Robson Chartered Accountants Business & Finanical Advisors - Gosford - Central Coast - NSW

Estate planning

This is all too often put in the too hard basket but if you don't want to leave your loved ones in a financial mess when you finally leave this world then Estate Planning is the way to go.

This is an area of massive neglect in Australia and it causes many financial and family problems when loved ones pass away.

At Switzer Financial Services we can help you create the financial outcomes for the ones you care about.

Estate planning is based on the idea that a will is not the only document you leave behind when you die.

A will is a starting point but Estate Planning goes a number of steps further. A will allocates the assets that are held in your name.

If you have a business you might want to set up a structure that means the business can trade on without you. You might want to sell the business and create the most tax-effective way to do this. Estate planning can ensure these outcomes are delivered.

Estate planning involves the will, trusts, beneficiary designations, powers of appointment, property ownership (joint tenancy with rights of survivorship, tenancy in common, tenancy by the entirety), gift, and powers of attorney, specifically the durable financial power of attorney and the durable medical power of attorney. After widespread litigation and media coverage surrounding the Terri Schiavo case, virtually all estate planning attorneys weasel wordsnow advise clients to also create a living will. Specific final arrangements, such as whether to be buried or cremated, are also often part of the documents. And more sophisticated estate plans may even cover deferring or decreasing estate taxes or winding up a business.

Many people (and even some attorneys) confuse a living will with a durable medical power of attorney. A living will sets out directives concerning end of life decisions, whereas a durable power of attorney gives all medical decision making authority to an appointed individual upon incapacity, including end of life decisions. Some people have both a living will and a health care power of attorney. Some, who wish to give complete discretion to a loved one, including end of life decision, have only a health care power of attorney.