Building a legacy is one
thing. Ensuring your wishes
are honoured is another.
Building a legacy is one
thing. Ensuring your wishes
are honoured is another.
Estate Planning - leaving a legacy
Estate Planning
leaving a legacy
Estate planning protects you, your loved ones and assets and is relevant at every stage of life. It’s about leaving a legacy that will keep your loved ones secure in their future and ensuring your wishes are carried out in the way you intended.
It can be difficult to think about end of life or being incapacitated, but estate planning is not about your mortality – it’s about protecting what you worked and sacrificed for – your legacy.
Documenting your wishes now, means leaving less to chance once you are gone. It also ensures that your loved ones are not left to deal with unintended tax or legal difficulties.
What is an Estate Plan?
An estate plan is a strategy or plan for how your assets should be distributed after you die. These assets can include everything from your home and savings accounts to your car, furniture, even jewellery. It’s important to note that your super balance and insurance proceeds are not part of your estate by default and will need to be considered separately.
Why Should I Create an Estate Plan?
An estate plan ensures that your assets are distributed among the people and organisations of your choosing. It’s essentially a roadmap for how your assets should be dealt with when you’re no longer there to take charge. If you don’t have a will and estate plan in place at the time of your death, your assets will be distributed in line with the intestacy laws of your state.
When Should I Start Estate Planning?
While many people wait until retirement or beyond, estate planning should be a consideration for every stage of life. This could include everything from acquiring assets, changing insurance and purchasing property to getting married, having kids and even travelling. Basically, whenever things in life change, you should have an up-to-date estate plan that reflects those circumstances.
Here's how Beacon can help you
Here's how Beacon
can help you
Estate planning is a critical stage of your financial journey.
Using an end-to-end solution called Yodal, we can streamline the entire planning process from initial assessment to finalisation by an experienced estate planning legal professional – a real person.
Below are the 4 key steps we’ll go through when planning your estate with Yodal.
1. Discovery Session
To start, a financial advisor will organise a meeting with you to help us understand your circumstances and uncover what’s most important to you. From this initial meeting, we’ll develop some key recommendations that will ensure your wishes are met at every stage in life.
2. Recommendations
Once we’ve compiled these recommendations, we’ll discuss them with you and provide a flat-fee quote for the complete estate plan to be carried out. This inexpensive quote is inclusive of all costs and legal fees. If you’re happy with the plan, we’ll confirm the plan and forward the details to you.
3. Determine Your Wishes
To ensure your estate plan is accurately represented and legally binding, our team at Beacon will work with you to collate any documentation required to make this happen.
4. Legal Review
Once your wishes have been determined and we have prepared the data and documents required by a lawyer, your matter is forwarded to our legal partner for review. In consultation with you personally, they will prepare your estate planning documents.
Wills and Estate Planning FAQ's
Wills and Estate Planning
FAQ's
Below are some frequently asked question regarding estate planning. If you have any further queries please contact our team at Beacon to arrange an appointment.
A will is a legally binding contract that lays out how your assets should be distributed after you die. In a will, you can also nominate guardians for family members you leave behind. Using a will ensures that your wishes will be carried out and your loved ones will be properly cared for.
An estate plan is the process of planning and arranging the way you would like your assets to be distributed so that it results in the best outcome for your beneficiaries, including tax efficiency and other associated costs. An estate plan can also dictate other matters that are not able to be laid out in your will. An estate plan can encompass your will but may also include other things such as your Power of Attorney, Superannuation, Trusts and other financial assets.
Updating your estate plan when circumstances change isn’t as difficult as you might think.
To update your estate plan, you’ll simply need to book an appointment with your financial advisor to discuss the changes. Once these have been made, they will be sent off to our legal partners for review and completion.
Depending on what state you live in, there are parameters around who can challenge your will. If you are worried that someone may apply to challenge, we can look at incorporating further elements into your estate plan (i.e. setting up separate trusts, etc) that can safeguard your will from being challenged against your wishes.
A Power of Attorney is a legal document that appoints a person to act on your behalf when it comes to managing property. A Power of Attorney is only legally binding while you are physically and mentally capable of making financial decisions.
An enduring Power of Attorney, on the other hand, has the authority to act on your behalf regardless of your physical or mental capacity.
