Wills, Power of Attorney, Enduring Guardianship & Probate

Wills

Having a properly prepared Wills is one of the most significant tasks you will undertake in your life. Making a Will can be simple but for your Will to be valid, it needs to satisfy a number of legal requirements.

Our wills & estate planning team is highly experienced in the Will planning & preparation area. We are able to ensure that all vital requirements are fulfilled, and advise you on factors to consider, ensuring that upon your death, your estate is distributed in accordance with your wishes.

We also can make recommendations regarding:

• Enduring power of attorney
• Enduring guardianship
• Insurance
• Superannuation fund beneficiaries
• Establishment of trusts.
• We will act on your instructions and put all necessary arrangements in place.

Power of Attorney

A Power of Attorney is a legal document giving the person you appoint the power to do anything in law that you can do, e.g: pay bills, buy and sell real estate or shares, open and operate bank accounts, enter into litigation, and enter into nursing home and hostel contracts. You can also appoint more than one POA and have them either act together or separately.

Types of Power of Attorney

There are different types of Power of Attorney available, depending upon your needs both now and into the future. The team at Santosh Lawyers & Consultants can work with you to determine the most appropriate form of Attorney and then prepare the relevant documentation to ensure that your financial and legal affairs are taken care of properly.

• An active Power of Attorney is one where you direct an individual or organisation to act immediately to make your financial and legal decisions
• A dormant Power of Attorney is one in which the document is activated if and when required
• An enduring Power of Attorney is a permanent arrangement that will remain effective even if you suffer loss of capacity due to illness or unsoundness of mind 
• A limited Power of Attorney is restricted as to time or to carrying out only certain tasks.

Enduring Guardianship

An Enduring Guardianship appoints one or more persons of your choosing to make lifestyle or personal decisions on your behalf, in the event that you lose the capacity to make these types of decisions yourself. These can include decisions about where you live and the type of medical treatment you receive, for example.

Our estates planning lawyers can guide and advise you in the important area of making an enduring guardianship appointment.

Should you wish to limit the types of decisions your guardian can make for example, or provide directions about how they should enact their responsibilities, we can incorporate these intentions into the enduring guardianship appointment.

We would be pleased to discuss your particular circumstances with you, and how an enduring guardianship can help you.

Probate

When a will is drawn up, it should nominate an executor or a group who will assume responsibility for distributing the estate in accordance with the terms of the will.

Upon the death of the person who wrote the will, in many cases, an application needs to be made to the court for 'probate', which approves the validity of the will and the right of the executor to enact its terms. In Australia, the application is made to the Probate Registry of the Supreme Court.

Where a person has died without a valid will, they are regarded as having died intestate. In this circumstance, a spouse, defacto spouse or another close family relative can apply to the Supreme Court to be appointed as "administrator" of the estate. If approved, they are granted 'letters of administration' (equivalent of Probate).