This week on the same day I had clients wanting or needing reassurance on who are their beneficiaries.

The first client sadly appears to have started the road to divorce when

‘Need her removed asap for any financial benefits from my death between now and the official divorce.’

 So that requires changing the beneficiaries on a will.

 Now under super that has rules on who can be beneficiaries & it is best & expected to read your super document PDS for whom qualifies to be a dependant.

Of course it is also available to those who make & change the rules because they can & can be found here .

So it can’t be your brother who is your age & it can’t be with your parents as neither are financially dependant on you.

But it could be your young children if they are financially dependant on you.*

My barrister client who specialises in such matters emphasised how important it was to redo his will expeditiously as currently the future ex spouse is arguably still the legal representative.


The second example was from a retired client who enjoys share trading.

He has his recent pension statements &  it now appoints his legal representative for his estate.
 
He argued that he wanted his children from which he has grandchildren to each have a percentage of his estate.

Again this falls under super rules & so the above rules apply.

As with all paperwork the super fund has his signed 11/04/18 witnessed by a JP. Document to his estate after my advice but he had not remembered doing this.


The third example is a young tradie electrician who has earned ‘good money’ as a FIFO worker before starting out on his own.  His super with an industry fund with a sizeable insurance premium has his father, sister & brother as beneficiaries. This is not valid as it was DIY with no advice &  hence will a payout goes to his estate where the solicitors fees could be up to 30% of the 102,000. Yes I have seen that.

Of course there are other solutions but super nominations is where I start from.

As 50% have not done any estate planning then I as an estate facilitator can start today when you click now onto your unique encrypted link to do at home in your own time with all your paperwork to help you. 

The next step to meet the estate planning specialist.

Yes it needs to be done before you need it and before the marbles are lost.

John McAuliffe