Okay, this is my second attempt at filming this because I thought I'd stuffed up and I hadn't stuffed up. So I'm starting all over again. I can see that there's flickering. So I might have to try a camera that I've never actually used before, but it is set up on the other screen. I've double checked that those settings were correct. So I already had one of the buttons ticked. I just had to tick the other one. Echo was already ticked. It was whatever other one that you asked me to pick. I'm just waiting for the timer to come up because I've been caught out before by talking and the recording has not actually started. Okay, here it is. Hi there and welcome to another episode of the Stacey M Show. so you know I am a massive fan of those facebook groups where people are going in there and asking advice from people who are generally not qualified um to answer those questions and that happened to me last week in a facebook group I was in and it was a topic of a diy bill and actually there was a it led to a few different conversations but in the end it kind of came down to a diy wheel so um I thought I will do this episode on a diy wheel And I thought I would do the pros and cons of a DIY will, and then you can make the, this is, let me start again. You can make the decision as to what way you go, whether you're happy with a DIY option, or if you want to go see a lawyer to draft your document up. And before I forget, usually it's not just a will. So people will ring up and say, I've been told I need a will. I'm like, okay, so what about a power of attorney and enduring guardianship? And they're like, what? I don't know what that is. They didn't tell me that I needed that document. So you will find that it is not just a will that would be recommended. It is also a power of attorney and enduring guardianship and only a lawyer can do that. So you may still need to see a lawyer anyway. But I have some pros and cons here. So the pros list is pretty short. The con list is definitely longer. So the pros of a DIY wheel. So they are usually pretty cheap. So sometimes you get what you pay for. So I've generally seen them in post offices, post offices, is that a word? At the post office. Maybe that's better English. And news agencies. So I've seen them probably more around that thirty dollar mark. But, you know, they're probably between thirty to fifty dollars. I have not seen them anywhere else. I've only seen them at a news agent or at the post office. They could be elsewhere. I'm not aware. So, you know, they're pretty easy to access and they're pretty quick. So, you know, you don't have to wait for an appointment to get a lawyer. I know that we've literally had phone calls of people know within hours are passing away so they might still have capacity but you know they've gone downhill really really quickly and a doctor's like you know you are probably going to pass away today so we've definitely had those phone calls and sometimes we're not always available to be able to do that sometimes we already have days full of appointments sometimes it's after hours it's on a weekend so you know in that situation that could be convenient um it might be a good starting point for you to work out your estate planning and who you want to appoint as executives and beneficiaries um so you might not be using it as your will but you might just be wanting to have a look at it to see what the process is like now I would probably suggest that you don't need to buy that for that I know us alone have plenty of resources on our social media and through our uh weekly newsletters in our database on our website so you probably don't need it for that purpose but um that could be an option for a pro um it may be suitable for small estates with minimal assets and when I'm saying minimal assets I am saying cash at bank and I'm saying probably a few thousand dollars like maybe ten maybe fifteen uh it depends where those funds are sometimes probate will be needed um you know if it's such a small estate we'll argue we're not getting probate because it's not worthwhile and we've definitely had to do that for a couple of um clients in the past because it just wasn't reasonable to seek probate on estates um that are really small but that could be another pro. So my cons are a little bit longer, but as I said, I wanted to provide you with the pros and cons so then you can make your own decision as to what suits you. so um a lot of the time when we see I see a sorry my english is not good today um a lot of the time when we see a diy well it's there's something usually wrong in it so it's not dated it's you know a diy wheel is essentially a fill in the blanks so like the blanks are still blank um it's not signed or it's signed incorrectly. I don't know whether there's a guardianship or a guardian clause in there. So if you have children who need a guardian, I'm not quite sure whether that's in there, but that could be another con as well. But a lot of the time signing is wrong. It's just not signed or it's just not signed how it needs to be for it to be valid. A deal by will is not going to suit the majority of people because it's not going to take into account any complex family structures. So if you have a business, if there are insurances, if there's know a lot of assets within your estate it's not going to be suitable for that because you're not going to have the tax implications with that simple will if you go to get tax advice on it on a simple will your accountant will probably go, no, you need to go see a lawyer. So yeah, it's not going to take into account any complex family structures or businesses or anything like that. Any tax implications won't be taken into account and it's not flexible enough for you to try to put that in there anyway. A lot of the time when we see them, the language is really ambiguous as well. So, what their wishes are are not clear. Sometimes we can't read the handwriting as well because they're handwritten. Sometimes we just can't work out at all what that handwriting means. But yeah, sometimes you could read something that they have written and you can read that a number of ways. It's not clear. And I'm sure that's not the purpose of your will. So that's something we see as well. That can lead to then claims against the estate. So it's not suitable to exclude people in the estate. If you want to exclude people, you really need to get legal advice on that because sometimes it's beneficial to leave them something in your will than nothing. And there are ways to go about excluding somebody in your will and that DIY will is not an option for that. So if you've worked so hard everything you probably should spend the money to get that document or your will correct and in place so your things go where you want them to go your kids are looked after who you want them to look be looked after but it's just yeah and it's going to make it easy for your family and the people who are left to administer your estate so you've just passed away you don't want to add another complexity or another stressful situation because you've tried to save some money with a DIY bill and it's it's just not going to work it's not valid um So I mentioned it's not going to have testamentary