Tag Archives: Estate Planning

Supporting your kids, without sacrificing your own retirement

By Robert Wright /July 30,2021/

In the past, wealth was often passed on through an inheritance. But with our longer lifespans, and the higher cost of living (especially housing), the desire to help our kids while we’re alive and well is increasing.

If your children are young, you may have twenty or thirty years to save and invest on their behalf, while also saving for your own retirement. If this is the case, it pays to put a strategy in place early on.

For those nearing retirement age, or already retired, you may have a large lump sum you’d like to gift to one or more of your kids. Giving money is a wonderful thing to do, but it’s not always simple. It can have tax implications, and may affect your income support payments from Centrelink. On the other hand, gifting may enable you to increase your government pension payments or benefits, if done right.

So how can you help your children without compromising your own financial security and comfort in retirement?

Ensure you’re on track for a comfortable retirement

Before you give away your wealth, it’s important to remember that you need to fund your own retirement for many years.

Australians are living longer than ever, with more years spent in retirement. If you were to retire at age 60, and live to 90, that’s one whole third of your lifetime spent in retirement.

As well as wanting to enjoy your retirement through travel or leisure activities, older age often comes with more medical and health expenses.

So it’s really important to make sure you have enough funds saved and invested to get you through. This might sound selfish, but in reality, it means you won’t become a financial burden on your children later in life.

How much will you need to retire, and, how much can you afford to give away now? It’s always best to seek professional financial advice to ensure you have enough put away to see you through. A financial planner will be able to give you tailored advice about the impact of your giving on your retirement plans.

What am I giving money for?

Next, consider what it is you’d like to help your son or daughter with. Are the funds for a property deposit? To pay for a wedding? Education expenses? This might offer some clue as to the right amount of support.

Following on from this, consider how many children you need to help. If you gift funds to one child, do you need to match that for others when the time comes? If you have several children, but some are doing better than others, do you need to help them all equally?

Balancing the family dynamics around money is important, as it can be a sensitive issue. The last thing you want to do is cause a rift in the family over some perceived inequality. If you do have several children you need to help, keep this in mind, as it will limit how much help you can offer each child.

Giving an incentive

Often the best way to support children financially is to match their own contribution. Rather than purchasing something outright, offer to base your assistance on their own savings. This also means they have a vested interest in the item, which means they’re likely to treat it more carefully.

How should I give money?

If you receive the Age Pension or other benefits from Centrelink, there is a limit to how much you can give away. The gifting rules allow you to give $10,000 over one financial year, or $30,000 over five years. You’ll need to let Centrelink know when you’re planning to give a gift of this type.

If you’re considering giving your children a substantial amount of money, it’s worth taking the advice of Dr Brett Davies at Legal Consolidated. He recommends always giving funds as a loan ‘payable on demand’, not as a gift. Creating a written loan agreement helps keep the money in your family, even if things don’t go to plan.

Consider this. You gift your daughter $400,000 to buy a house. Five years later, she divorces from her husband and the house is the only asset of the marriage. The Family Court awards half of the value of the house to the husband, including $200,000 of your donated funds.

If you instead had a valid loan agreement in place, the loan must be paid out before the assets are distributed. Hence, the $400,000 comes back to you, to do with as you please. 

Always seek professional legal advice when drawing up a loan agreement to ensure that it’s compliant with the law, properly worded and correctly executed.

Get professional advice

If you’re nearing retirement and looking to give up work, downsize your home and/or gift funds to your children, it’s important to seek financial advice.

A financial planning professional will be able to give you tailored advice about the impact of your planned giving. They can also help you work out a strategy for meeting multiple goals, such as giving to several children while funding your own comfortable retirement.

Source: Money & Life

The A-Z of Inheritance

By Robert Wright /February 18,2021/

Inheritance is an emotional subject on every level. The people leaving an inheritance generally do it with pride and love. The people receiving an inheritance often receive it with gratitude – and sorrow. But while emotional, it’s also a financial transfer that comes with a whole range of legal, financial planning and admin issues attached.

For many people inheritance is painful and protracted. It can lead to family disputes and disappointment. In this article, we look at both the financial and emotional aspects of inheritance and at how some forethought can make the process easier for everyone.

The Process: Leaving a Paper Trail

Moving wealth from one generation to the next does not happen quickly. Let’s think about why that is and why some intelligent forward planning is required. 

Consider your own finances – all the bank and investment accounts, loans, credit cards, tax, super and insurances that make up your financial life. Think of all the documents, passwords, websites and email chains they create. Then hand them to someone who isn’t financially trained and hasn’t dealt with them every day like you have. Hand them to someone who’s emotionally drained by your passing – and then has to deal with the whole series of complex legal processes we outline below.

