Where there’s a will there’s also grief and greed

EVERY year about 160,000 Australians die – that’s roughly the population of Cairns.

When you lose a loved one, the last thing you need is financial complications.

To ensure you’re ready to handle the money side when a family member dies, it’s worth understanding some common estate-planning fallacies.

Resolution Legal Melbourne accredited mediator Tim Whitehead said one false assumption was that once a valid will existed, “then that will just be how it is, and it couldn’t be challenged”.

“Well, clearly we have very detailed laws about how a will can indeed be challenged,” he said. The industry was “distasteful”, Mr Whitehead said. “But it’s certainly a very, very lucrative area because usually all the legal costs for everyone, win or lose, come out of the estate,” he said, adding that fees could be $600 an hour.

“Lawyers feel free to charge at extraordinary rates, and people feel free to have a crack and say, ‘Well, I’ll challenge the will – if I get nothing, that’s OK

MoneysaverHQ editorial

Almost everyone needs a will.

Even young adults have assets, such as smartphones.

Composing a will with legal aid usually costs hundreds, not thousands, of dollars.

Don’t worry about inheritance tax – it was abolished in 1979.

because someone else will bear those costs. Not my problem’.”

Usually an estranged child, the challenger claims to have been close to the deceased. “And the rest of the family will know you were left out of the will because you had no relationship with your parents,” Mr Whitehead said.

“And then you try to prove what relationship someone had. And it’s very tricky.”

Another trap was thinking a do-it-yourself post office kit was fine “when in fact it’s like buying a brain surgery kit and giving that a go yourself – doing it yourself at home”, he said.

Avoid assuming self-service will save $200 “when it can end up involving $20,000 to $30,000 in legal fees as people fight over what you meant”. “It’s a bit tragic when these things happen,” Mr Whitehead said.

Avoid bequeathing a house without further thought.

If you later sell and buy another house without updating your will, the person who was supposed to get the original house could receive nothing, Mr Whitehead said.

Adams Legal estate expert Stephen Quartermain warned against forgoing the paperwork.

“Without a will, your family will lack the power to make many important decisions,” he said. “They will be bound by what the law dictates.”

This means you lose control of who gets your assets, for instance. A second myth Mr Quartermain identified is that remaining family members would inevitably stay civil.

“Unfortunately, the prospect of money changes everything,” he said. “Disputes over deceased estates can be long and expensive.

“The clearer you are in your will about how you want your estate divided up, the lower the chance of relationshipdestroying disputes.”