A home made will is one prepared by the willmaker themselves. Maybe using a “will kit” or something found online or a digital recording. However made a home-made will is composed without the services of a lawyer and the benefit of individual legal advice. This may seem an economical and convenient approach to will-making. While …
An outline of a how a gift over works in a will. A gift over in a will is when the person designated to receive it has died, the gift then passes over to a substitute person, if so named to take.The substitute beneficiary only inherits if the main beneficiary has already died, not survived the deceased or died before attaining a vested interest.
What is the legal meaning of issue, remoter issue and similar terms in wills? Does it mean children? Are all descendants entitled to inherit in the same way?
Opposing a grant of probate, or contesting it you need to be able to show that you have a legal interest in the deceased estate.
An early inheritance of a mortgage-free home was given to the younger daughter at the time of her marriage. It was well understood by all family members at the time that the other older daughter would receive her inheritance when the last parent died. However things didn’t go to plan.
Image: Coat of Arms, Broken Hill Courthouse, NSW, by B Stead.
Many provisions in state and territory legislation on succession and wills allow for a willmaker to express a contrary intention in their will to override the statutory rule. Where a provision of succession legislation contains these words, it means that the statutory rule can be displaced, that is not apply in the administration of their estate, if a willmaker has expressed a different intention on the matter in their will as to what they want to have happen.
Why sever a joint tenancy? Severing a joint tenancy is relevant to joint co-owners passing on their property interests to their chosen descendants. Owning property with others in co-ownership can be either as joint tenants or tenants in common. The consequences of who inherits a co-owner’s share on death are different. It is important to …
If the words “descendants” and “children” are being used to describe beneficiaries in a will, is it intended by that any step-grandchildren are included?
Personal things can have great sentimental value and depending what they are possibly significant commercial value. It is helpful to leave instructions as to what they are and who you would like to have them. Read more on personal items and succession law >>
personal items, belongings or effects and similar expressions are often used by willmakers to leave instructions on what they want done with such things after they die. Those responsible with this are the people the willmaker has personally appointed and named in their will to represent them, their personal representatives or legal personal representatives.
The legal formalities to make a valid will require the will-maker to sign their will in the presence of at least two people, acting as formal witnesses to the event.
Signing a will in front of witnesses fulfils a protective function. Can anyone witness or attest the signing of a will? And what must they do? Read more >>
Who our ‘nieces and nephews’ are, if we have them, may seem so obvious as to not need mentioning, after all it is all in the family and identifying them should not be a problem.
Leaving a gift to be divided among “nieces and nephews” by will then, should be a simple matter. Not always, as circumstances and relationships may change from the time a will is made to the date of death.
Not everyone lives and works in the community in which they grew up, surrounded by family and friends.
Many leave to pursue opportunities elsewhere, maybe never to return. Family ties may weaken in time, and contact is lost. What if you want to leave them something in your will?
Illegitimate children are those born outside of marriage, or out of wedlock, in older terminology. These days the word “illegitimate” has largely been replaced in law by the term “ex-nuptial” – nuptial referring to marriage. Either way, can an ex-nuptial child inherit from their natural parents? Or contest a natural parent’s will for provision out of their estate? What if no will was left?
The residue of a deceased person’s estate is basically what is left over after the payment all costs in connection with the estate. That is, payment of funeral expenses, costs incurred in the administration of the estate, payment of the deceased’s debts, discharge of any liabilities and the distribution of any specific gifts made under the will.
A codicil is a short additional document, typically one or two pages, used to make a minor alteration to an existing will. Both the will and the codicil documents together form the “will” of the person. To be legally valid the codicil document must be signed and executed in front of witnesses in the same way as for a will.
A codicil is a convenient way to change an executor or trustee named in a will. For example in a situation where someone appointed as an executor has died a codicil can be used to replace them with someone else who is willing to act when the time comes. Read more.
A family tree outlining close family/next of kin relationships is useful in preparing to make a will, and as a reference in situations of intestacy.
Intestate means dying without a will. But sometimes even if a person has left a will there may be a partial intestacy. This is when the will does not effectively dispose of all of their property. If that happens the identified property falls into the residue of the estate and distributed according to what the person’s will states about disposal of the residue, and if silent, then according to the statutory intestacy rules. Read more on dying intestate. >>
If a deceased person has not left a will or if no document appearing to be a will can be found, they are said to have died intestate.
In ID 2014/6 the ATO addressed the question of whether the adult child was dependent on the parent at the time the parent died for the purposes of being a death benefit dependant. Losing a parent in these circumstances is particularly devastating. If the young person receives superannuation death benefits from their parent’s superannuation fund, would they be assessed on this money for income tax?
Per stirpes (Latin, meaning by the stock) and per capita (by the head) are ways in which a person’s estate can be distributed among their descendants. They are terms referring to the different ways of distributing property among a group or class of people.