Our expert team consider every aspect of your current circumstances and financial situation, to ensure that every aspect of your legacy is covered.

This includes looking at your assets and superannuation and any liabilities, your beneficiaries (the people you wish to benefit from your estate), appointing an executor (who will administer your estate and carry out instructions), any specific gifts or instructions you might wish to make, appointing guardians for your children, joint ownership of assets, organ donation and funeral arrangements.

We can assist you with standard Wills and also Testamentary Trust wills, which offer asset protection and potential tax advantages. Testamentary Trust wills can be suitable for vulnerable beneficiaries and protecting inheritances on relationship breakdown, or upon bankruptcy. We can also assist with special disability trust wills, which are designed for beneficiaries who have a severe disability.

As Canberra’s trusted Will Lawyers, we have built a reputation for our passion, commitment and collaborative approach to your wills and estate planning needs and pride ourselves on receiving regular referrals from financial advisors, accountants, other laws and, most importantly, existing clients.

At MV Law, our highly experienced and knowledgeable team ensures creating your will is a relaxed and straightforward process. We understand this is something people put off and some people can find it to be an upsetting task, so our supportive team will help you feel completely at ease from start to finish.

We will talk you through everything in plain-English, and disclose all legal costs up-front. Whether you require a ‘simple’ Will and power of attorney or a suite of documents for your complex estate succession planning needs, our extensive knowledge and experience ensures that your objectives are met.

Working in collaboration with you and, where appropriate, your trusted financial and tax advisors, we take a holistic and tailored approach that considers every aspect of your current circumstances to ensure that your estate planning objectives are fully achieved.

To make a Will in Canberra, and anywhere in Australia, the Will needs to be in writing; signed and dated by you in front of two adult witnesses; and signed by the two witnesses. Your Will also needs to include key information like who you want to be your Executor, who will benefit from your estate (i.e. your beneficiaries), who will be guardian of your minor children, do you have any family heirlooms to gift to specific people etc.

Your Will can also provide instructions around your wishes for the disposal of your body after death (e.g. burial/cremation).

It is important you see a Wills and Estates specialist in Canberra to make a Will to ensure the Will accurately reflects your wishes and achieves what you want it to achieve.

There are many risks with using a DIY Will kit which could result in your homemade Will being invalid, challenged by family members or not achieving your testamentary wishes.

There are also many aspects to your estate planning that a Will lawyer will discuss with you that you may not have considered if you were to make your own Will.

For example, do you have superannuation or life insurance and who will receive these benefits? Many people are unaware that superannuation and life insurance death benefits might may not form part of your Estate and they might need to be dealt with separately to your Will as part of your estate planning.

Do you own a company or have a family trust that you need to ensure the succession of? To whom will you pass control of your family trust or company? Do you need to put in place some business succession agreements?

Have you considered who will be guardian of your minor children and how will they afford to raise your children if you are not around to look after them?

A Wills and Estates lawyer can make sure all of your circumstances are covered and alert you to issues that you might be unaware of and they can provide valuable advice and guidance that is bespoke to your needs and circumstances. You don’t know what you don’t know.

We have seen so many cases where DIY Will kits have caused more problems than they are worth. It is a false economy to think you can DIY with estate planning – there’s a risk you will get it wrong and end up causing delays and cost to your loved ones in dealing with the mess.

Examples of problems we have seen with DIY Will kits:

• Failure to sign and witness the DIY Will properly (this requires a special application to the Supreme Court to seek orders declaring an otherwise invalid Will as valid – assuming there’s enough evidence that the Will was intended to be valid but for the fact it wasn’t signed and/or witnessed properly).
• Failure to name any beneficiaries (we have seen DIY Will kits that appoint an executor but then don’t name any beneficiaries).
• Invalid gifts made in DIY Wills (such as gifts of assets that the Will-maker was not able to legally gift, like property owned by the Will-maker as joint tenants with another person or superannuation death benefits that won’t form part of the Will-maker’s estate).
• Failure to bequeath the Will-Maker’s residuary estate (such as where the Will makes specific gifts but then fails to deal with the residuary estate – i.e. the rest of the assets besides the specific gifts).

Problems with DIY Will kits usually require an application to the Supreme Court to try and ‘fix’ the problem. That means hassle for the executor and delay in the administration of the estate as well as added expense.

If someone dies without a Will, the rules of intestacy apply. Intestacy is simply where someone dies without a will. Under intestacy rules, there is a hierarchy of next-of-kin such as spouses, children, grandchildren, parents and siblings, who will inherit your estate. If you die without a Will, this may result in your estate going to family members that you may not have wanted to benefit.

Read more about intestacy >>

Read more about if someone dies without a Will >>

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. We have a Bronze, Silver and Gold Wills pricing structure. Our fees offer a bit of a discount for couples who are making ‘mirror’ Wills. Please contact us to obtain further information about our prices.

To make a valid Will, the Will needs to be:

a) in writing;
b) signed and dated by you in the presence of two adult witnesses; and
c) signed by the two witnesses.

To ensure the Will is clear, achieves your wishes, and includes all information that is needed to be included in a Will, we recommend you see a Wills and Estates lawyer for advice and assistance in preparing your Will.

Beware DIY Will kits or DIY online Wills. They are a false economy. They may seem cheap but they are often done wrong (we’ve seen plenty that are legally invalid) and you don’t get the benefit of advice from a Will specialist who will take into account all your personal circumstances and provide advice bespoke to you.