Life is often not what we imagined, both the good and bad. Life is so unpredictable but that is what makes it fun!
The only thing that is predictablie is that it will end.
Whilst alive, many of us have accumulated savings and used structures to avoid tax and preditors. Examples include superannuation structures like an SMSF, family wealth structures like a Discretionary Trust or a company to manage the business. However, in illness and death these structures need correct handling to prevent planning gaps leaking your wealth.
These structures need plans in place to correctly hand over control to those you want to have control when you can no longer fill that duty. They need protection strategies to ensure that the control is not abused and those who should benefit do benefit.
The documents required to manage a company / trust / SMSF in illness and death are often not included in many packages of Wills, Powers of Attorney and Guardianship or the original set up documents. If these are the only documents you have then your Estate Plan may have holes in it through which your legacy could leak.
As many of our clients have these structures, we
plan for their handover in our Estate Planning package. Our package includes documents to deliver control to your desired person at the appropriate time and with protections in place to limit that power.
Many of us have given verbal instructions only to see them not followed with unintended fallout. To prevent this when you are ill or passed on, it is important that the instructions are correctly documented and cover as many bases as possible.
I know: your brain is aching just thinking about having to predict all the scenarios you need to cover. Don't worry, that is our expertise. We help you work through the potential pitfalls and work with our specialist legal firm to bring those instructions into documents that have power.
So if you have a SMSF, company or trust, contact us on 02 8013 5205 or via our contact us form. We will help you prepare a comprehensive estate plan to plug any potential leaks of your wealth.