As the wills and estates lawyers in Canberra, we have a better perspective and more well-rounded knowledge than other general firms. This means that we can foresee, identify and address potential issues that arise, that other law firms might miss, because they don’t have any experience in disputes or litigation.

We have received National recognition as judged by our legal peers, winning the Doyles Guide recognition as leading lawyers in the areas of Estate Succession Planning and Wills and Estates Litigation.

We understand that wills and estate planning is about more than simply writing a will. Our highly experienced team will draw on a number of specialised areas to provide a holistic and tailored service to ensure your estate planning objectives are achieved.

As Canberra’s trusted wills and estates lawyers, we have built a reputation for our passion, commitment and collaborative approach to your estate needs. Our supportive team will help you feel completely at ease from start to finish, whilst providing practical, plain-English advice that discloses all legal costs up-front.

A Will is a document that tells people what you want to happen to your estate when you die. Generally, a Will appoints an Executor and disposes of your estate. A Will can also do other things too, such as appoint a Guardian of minor children (if you have any), say what your funeral wishes are, establish a testamentary trust and/or special disability trust, say what you want to happen to your superannuation if it is paid to your estate, gift specific gifts to people, etc.

A Will is a document that appoints an Executor and says how you want your estate dealt with when you die. An Estate Plan is a process that you go through to establish how your estate should be dealt with whether you are alive or dead – estate planning is the wholistic process of looking at your assets and liabilities and how they should be dealt with when you are alive but are unable to make your own decisions (i.e. you might prepare an Enduring Power of Attorney and/or an Enduring Guardian document), and when you die (i.e. you might prepare a Will as well as other documents such as beneficiary nominations for superannuation and life insurance interests, deeds to pass control of family trusts, business succession agreements, company powers of attorney, etc).

A good Estate Plan will cover all scenarios, whether you become incapacitated through accident, injury or illness or if you die.

Wills and Estates Lawyers are experienced in their area of law. It is extremely important to engage a Wills and Estates Lawyer to assist you with estate planning because they often know things that you might not think of considering if you did not have their advice.

Wills and Estates Lawyers will ask you questions that make you think about scenarios that if they did arise, could cause havoc for your estate when you die if you haven’t taken them into account when preparing your Will and/or Enduring Power of Attorney.

Wills and Estates Lawyers work with you to tailor your estate plan so that it is specific and right for you. We see all too often the consequences of what happens when people try to prepare their own Wills and/or Enduring Powers of Attorney without seeking professional advice.

At MV Law we offer a range of prices depending on the complexity of your estate planning and whether you wish to make a Will just for yourself, or you and your partner wish to make Wills together. Please contact us to obtain further information about our prices.

Many clients need to consider not only their family when they are preparing their wills but should think about their business as well. How will their business cope if the owner or director or key worker were to retire, pass away or lose capacity? Planning for such events, so that ownership of the business can be transferred and that the business can continue to operate in the long-term, is a key business strategy and should be considered by both large and small businesses. It is also a key part of managing a farming or agricultural business.

The planning phase might include many people – including the business leaders, family, key staff members, solicitors, accountants, financial advisors, industry specialists.

Strategies might include development plans to ensure new leaders are adequately trained, ensuring business documentation is current, drafting deeds of agreement, taking out life insurance policies to enable a family member to purchase shares in the company, powers of attorney.

Read more about Farm Succession Planning

A family or discretionary trust is an entity whereby assets are not held by an individual but by a trust, which operates for the benefit of the nominated beneficiaries of that trust.  The purpose of a trust is usually to protect assets and to use various tax strategies to maximise the funds available for the beneficiaries.  It is also a key method by which assets can be passed down from one generation to the next, without having to pass via the Will of a deceased person.

A ‘trustee’ is the person or persons who manage the trust assets and who have the ‘discretion’ to distribute income or capital from the trust to one or more ‘beneficiaries’.  The discretion relates to the choices that can be made by the trustee – they are the ones who can decide whether and when to distribute funds, whether those funds come from the income or capital of the trust, to whom those funds are distributed.  The discretion is subject to very few controls.

The person who sets up the trust (the ‘settlor’) decides who to appoint as trustees, who to nominate as potential beneficiaries and sets out all of the rules about how the trust will operate.

Read more about effective asset protection on relationship break-down: a win for testamentary trusts >>

When you do a Will, you will need to appoint an Executor. This is the person responsible for obtaining a Grant of Probate (if required) and then administering your estate. This may involve correspondence with lawyers, real estate agents, and beneficiaries.

You may appoint whomever you like, however we recommend appointing a spouse or adult children as they are often beneficiaries as well and have an added interest in administering your estate effectively. We do not suggest appointing more than 2 or 3 people at a time as it can then get complicated trying to do administrative tasks altogether (and is not always practical).

You should also consider who you may want as a substitute executor, if your first choice is unable to act.

Are you prepared to be the Executor of an estate?

It sometimes seems that going to the trouble and expense of getting a solicitor to draft your Will is unnecessary. But there are many risks with a DIY Will, including:

• Not complying with the law – where the Will is not signed at all or signed wrongly, where witnesses are not present at all or where ineligible people are witnesses.
• Where a Will does not appoint an Executor or neglects to appoint a back-up Executor.
• Keeping evidence about whether the Will maker might not have capacity to do a Will at all.
• Not considering the nature of the estate assets, including where property is jointly-owned, and how that might impact on the distribution of assets.
• Giving confusing or contradictory instructions about how an estate is to be divided, or failing completely to give any instructions about who the beneficiaries are.
• Not considering the financial implications of dividing the estate – capital gains tax, stamp duty, foreign resident tax rates.

The key risk is that the Will maker does not get proper, up to date, complete advice about all of the issues that they should consider when doing their Will. A good solicitor will talk to a Will maker for up to an hour about their particular situation, consider their assets and liabilities, alert the client to possible problems, discuss issues that might arise in the future, advise about how their wishes might or might not give rise to family disputes.

DIY Will kits or DIY online Wills are a false economy. They may seem cheap but can cause lots of expense after your death, not to mention delays and the distress to your loved ones in dealing with the mess.

Our Wills and Estates Lawyers can help you with preparing a Will, Enduring Power of Attorney or Company Power of Attorney and other Estate Planning documents. They can help you with preparing a death benefit nomination with your superannuation fund including a self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF).

Our Wills and Estates Lawyers can work with your financial advisor and/or accountant to structure an estate plan that protects your assets while also offering financial benefits like tax advantages – with this especially helpful where you have complex structures and trusts that need to be considered for succession planning.

Good estate planning is the wholistic process of looking at your assets and liabilities and how they should be dealt with when you are alive but are unable to make your own decisions (i.e. you might prepare an Enduring Power of Attorney and/or an Enduring Guardian document), and when you die (i.e. you might prepare a Will as well as other documents such as beneficiary nominations for superannuation and life insurance interests, deeds to pass control of family trusts, business succession agreements, company powers of attorney, etc).