Wills & Estate
Wills and estate planning are of utmost importance to an individual’s protection of their assets and wishes for the distribution of such assets after their passing.
Managing your Will and Estate
With an understanding of this sensitive process, the friendly team at Playfair Legal have vast experience assisting clients to draft their Will and estate planning documents, including Power of Attorney and Enduring Guardianship Appointment.
Having these documents in place allows you to determine who controls your personal and financial affairs if you lose capacity and who would be the beneficiaries of your estate upon your death. Further, you may wish to provide specific instructions such as your burial wishes, appointment or guardian of minor children and payment of your liabilities.
At Playfair, we pride ourselves on making this process as simple and stress-free for you as possible. Our aim is to ensure your wishes are clearly outlined in your Will, Power of Attorney and Enduring Guardianship Appointment. We draft your Will in a manner that allows all aspects to be covered but does not require frequent updates as your circumstances change.
We can also provide assistance to families who have lost loved ones by assisting with applications for Probate/Letters of Administration and carrying out the distribution of assets during the family’s difficult and emotional times.
For more information, please contact our office to speak to one of our professional and friendly lawyers who can assist you further.
FAQs
A Will is a legal document that sets out your wishes and instructions for the distribution of your assets after your passing. Within a Will, you have the opportunity to name your beneficiaries, appoint a guardian for your minor children, instruct on burial wishes and provide specific instructions for your executor to carry out after your passing.
A Power of Attorney document is a legal document that gives your nominated attorney the legal authority to look after your financial affairs on your behalf.
You can appoint an attorney to act for you for a variety of reasons such as when you are away and cannot attend to your financial matters in person, or when you have lost capacity and are no longer able to manage your own affairs. The Power of Attorney can be general or enduring. An Enduring Power of Attorney will continue to be in place even after you have lost capacity while a general Power of Attorney will no longer be valid once you lose capacity.
An Enduring Guardian is a person you nominate to make lifestyle, health and medical decisions for you when you are not capable of doing so yourself. They may make decisions such as where you live, what services are provided to you at home and what medical treatment you receive during your period of incapacitation.
An Enduring Guardianship appointment only comes into effect if or when you lose capacity and will only be effective during the period of incapacity. The Enduring Guardianship Appointment and the Power of Attorney document are complementary to each other as one document will deal with your financial matters while the other will be for medical and non-financial decisions.
If you pass away and do not have a Will in place before your death, you will be considered as dying intestate. In such circumstances, the assets of your estate will then be distributed according to a pre-determined formula with family members receiving a preset percentage of your assets despite what you may have wanted prior to your death.
In such circumstances, your assets may be distributed against your wishes and also present a possible hardship to your family members. Further, where there is no Will, your family members may not be able to gain access to your assets immediately and therefore fall into financial hardship until the estate matter is resolved. This can be a lengthy process and can place an unnecessary burden on your family during a difficult and emotional time.
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Legal processes can seem daunting and complex, whether it’s a personal matter or a case for a large corporation.
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