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 partner could affect your intentions after your death;
- you have left dependents out of the will which can result in a claim against the estate.
Our Costs:
- We will provide fixed fees for all or part of the work wherever possible or an initial advice at $425 / hour plus GST.
- Our Fixed Fees will be followed in the absence of obvious unforeseen complications and our precise method will be in accordance with the Supreme Court Scale which has a similar hourly rate.
- That scale is based upon the work actually performed by allowing a certain amount depending on the length of each letter and document etc as opposed to time costing which is only used for attendances in that scale.
- We use that scale for all work in our office because it is preferred by the courts, it is more objective than time and it is less likely to reward inefficiency and be unpredictable.
Please contact us for a free fixed fee or cost estimate or if you wish to clarify our services further.