go to the people who you want them to go to? Sometimes as well, we need to exclude people from a will, or we need to consider maybe giving that person something, but not to the extent perhaps of other beneficiaries. So if you were to do a will yourself or a do it yourself will kit, that doesn't cater that in. So when we ask the questions to draft your will, we go over and above what a typical legal practice probably will because we want to make sure that absolutely everything is covered. Now, coming up to Christmas as well, so it's the end of October at the moment, we get people on the last day of when we're opened for the year all of a sudden wanting to make their documents. Impossible, it's not going to happen. So if this is something that you need to do, please make sure that you book in either with us or your lawyer to make sure your estate planning can be done before Christmas. With wills and with the other documents as well, sometimes it's too late to make these documents because you might not have capacity to make them. So if you don't have capacity to make a will, you don't have capacity to make a will. There's kind of, there's no backup. There's no other options. You can't do it. The other documents are a little bit different. So I'll speak about them in the moment. We also get those panicked phone calls where I'm laying in bed. I've been told I've got today to leave or my spouse is in bed or my dad, whoever it might be. You know, I'm going to pass away within the next twenty four hours. I don't have a will. I need to get that done. So. those appointments are not always available because we may have other clients already booked in or, you know, whatever happens. So please don't leave it literally to your deathbed to make these documents because they may not be able to happen and you may not have the capacity to make them. So we'll, is very very important don't assume stuff is going to go to to your spouse or your siblings or your kids it will be much easier and much cleaner for that to happen um for your wishes not the government's not interstate law or test um you know probate law uh will law Um, so we'll also not have anything, um, having a moment, but it's to what the government deems where your estate should go to. So usually it's kind of spouse, then it might be kids, then it might be siblings and maybe parents and grandparents and all down the line. If you have somebody in your family that you don't speak to, you might not want them to benefit from your estate. You might have an ex-partner and you haven't done your estate planning since you separated. So there can be just so many different variables on this. So will, very, very important. Please make sure you have one and please make sure you review it as well. So I generally say, you know, you're preparing your documents for end of financial year. Maybe have a look at your insurances. Maybe have a look at those estate planning documents to make sure that they are still right. Maybe you have had kids and you don't have a guardian. Maybe you want to swap somebody out. Maybe you have separated and you need to take your spouse off the will. Whatever it might be, if you get married, you need to make a new will. So if circumstances have changed, please make time to schedule in a will appointment. So the other document is a power of attorney and this document is valid while you are alive. So the power of attorney, I kind of refer to and try and make it as easy as I can. Kind of say that's like the business end of your life. So that power of attorney can be registered and we can sell property. Your attorney can access your bank accounts to pay bills on your behalf, speak to utilities. It's kind of just the business end, the financial end of your life. in the event that you can't do that on your own. So people will also think, oh, yep, I have a house with my spouse. I don't need a power of attorney, which is wrong. So if you own property with your spouse or anybody and that property is joint tenants, You can't sell and say something happens to the other person. You can't sell that house because you only own it at fifty percent and the other person owns fifty percent. With that power of attorney, it can be registered and then that property can be sold on that other person's behalf. It is an absolute nightmare if that needs to happen and you don't have that document. And usually when property needs to be sold, it needs to be sold yesterday. So the process is that you have to apply to the tribunal for them to make a decision as to granting an equivalent power of attorney. So the issue with that is sometimes they will only appoint one person. Sometimes they may appoint two. So if they appoint one, and if something happens to that person, you're stuffed, you need to go make other arrangements, need to go back to the tribunal. You get audited yearly. Any decisions that are kind of large in nature, so selling a property or whatever it might be, you need to get the tribunal's permission to be able to do that. So it is very, very, very restricted. And I, well, it's probably better than nothing, but I would not recommend it. If you have the availability to make a power of attorney yourself, that is what I would do. The other document that we refer to is an enduring guardianship. So an enduring guardian is what I refer to as the health end. So you appoint guardians. So the power of attorney, you appoint attorney to carry out your wishes or to manage the finance end. The enduring guardianship is the health end and you appoint guardians to make decisions in relation to your health. So where you live, what healthcare you receive, medical or dental treatment, if you need like home services, the health end of your life, as opposed to the business end, under a power of attorney. There's also a clause in there that says, if you're so seriously