If you ticked one or more items on this checklist please do not use a Will Kit, instead call us on 04211 45637 for help:
1. You are in a blended family - 2nd marriage/de facto relationship, one or both of you have children from your first marriage/de facto relationship.
if you leave everything in your Will to your spouse your children may feel unloved, resentful and overlooked
if you leave everything to your children then your partner may not even have a home to live in if you die first.
2. You want to leave a child out of your Will
a child is a member of a small group of people who have the right to contest your Will if they feel they have not been provided adequately by you. A Will challenge is expensive and can be avoided.
3. You are the trustee or appointor of a family trust
the assets held by a family trust do not form part of your estate which means that you cannot dispose of such assets in your Will.
4. You do not want to split your assets equally between your children
you may have a good reason why you plan to do that - you have given one of your children significant financial help during your life time, one of your children is verbally or even physically abusing you etc. However, as mentioned under point 2 a child can challenge your Will. If you do not know how to prevent that, you are likely to cause even more issues between your surviving children.
5. You are planning to marry
a Will is invalidated automatically by your marriage. There is no need to update your Will so many times if you know the wording that is needed in the Will about your contemplated marriage.
6. You are planning to divorce
your divorce automatically invalidates your Will in WA. You need to sign a new Will after your divorce or draft the Will in a way that the will is not cancelled by your divorce.
7. You want to give the right to a person to live in your home on certain conditions
common in blended families a partner may want to give the other partner the right to live in their home for the rest of their life. Too many things can happen after your die that you may not have thought about.
8. You want to minimise the tax payable on your superannuation death benefits
unless your superannuation death benefits pass to a 'tax dependent' your beneficiaries will be hit with a tax bill. Are you sure you want that to happen?
9. You want to protect your assets from the spouses of divorcing children
you have worked hard for your money and may want the assets to pass down the generations for the benefit of your children and grandchildren. A DYI Will Kit is not going to protect your assets from the divorcing spouses of your children.
10. You want to protect your assets from creditors of your beneficiaries
one or more of your beneficiaries are in business or in a financial difficulty. A DYI Will Kit will not protect your assets from their creditors or the trustee in bankruptcy.
11. One of your beneficiaries is in a high-risk profession or business where negligence claims are likely
the same considerations as those in point 10 apply here.
12. You are concerned that your spouse may remarry and divert the family assets to the new family to the disadvantage of your children
your partner may find new love after your demise. That person will have a claim to your partner's assets under the family law rules. This means that your hard earned money will go to a person you have never met and to the detriment of your partner and your children.
13. A beneficiary is a spendthrift or has a gambling or drug addiction or is disabled
These are your children and you want to make sure that the money will last them for as long as possible. How are you going to achieve this with a Will Kit?
14. You want to provide a gift to cover the private schooling of your grandchildren
it is likely that the money will be redirected for other purposes and not for the schooling of your grandchildren if the Will has not been drafted correctly.
15. You want to make a specific gift in your Will – those often fail
examples of failed gifts include a house that you have left to a beneficiary but have later sold and then forgotten to update your Will. You may have left the balance of a bank account to a beneficiary and then closed the account and forgotten about the gift in your Will. These are only 2 of many real case scenarios that occur all the time.
Call us today at 04211 45637 and let us help protect your family's future!