Estate Planning

What is Estate Planning?

The word “estate” in the context of Estate Planning is used to mean your property or possessions, in other words, your assets.

Estate Planning means the planning or arrangement of your assets in an organised manner to better enhance their growth for benefit during your lifetime. It also ensures, upon your death, that your assets go to your beneficiaries in accordance with your wishes, without unnecessary taxation or disputes.

It is common today for a large part of a person’s estate not to be held in that person’s name but to be held by family trusts, companies or superannuation funds. As a result you cannot “leave” these assets under your will.

It is wise to have an Estate Plan.  The factors that you should plan for, which are likely to impact your assets include the following:

Family Claims

There are a number of ways which family members, including de facto spouses can make claims on your assets or estate.  There are also ways of lessening the likelihood of such claims or if such claims are made, lessening the likelihood of any such claim succeeding.

taxation

Quite often people structure their financial affairs in such a way that does not result in the best taxation outcome.  You are perfectly entitled to structure your affairs to attract the minimum rate of tax in accordance with the law and it is wise to do so.

Legal Claims by Outside Parties

We live in a litigious world and we appear to be more exposed to the risk of being sued as time goes on.  Many people feel it is important to structure their assets in a way that gives maximum protection against legal claims.