Children

Contract to Make Mutual Wills

A Contract to make Mutual Wills is an agreement between 2 parties (usually a husband and wife, but can be a same sex couple or a de facto couple) to make Wills in an agreed form.

Usually, they provide that the parties may not act such that those Wills don’t get given effect to, such as:

  • revoking or destroying the Will;
  • making a new Will; or
  • disposing of assets so that they do not pass to the agreed beneficiaries

without the consent of the other party (or the executors/administrators of their estate  if they have died).

Often they are put in place when the parties have had a prior marriage or marriages and there are children of the prior relationship/s and the current relationship.

The benefit of such contracts (or deeds as they often are) is that the parties can take some comfort in providing for the other during their lifetimes (for example by gifting their entire estates to each other in their Wills), but with the overall distribution of their combined estates (on the death of the last of them) passing as agreed in the Wills made pursuant to the document.

Where a party breaches the agreement (such as by changing their Will), that party (or their estate) may be sued by the other party (or their executors/administrators if they have died) for breach of contract.

Whilst mutual Wills can be an effective estate planning tool, they are not for everyone and they can cause unintended complications due to their inflexibility, particularly around subsequent marriages, children and unexpected events following the death of a party.

As with most things, there are also other options or alternatives to consider to get a similar result, including creating life interests in real estate or establishing trusts.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Craig Pryor is principal solicitor at McKillop Legal. For further information in relation to estate planning, business succession or any other commercial law matter, contact Craig Pryor on (02) 9521 2455 or email craig@mckilloplegal.com.au.

This information is general only and is not a substitute for proper legal advice. Please contact McKillop Legal to discuss your estate planning needs.

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in Asset Protection / Dispute Resolution / Estate Planning / General / Probate / Trusts  by 15 Jan 2019 0 comments

School zones in operation

REMINDER: School zones will be operational again from Monday, 30 January 2017.

40km/h school zones help protect children on their way to and from schools at the times and places where they are often in high numbers. School zone signs, pedestrian crossings and dragon’s teeth road markings improve the visibility of school zones.

in General  by 29 Jan 2017 0 comments

Planning on giving money to your kids?

THERE ARE BETTER WAYS TO HELP YOUR KIDS THAN A GIFT

Most parents want to give their kids a headstart in life. Often, this takes the form of money for a car or a deposit for a first home.

Have you considered what would happen to that money if your son or daughter either:

  • broke up with their partner,
  • passed away; or
  • ran into financial difficulties or became a bankrupt?

There are better ways to help your kids than a simple gift of money – protect it so it can continue to be used for their benefit even if they get into financial trouble.

If you give money to your kids, it won’t automatically come back to you if any of those things happen

  • on their separation or divorce, it would be an asset of their relationship and be available for distribution between your son or daughter and their partner under the Family Law Actor the Property (Relationships) Act.
  • on death, those funds will flow to their beneficiaries as stated in their Will (or if they don’t have a Will, in accordance with the laws of intestacy).
  • on bankruptcy, their trustee in bankruptcy will be able to use those funds to pay themselves and any creditors.

In order to protect against these types of events, the advance needs to be documented as a loan. In the absence of such a document, the “presumption of advancement” applies because of the relationship of parent and child and it will be considered a gift.

If your child died, got into financial strife or had matrimonial issues, the loan could be called in – and would be available to lend again once things had settled.

Ideally, in addition to a Loan Agreement, some form of security for the loan could be provided, such as a Mortgage or Caveat over land or a Security Interest registered on the Personal Property Securities Register.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Craig Pryor is principal solicitor at McKillop Legal. For further information in relation to litigation and dispute resolution or any commercial law matter, contact Craig Pryor on (02) 9521 2455 or email craig@mckilloplegal.com.au.

 

in Estate Planning / Probate / Tax Planning  by 20 Sep 2016 0 comments