ill, you're not likely to recover. You don't want to be subjected to anything that's unmeaningfully going to prolong your life. Keep me comfortable. But ultimately, I'm making the decision for you. I don't want to continue. Like, I want to pass away peacefully. So it's you making that decision for your guardians so they're not left wondering what Do we leave the machine on or do we not leave the machine on? And I kind of refer to it as like a flip the switch, I suppose. You're making that decision so the people that are left to make that decision aren't scared that they have made the wrong decision. In this case, they're fulfilling your wishes of not being subjected to anything that's unmeaningfully going along your life. So, for example, a machine that breathes for you. You don't want to stress anything. those family members out even more when you're on your deathbed and they're trying to work out whether we keep you alive or whether we don't. Or they're arguing, maybe one does and one doesn't. You don't want that when you are on your way out. That will cause all sorts of dramas and I'm sure you don't want your family to be split on your death over something like that. So it's not a DNR. There is an advanced care directive, which is a fourth document, which really goes into more depth as to what medical stuff you want and what you don't. Not many people take that up, but there is a next level advanced care directive document. Now, I really want to normalize talking about death and that may seem really morbid but I obviously see what happens and sometimes it's okay and sometimes it's not and it is super messy and stressful when that could have been avoided when you know you could have maybe have drafted those documents and I do have stories that flow in on that as well and I mean I've normalized it so much in my household my girls so they're eleven and they're nearly thirteen they know what estate planning is they know what the documents are they're completely comfortable with those documents it's not that I've necessarily told them what it is they've heard me like on the phone or if they're in the office with me if I'm working at home They hear me talking about that. And, you know, they're not shy of going up to somebody, do you have your will? Do you have your estate planning done? Like for that, that's normal. And that's what I like. I don't want death to be a taboo subject. And I would love for the process to be made easy for the people who are left when you do pass away to know that death they're not making the wrong decision and they're not stressing over decisions that have to be made. And what I mean by that is when it comes to the funeral. So you can do, like, a prepaid funeral. If that funeral company goes under, I understand it's into, like, an insurance policy type thing. So, you know, you kind of buy it today, it's often the funeral rate, then you might not pass away for a very long time. But you can plan... whatever with them. So a big one can be buried or cremated. It might be, do you want a full Catholic service? Do you not want a service? Do you just want people to go to the pub and remember you? Like, do you want to be buried in your wedding ring or engagement ring? Do you want to be buried in a particular outfit? songs, like what songs, all of that can be really, really stressful for the people who are left to make that decision. And, you know, we will get people that will ring us saying, hey, I've just, you know, mum and dad have just passed away. Did they mention if they would like to be buried or cremated or a song or anything like that? We take as much detail as we possibly can. So we will jot down, you know, do you want to be buried or cremated? Okay, where do you want to go? is anything particular you want to note about your funeral we don't have to do that but we do that because we do get those phone calls um so we just yeah the more that you can have that conversation with your family um the easier it's going to be so Hopefully that helps explain that estate planning process. And please reach out to us if you have any questions at all. Thanks, guys. just restarted the podcast sorry I just had a delivery show up so I um was trying to cut it short and then I realized I didn't provide the stories that I was going to talk about before so with um with a will so we have had people in the past not tell us the whole story so we have had people have a child as a result of an affair, for example, and not tell me that there wasn't a child from that affair. And when that person has passed away, that child has then tried to claim on the estate. So this was a person I didn't even know existed. So it's really important to give all the information possible. um another one is like children who are like stepchildren blood children adopted children that is really important to know if you're excluding somebody so say you may not have a spouse or kids and you're living it to your siblings and you have nothing to do with a sibling we need to know that because that's more information that we have that sibling goes to make a claim in your estate so nothing to be ashamed of um when we ask those questions sometimes the other partner is kind of looking and say oh you know what's the response to that but we we ask those questions for a reason and that's another over and above service that's included in it because we feel we can't advise you correctly if we don't know all the situations and we can't do our job properly if we don't have the information. With the power of attorney, we have had a few urgent power of attorneys where they needed to be done yesterday. So one was where a lady's husband had passed away. That lady had a will, but she did not have a power of attorney or an enduring guardianship. That property had to be sold and but she had no capacity. So we had to apply to the