Why Estate Planning prompts?
These Estate Planning prompts are should motivate you to start securing your wishes for your loved ones. A recurrence of life-changing incidents within a circle of contacts often brings the subject of Estate Planning back into focus. This is an area that each of us who –
- has dependants,
- particularly financial dependants,
owe it to them to ensure that what is provided for their ongoing well-being, is secured for them – and delivered in as timely a manner as possible.
Death, or profound disability are two such events that can leave a family wanting.
What is it?
Estate Planning is the process by which you try to provide for your dependants so that –
-
- the right amount,
- goes to the right people,
- at the right time!
Some issues needing consideration, include –
- Enduring Power of Attorney (financial; and health directive)
- Will (Last Will and Testament)
- Personal Risk Insurance
- Register of important documents
- Financial records
- Funeral arrangements.
Estate Planning expresses care for those who will be left behind. Any inadequacy of the above important elements –
- can add burden to your financial dependants,
- over and above the emotional stress they experience –
- with the serious injury or demise of their main provider.
A specialist Estate Planning legal firm dealt with these matters in this linked blog post. We encourage you to take this article as your prompt to start Estate Planning.
Not only should such documents/ records exist:
- at least a couple of people should be aware of their whereabouts, including
- any nominated executors,
- significant dependant beneficiaries, and/ or
- trustees – as well as,
- probably your financial advisers: accountant, financial planner etc.
Where investments are involved –
- particularly those that could bring a capital gains tax liability to bear,
- records as to –
- the purchase costs, and
- any major repair or renovation costs,
should be maintained.
In a register of important documents –
- refer to the nature of the document,
- what its significance is,
- details of any investment issues involved,
- location of documents and
- any comments that you consider pertinent to the matter.
Some additional Estate Planning prompts are –
For further, more detailed reading, consider reading a selection of the Estate Planning articles in our website Library. That series starts with ‘Estate Planning Outlined‘. We have linked other articles from the foot of each article in the 13-part series.
How to get your Estate Planning under way!
Continuum Financial Planners has estate planning-experienced advisers on their team. They are available to ensure that your bequest intentions are appropriately documented. Our structured process will ensure preparation of instructions for the estate planning lawyer in a way that will save you money in the process. To arrange an appointment with one of our team –
- phone our office on 07-34213456, or
- at your convenience, use the linked Book A Meeting facility.
We thank McKays Solicitors for allowing us to base our article on this topic on material found in their website.
(This article was originally posted by us in January 2010. We occasionally update/ refresh it, most recently in August 2025.)