You’ve spent your whole life building your legacy, so make sure that everything you leave behind is in the right hands. We specialise in providing expert legal guidance and personalised solutions for all your wills and estate planning needs. From drafting a will, to establishing a trust, the Coulter Legal team is here to support you every step of the way. Protect your family and the wealth you’ve worked so hard to build with our dedicated Wills & Estate Planning services.
No one knows what the future holds, but you can be certain about what you leave behind. No matter your age, if you have assets, it’s important you have a legally binding Will. This will ensure your assets are inherited by the people you choose and that the handling of your estate follows your wishes.
In the modern family and household, simply having a standalone Will prepared is often insufficient. The best and most effective Estate Plan is created when all facets of the plan are considered and addressed holistically.
My Estate Plan is the holistic Estate Planning offering from our team at Coulter Legal. Our goal is to ensure that our clients receive comprehensive Estate Planning support tailored to their individual circumstances, needs and wishes, ensuring that all relevant factors are properly considered and addressed at any stage of life.
Solutions range from more straightforward suites of documents, such as Wills and Powers of Attorney, to comprehensive solutions that cover current and future matters, including superannuation, trusts and other entities, future family planning and future asset planning.
My Estate Plan is designed to grow with you as your Estate Planning needs change and evolve. This is the Estate Plan for young people, families, professionals, business owners, investors, retirees and everyone in between.
We provide our clients with price certainty, which means the price you choose is exactly what you will pay – nothing more.
Our process ensures we properly understand the outcomes you are seeking to achieve, what is really important to you, how much engagement you would like and what you wish to include or exclude as part of the process. This occurs before we provide our pricing proposal to you, so you choose your price and won’t ever receive a bill from us that you haven’t pre-authorised.
Our pricing options will be presented as:
If you receive our pricing proposal and wish to proceed, you simply choose the option that suits you and we will take it from there. If you do not wish to proceed during this initial phase, that is absolutely fine and you will only pay a fee of $275.00 (including GST) for the initial meeting with your lawyer. Either way, we won’t start work before you choose your price and are comfortable proceeding.
The Executor of your Will is responsible for administering your estate and following your Will. You can appoint up to four Executors at any one time, and can also include substitutes, in case an Executor is incapable of acting. It helps to appoint people you trust who have a good understanding of your affairs and your values.
Your “estate” is basically your assets, less any liabilities you leave. While you are legally obliged to provide for particular persons in your life (i.e. your spouse and children), you can distribute your estate as you see fit. If we foresee any risks with your wishes, we will let you know. It is also worthwhile giving consideration to where your “bits and pieces” will go and whether you want any charities or causes to receive anything from your estate.
Once you have decided who you wish to benefit, you should also think about how you want your estate to pass. For example, if beneficiaries are quite young, who looks after their share during that time? Do you want to ensure your children’s share is protected if they become exposed to asset risk? If leaving a share to a charity, do you want to direct how the charity uses the funds? We can walk you through your options if you want to include a little more structure around how your beneficiaries receive their share.
You can provide direction about the guardianship of your young children in your Will, including who you would prefer look after them and your wishes more generally (i.e. what school they attend). If you have a number of wishes in this regard, you might like to collate them in a document that sits alongside your Will, which you can update more regularly.
Your Will can also help your loved ones when it comes time to make decisions about your funeral and how your body is dealt with after your death, including whether your organs are to be donated and your preferences to be buried or cremated. It always helps to discuss these matters with your loved ones, so they have a good understanding of your wishes, but the inclusion in your Will can provide further comfort.
Your superannuation and life insurance sits outside your Will, but it needs to be considered as it is often another significant asset. It helps to consider why you hold these assets (i.e. are they there to pay off large liabilities?) and make sure they pass in a way that aligns with your intentions. We can also provide you with some recommendations to minimise the tax that might otherwise be payable on these types of assets.
Your Will won’t take effect until you pass away, so it is also worthwhile having a think about how you would like your affairs dealt with if you became incapacitated. For example, who do you want making decisions about where you live, who would you want handling your finances, who would step in and look after your children’s interests?
The documents which allow you to appoint people to make these decisions for you are known as Powers of Attorney, you can find out more Powers of Attorney here.
* this list is not exhaustive, as it could go on forever! The best way to ensure you are 100% comfortable with what happens if you pass away or become incapacitated is to run through it all with one of our lawyers.
Find out more about what to consider when making a Will here.