tribunal. It was pre-COVID. Her bank account was going in the red because we couldn't speak to Centrelink. We couldn't access her bank account. The nursing home took her in, but she was borderline getting kicked out of the nursing home because they weren't receiving their payments. We couldn't sell the house to fund everything because we didn't have that power of attorney to sell the property. And the urgent application ended up taking, I think like four or five months. It was really bad. They made the family drive her down to Newcastle. She vomited, she soiled herself. She was a complete mess when she got there. And they made her sit in a room for a while to then come back home and experience the exact same thing on the way home. So that's probably not how you want to do it. And as I said, you get yearly audits. You've pretty well got to justify every decision that you have made. If you can avoid it, it would be suggested that you avoid it. If you think that's a document that you need because somebody is incapacitated, I would suggest that you make arrangements to do that document now because guaranteed when you need it, it will be urgent. And it's going to be the tribunal's urgent, not your urgent. So the enduring guardianship, you can also apply to their tribunal for, but they generally don't grant them. So they'll do something for the money side, but not usually the health side. And that's where it can get tricky for you. Some nursing homes require a copy of the Will of Priority and Enduring Guardianship. Some doctors require that. I went in for a simple wisdom tooth removal and I had to provide all those documents and that was only like day surgery. You know, it's, yeah, you don't realise you need them until later. you need them so please don't be scared about having these conversations about thinking who you would like and I would suggest that you talk to the people who you are wanting to put in your will because or your power of attorney or your enduring guardianship because they may not want to be that person and you know that's fair enough you'd rather find out now um find it now while it can be changed, they're needing to use the document and they don't want to do anything. So your executives, your guardians and your attorneys can be all the same people. They don't have to be the same people. It needs to be somebody over the age of eighteen of sound mind. Generally your lawyer cannot be your power of attorney. It's recommended that we don't and if you have one that is, I would probably get that looked into because it's not something we're meant to do. But People may not have the same people on the documents, so it could be, look, that would be really great with my money, but when it comes to my health, they're not going to be able to make that decision. Or when it comes to my health, they're going to be able to pull that plug with my money. I don't trust them. And with the executives, they're working with the lawyers to administer your estate. You can do, like, probate on your own. Probably suggest that you don't because it's just too much involved and too much liability if you get it wrong. So with the executives, they're working with the lawyers, the attorneys and the guardians are people that you want to know who they're the best people for that role. And if you're an only child like me, you might run out of people really, really quickly. So really have a think, you know, maybe there's a close friend, maybe there's a close family member, you know, a spouse, spouse and siblings, whatever it might be. There will be somebody that we... can hopefully think of and that will be able to make those decisions for you when that time comes. So I hope now that normalises estate planning or what we mean when we say estate planning. So it's that will, that power of attorney, that enduring guardianship. There's also testamentary trusts, which is also that will component, which is for Not everybody needs a testamentary trust, but that's essentially the same thing as a will, just a lot more detailed than a standard will. So, yeah, really do think about, especially coming up to this holiday season, don't leave it until the day that legal practices start to close because it's going to be too late. And make sure you view those documents regularly. And each state and territory within Australia is similar and And as I said, other countries would be similar in relation to those documents as well. So depending where you're at. And having said that, if you occupy or have assets in, say, Australia and America, you're going to have to cover both of those assets as well. So it's likely you have to have a will made in America, a will made in Australia. But they need to know that each other exists. And if you have any other old documents laying around, you want to make sure that they are with your new documents because you don't want those old documents being found and those being adhered to and not the new documents that you have created. So we would suggest that you would provide them to your executives, your attorneys, your guardians. Say, hey, here's where they are. Here's copies. If you need to use them, here they are. and having those conversations about what you would like for a funeral. It's prepaid. I want a service. I don't want a service. I want this song. I want to be buried in these. It might not happen for a very, very long time, but it does make that process easier. you know, when you passed away and the people who left need to make those decisions. So bear that in mind as well. But yeah, so now I think I'm done. If you have any questions at all, please do let me know or reach out to your own lawyer to make sure that you have those documents and those documents still suit your needs. So that is estate planning one or one for New South Wales estate planning. Hope that helps. Thanks, everyone.