Get a grip on assets and liabilities

Before any inheritance gets distributed, the executor (the person you’ve appointed in your will to administer your estate) needs a deep and documented understanding of your financial position; what you own and what you owe. It’s complex and detailed work, but it needs to be done so a Statement of Assets and Liabilities can be submitted to the Supreme Court.

Probate – all about a valid will

After the assets and liabilities have been accounted for, the executor of your will needs to apply for Probate. The word tells its own story – it comes from the Latin probare: “to prove”.

It means a Court must certify that the will they’re working with is the valid one. Usually, the executor needs to advertise their intention to apply for probate in a newspaper or via the court website. They also need to give creditors time to lodge a claim against the estate.

Death and Taxes

Once Probate has been granted your executor must make sure outstanding taxes are paid and a date of death tax return and other tax returns are lodged. They also need to work through any other tax complexities, including family trusts, to ensure assets are passed on in compliance with tax law.

This is one area where a financial adviser or accountant – or both – can be invaluable. If you’re preparing your estate plan, their help can make sure you pass on assets to those you care about in the most-tax-effective fashion.

And if you’re receiving an inheritance, expert financial advice can help you manage the tax decisions more effectively.

Tax management is important. Australia doesn’t have death duties and most assets you inherit don’t get captured by Capital Gain Tax (CGT) when they transfer into your ownership. But CGT does apply when you sell those assets or, potentially, if you inherit residential property that has been used for investment purposes. Expert advice can help you manage these complexities.

Rings passed down for generations

Unless a claim is lodged against the estate (and it can’t be paid or negotiated away) the next step is for cash legacies, bequests and personal items – including jewellery – to be distributed. Individuals often use their will to make bequests to charitable organisations – these are identified and treated separately to the rest of the estate. 

Distributing the estate

Once all legacies and bequests have been managed correctly, the balance of the estate (typically large assets like property, equity in businesses and investment holdings like shares) are distributed in accordance with the will or subsequent directions from a court. Sometimes this is not a final process – particularly if there are minor children involved. In these situations, the administration of the estate can be ongoing (which adds to complexity and costs).

As you can see, taking an inheritance from the reading of the will to the distribution of assets has already involved accounting, advertising and two layers of Court documentation. This all takes time – and that’s assuming there are no family disputes or arguments with the tax man or the deceased’s creditors.

The Emotions

We mentioned managing the process. Now we need to talk about managing your emotions. If all parties do that – the person leaving the inheritance and the person receiving it – the result can be better for all concerned. So, let’s look at the emotions involved in leaving an inheritance and the paths they can take us down.

Grief

In the aftermath of a loved one’s death, it can be hard to manage complex tasks, particularly if those tasks stir more emotion – like family disputes. Preparing for that challenge – perhaps by ensuring the executor has some financial skills, or is trusted by all parties, or is independent – can reduce the stresses placed on a grieving family.

Impatience

A simple look at the list above explains why patience is required in an inheritance situation. Understanding the probable time frame – which can vary depending on the complexity of the estate, but can often be a minimum of 12 months before an estate is settled – can make all the difference.

As we saw earlier, good advice can be crucial to setting up an estate plan that provides the maximum benefit for those you leave behind. It can be just as useful for the inheritors of an estate.

Reticence

According to research by Perpetual, some 53% of parents have not discussed their will and legacy with their children. More striking still, 80% of Australians who believe they will inherit something haven’t discussed that inheritance with their parents.

That lack of communication is at the heart of many fraught inheritance experiences. But to ensure that the transfer of wealth from one generation to the next happens with the minimum of complexity, cost and angst, all those involved need to be clear about their intentions – and their feelings.

Source: Perpetual

Get your affairs sorted with an estate plan

By Robert Wright /February 04,2021/

It’s an uncomfortable truth, knowing that one day we will pass away. No-one likes to think about the distress it will cause their loved ones or what kind of burden they’ll be left with. That’s why death is often considered a taboo topic of conversation, along with money and politics.

When you pass away, hospitals and funeral directors will ask a lot of questions that your family may not have the answers to. If you’re prepared and organised, you can provide them with many of the answers in advance. We know sharing your funeral wishes and end-of-life admin with your family isn’t the most uplifting topic of conversation. But it can make the process of passing away far less stressful to the ones you leave behind.

Six ways to get organised

Getting organised early can eliminate some of the difficult conversations your family may have to deal with later. Here are six things you can do now:

Have a Will and ensure it’s up to date. Surprisingly, just over half of Australians don’t have a Will.

