Estate Planning

Your will is only a small part of your overall estate planning and only deals with assets in your name. For example, it doesn't deal with:

• assets in the name of a trust;
• assets owned as joint tenants which automatically go to the survivor; or
• where beneficiaries are properly nominated in a superannuation or life insurance policy

There are various legal structures, trusts and strategies for protecting your assets and maximising the tax benefits especially if:

• you have a large estate (not hard these days if you own your own house or have superannuation death benefits);

• you own your own business;

• you are worried about a beneficiary's business / marriage / spending habits or disability;

• it is possible that a new partner of your existing parter could affect your intentions after your death;

• you have left dependents out of the will which can result in a claim against the estate.

We will provide fixed fees for all or part of the work wherever possible or an inital advice at $195 / hour plus GST.

Otherwise Cost Estimates will be provided and will be followed in the absence of unforeseen complications and our precise method of charging will be in accordance with the Family Court Scale plus 20%. We use that scale for all work in our office because the other scales are, in our opinion, difficult to understand and apply.

That scale is based upon the work actually performed by allowing a certain amount for each letter and phone call etc as opposed to time costing which, some would argue, can reward inefficiency and be unpredictable. Any costs order in the Family Court is therefore based on that scale and the 20% gap represents the size of a typical gap between your legal costs and the costs you can recover (like the medicare gap for health).

Please call for a free fixed fee or cost estimate or if you wish to clarify our services further.

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