trust or special disability trust. So if you have a child who has a disability, it's not going to cater for that. And you can't amend it to make it counter for that as well. There's a fair bit involved with that. You are receiving no guidance on anything. So no guidance on executors, beneficiaries, what your situation is. So that can be very restricting as well and not in your best interests. Usually a DIY will is not stored how we recommend it. So if you go to a lawyer and get your will done, you will probably find they will keep it in something called safe custody. So sometimes that's physically a safe. Sometimes that's just a room in the office or sometimes it's offsite where all your documents are held. So your will, your power of attorney, enduring guardianship, titles for everything when we had paper titles, but that doesn't exist in New South Wales anymore. or Queensland or Victoria. I think the majority of Australia doesn't have physical titles anymore. And if you do hold it with a lawyer, just find out how they hold it. So we physically have safes. They are chub safe. They are not moving anywhere. They're like between four to five hundred kilos. Very, very heavy. They are fireproof, waterproof, everything proof. So yeah, so double check. where those documents are going to be held because if there's a fire, you know, those original documents could be gone, which is again, why you really need to keep copies of those as well. But if you have a DIY will, usually it's just not kept where it should be. So, and sometimes people don't know that you have it either. So it's not uncommon for somebody to pass away and we receive a phone call saying, hi, Sasha has passed away. Do you have their will? So very common. You don't want that occurring. either and the legal fees to contest an estate or try to get that will valid and you know that might have to go down the court route depending on the issues with the will that might cost more than what it would have cost you to get the document done in the first place so again that's just an extra expense an extra delay for your family to deal with your estate. And sometimes that money is needed. Sometimes, you know, there's insurance policies or whatever it might be, are needed to pay off debt or pay for funerals, whatever it might be. So, keep that in mind as well. I don't, I used to say, A DIY will is better than no will. And I don't think I agree with that anymore because I usually see more issues with them than not. So sometimes it may be like totally you need to get a will. If you're over the age of eight, I don't care whether you say you have no assets, you need to get a will. But yeah, if you, yeah. So I used to say that it's better than not having one. I don't agree with that because there's usually just more issues with them because they not filled out correctly and chances are you are not going to fill that document out and get a lawyer to review it. We probably wouldn't do it because it's just It's not how we do things. It doesn't take into account all the things that we take into account, like appropriation clauses and there could be trusts and everything all in that will. So chances are you're not going to find a lawyer who's going to review that document for you. But yeah, so I don't think there's probably really any other um points to point out with that you I mean a simple will is not suitable for everybody but you may find so we participate in westpac uh rescue helicopter girls week we have done I think this was our fifth year that we've done it Where you pay is a very reduced fee. It's a very cheap fee compared to what you'd usually pay for a will. And we donate our time. So we do that for free. We do that pro bono and the Westpac helicopter get that money. And you have the option of upgrading to a power of attorney and enduring guardianship if you need it. know if funds are tight you might want to see whether there's like a wheels day um that might be suitable for you you do have online options um the pros and cons of that are probably the same as what the pros and cons that I have just gone through here you really need a face-to-face appointment with a lawyer so they can understand your situation and advise you you don't want to try to check gpt it or google it or DIY it or use an online will company who probably is not going to ask the questions that they need to ask. So you need to be satisfied. I mean, I don't think there's any other pros and cons I could probably give you, but you need to be satisfied that that document is going to do what it's going to do when you pass away and if your stomach is saying I don't think this is going to make the cut I don't think it's suitable probably don't do it and go and see a lawyer to get a will done now having said that if you have done a DIY will or any will in the past and you go to get a new will done you need to make sure that they're aware of your old will, because sometimes that old will might be found and people don't know that you've done the new will. So we will always ask, do you have existing documents? We will always try to get them on file. So if they're with another lawyer, we'll get the client to sign an authority, that they don't have to deal with them. The documents get sent to us and they go in our safe. We do not destroy any old documents. I know some people do. We don't. Sometimes the old documents can be used. So if capacity was an issue or the person making the will was forced into changing their will by somebody. So using the example I said before where you know, don't worry, mom, I'll make sure that, you know, my, you know, my brother and sister looked after and I don't want to burden them with anything else, you make me executor and beneficiary, and then, you know, I'll take care of it. So that happens. It really does. And it probably happens a little bit too often. And know even when people are making the inquiry we can tell that there's there's something not right so we don't destroy old documents I would suggest that if you do have them held with a lawyer you specify that you do not want the old documents destroyed um because sometimes they are needed but hopefully um that helps you with making your decision in relation to whether a DIY wheel is suitable for you or not. If you have any questions about today's podcast, as always, I really shouldn't be doing these on weekends, should I? As always, please reach out and I'd be more than happy to answer your question or if that means I need to do like another podcast or something on it, I'd be more than happy to do that as well. But pretty clear where I stand on it. And it's, you know, it's not just because of the financial side of it. It's because I have seen it go bad and it just causes more stress for the family. And I don't want people to have to go through that when they could have spent a little bit more extra money to make sure that it's done right. So when you do pass away, it's going to go through a lot smoother than you trying to save a couple of bucks and fill it out yourself. So yeah, any questions, as I said, please do reach out. Otherwise, thank you for listening or watching if you're watching this on YouTube and I will catch you next time. See ya.
