General Estate Planning issues (Wills, PoA, AHDs)

[Milboo]

Your wife says she will not contest, but she may actually do it under pressure of family etc.

And if you are bypassing her, how do you leave her an income stream? That means it’s an asset - that you say goes to your daughter.

And stop chasing for a free consult. Stump up the cash and consider it an investment in your family’s future. A lawyer will tell you diddly squat in a free consult and you’ll end up paying for the time regardless.

 

[Pushka]

Not cutting anyone out. Not diddling anyone. This has been discussed with wife. We leave everything to daughter. Wife will not contest. The crux of the matter is I don't want anyone in Thailand with the ability to claim anything from what I have worked hard to achieve. Assets must stay in Australia. We can work on some sort of regular income stream.

Note these issues are not that simple. Perhaps trusts are the way to go. I'm not yet prepared to spend thousands on lawyers. Maybe a free visit to a lawyer, if that's possible, with my thoughts and a quote on what it will cost then we decide further.

If you don’t have a will then there is no choice as to what happens to any of your estate. It then gets decided by the Public Trustee through legislation and the wheels of the bus go round and round, round and round, round and round.

 

[get me outta here]

No will = public trustee taking large $$$$ slab and mismanagement, anything could happen including the exact opposite of what you want

No will = no control at all by anyone in your family

No will = small $ saving now for major cost to your daughter later

Some states have free 10 min lawyer advice appointments at lunch times. See if you can access to discuss

Getting tired I am of reading and writing the repeating info and advice.

Not cutting anyone out. Not diddling anyone. This has been discussed with wife. We leave everything to daughter. Wife will not contest. The crux of the matter is I don't want anyone in Thailand with the ability to claim anything from what I have worked hard to achieve. Assets must stay in Australia. We can work on some sort of regular income stream.

Note these issues are not that simple. Perhaps trusts are the way to go. I'm not yet prepared to spend thousands on lawyers. Maybe a free visit to a lawyer, if that's possible, with my thoughts and a quote on what it will cost then we decide further.

 

[JohnK]

Getting tired I am of reading and writing the repeating info and advice.

Advice appreciated and noted. Buy a will kit and get will done as per our wishes.

Simple right?

 

[get me outta here]

NOoooo

Advice appreciated and noted. Buy a will kit and get will done as per our wishes.

Simple right?

 

[Flying mermaid]

Advice appreciated and noted. Buy a will kit and get will done as per our wishes.

Simple right?

If you try and do it yourself there could be unintended consequences. I am not one to spend money on unnecessary things, but I paid for a lawyer to do our wills and it was worth every cent.

 

[cove]

I think we paid about $2000 for our two wills. Our affairs involve a unit trust, family trust and several companies and investments. Each year we try to simplify our financial affairs but our advisers are all thinking about retiring and we are still working.
@JohnK you really need to just get a proper will done as someone needs to administer the assets until your daughter is an adult.
The public trustee would not be my pick to handle that for such a period of time as they won’t know how to deal with the assets you have accumulated.

 

[JohnK]

@JohnK you really need to just get a proper will done as someone needs to administer the assets until your daughter is an adult.

Looks like people have written me off already! I hope to be around for quite a few more years. Haven't finished playing golf yet, I'm still on the front nine....

 

[zenyattamondatta]

Looks like people have written me off already! I hope to be around for quite a few more years. Haven't finished playing golf yet, I'm still on the front nine....

Perhaps channel some of that youthful vigour into being financially responsible?

 

[Flying mermaid]

Looks like people have written me off already! I hope to be around for quite a few more years. Haven't finished playing golf yet, I'm still on the front nine....

And I hope to be around another 20 (my mother lived to 90 as did most of my aunts), however that didn’t stop me some years ago putting in place a will and I have adult children. You have a two year old and obviously have concerns about her.

 

[serfty]

Haven't finished playing golf yet, I'm still on the front nine....

Have you ever 'lost' a ball in the middle of a fairway? (Good drive from the tee, strait down the guts disappearing into the distance in the centre of the fairway - never to be seen again )

Stuff happens ...

 

[Flying mermaid]

Have you ever 'lost' a ball in the middle of a fairway?

Stuff happens ...

Looks like people have written me off already! I hope to be around for quite a few more years. Haven't finished playing golf yet, I'm still on the front nine....

12 years ago Mr FM was 100% healthy - no medications, not a thing wrong. Played golf on the Monday with his regular group. Tuesday morning he was lying unconscious on the kitchen floor and nearly died. Took 2 years and major medical intervention (including brain surgery), to recover. Still a lot more fragile than he was.

What happened? A random bacterial infection that went to his brain and caused two abscesses. Couldn’t be allowed for, couldn’t be predicted and if one of the abscesses had burst, 99% mortality.

Stuff happens.

 

[Pushka]

Looks like people have written me off already! I hope to be around for quite a few more years. Haven't finished playing golf yet, I'm still on the front nine....

I’m guessing the 21 year old driving home from work near our place a couple of years ago thought the same thing when a tree fell on her car and killed her. Or the 2 pedestrians one being a teenager, who were killed crossing the road on a pedestrian crossing with their right of way, thought the same thing. Or our son’s teacher who was killed as a passenger in the northern parts of Adelaide when a tree fell on her. These were healthy young people. And you are always discussing your significant health issues so I have no idea what it is that you are waiting for, other than not spending the money on getting it done properly. Just do it, as they say, rightly in this case.

Buzz will know of the first couple of examples. There are plaques for each teenager on the two roads.

 

[JohnK]

Have you ever 'lost' a ball in the middle of a fairway? (Good drive from the tee, strait down the guts disappearing into the distance in the centre of the fairway - never to be seen again )

Stuff happens ...

Those crows around golf courses need to be culled. They're a health hazard to the sanity of golfers.

 

[Buzzard]

Spend the money @JohnK and get things done properly. As mentioned above there is no such thing as a free consultation with a lawyer.
On January 16 a healthy friend of ours celebrated her 57th birthday after work. On the 19th she was, and still is, on life support follow a brain bleed. Stuff happens John, the only problem is we don't know when.
And yes, get a cheap will kit. The lawyers will thank you for it

 

[Pushka]

More bad things about SA Public Trustee.

Adelaidenow.com.au

 

[cove]

If @JohnK reads the Lea story in the Sydney Morning Herald he would get a lawyer to do a Will on Monday.
No one knows when their time is up so it’s better to get it done sooner rather than later.
I seem to be losing two or more a year now that I am getting older.
I wouldn’t rely on the Public Trustee to administer an estate over 15 or more years.

 

[Milboo]

The Lea story was sad. They are being denied their own money, and forced to beg for household repairs. There must be a bigger story behind why they family cannot put in place alternate arrangements.

 

[JohnK]

I wouldn’t rely on the Public Trustee to administer an estate over 15 or more years.

So there are serious issues with the Public Trustee Australia wide and we focus on totally meaningless issues.

There's also huge issues with nursing homes and we focus on totally meaningless issues.

 

[Pushka]

So there are serious issues with the Public Trustee Australia wide and we focus on totally meaningless issues.

There's also huge issues with nursing homes and we focus on totally meaningless issues.

There’s a Royal Commission starting today looking at aged care.