• Consider an Advance Care Directive. It’s a way to say what healthcare treatments you would like to have or refuse if you’re ever in a position where you’re seriously ill and unable to make decisions about your treatment.
• If aligned with your wishes, join the organ donor register.
• Check that the beneficiaries nominated in your super and insurance are still current.
• Keep the records for all your bank accounts, investments, and assets in one place so it’s easier for someone to sort through them and find relevant information.
• Put easy-to-access money aside to pay for your funeral or buy a funeral bond, since it takes a long time to process your estate. Funerals are estimated to cost between $4,000 and $15,000

Talking to specialists

Sometimes extra planning and financial advice is needed to ensure that your assets are passed into the right hands in the most efficient and tax-effective way.

It’s important that your Will is clear, complete and not open to legal challenge. Estate planning advice may be required in cases of divorce, remarriage and blended families to protect the interests of vulnerable family members and to ensure that your wishes are carried out.

Talk to your financial adviser about these things. They can also suggest anything you may not have thought of.

Getting the conversation going

Sharing your preferences provides those you leave behind with the comfort and certainty of knowing they are carrying out your wishes. It might make for an awkward conversation, but it’s better to discuss things over a family dinner than in an emergency room.

Here are a few topics you might want to discuss:

• Who do you want to be the guardian of your children?
• Who will take care of your pets?
• If you have an extended stay in hospital, do you have a preference about which hospital you want to go to?
• What type of funeral do you want? Would you prefer a cremation or a burial? Do you have any preferences for the venue, flowers, music or readings?
• What are your preferences for your valuable or significant belongings?

Source: Colonial First State

Why you need a Will

By Robert Wright /October 16,2020/

It’s no wonder people tend to avoid making a Will. We can find it hard to face the fact that death is part of our future and that there may be a time when we won’t be able to manage our own finances due to poor health.

However, the COVID-19 pandemic has made us all more aware of how life can change when we least expect it and our health is something we shouldn’t take for granted. So there really is no better time than now to get your estate plan in order.

What is an estate plan?

Your estate plan is a set of arrangements that sets out what will happen to your assets when you die and/or if you become unable to manage your own affairs. Your Will is just one part of your estate plan. It can also include a Power of Attorney arrangement giving someone else legal authority to manage your assets and finances if you become incapable of doing this yourself.

How do I make a Will?

You can take a DIY approach to making a Will with a Will kit. But not all your assets are covered in your Will. You super, for example is not an estate asset and you will need to make a separate arrangement – usually a binding nomination – to make sure your super death benefit is passed on according to your wishes.

Wills and estate plans can be fairly simple, but it depends on your particular family and financial situation. Owning a business, being married more than once or having children are just some circumstances that can demand a more complex estate plan. While it may take a lot more detail and structure to ensure all your assets are properly distributed, it’s worth doing to take care of everything that matters to you.

One of the best ways to make sure your estate plan covers everything it should, is to seek advice from a financial planning professional and a solicitor who specialises in estate planning. A financial planner can offer you guidance on growing and protecting your assets during your lifetime.

They can also talk to you about what to consider as you decide how you want your assets to be distributed among your family and loved ones, both before and after you die. This includes the tax consequences of transferring assets to your beneficiaries.

However, a financial planner cannot offer legal advice on your estate plan and they cannot draw up the legal documents you need to make sure your Will and estate plan are legal and binding. You’ll need to work with your solicitor or an organisation that specialises in estate planning.

COVID-19 and your estate plan

Each State and Territory has their own legislation that lays out how estate planning documents must be signed and witnessed. Your solicitor will be able to guide you through this process so that your Will can be considered valid in a court of law.

With social distancing and other restrictions in place due to COVID-19, it can be more difficult to make these arrangements for signing and witnessing your Will and other estate planning documents. In Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, new legislation has been introduced to allow certain legal documents to be signed and witnessed via video conference.  Your solicitor can get you up to speed on  the details of this process and let you know what software and devices you’ll need to complete remote signing and witnessing to meet these legislative requirements.

This legislation does not allow you to have a binding nomination for your super death benefit witnessed via video conference.  To make arrangements for this part of your estate plan, you’ll need to get in touch with your super fund and check their requirements for making a valid binding nomination.

What happens if I don’t have a Will?

If you die without a Will, your assets will be distributed according to the intestacy legislation for your State or Territory. Assets will be shared among family members according to these legal requirements. This is why it’s important to have a Will to make sure that your estate is passed on according to your wishes.

Source: Money & Life