Here in Australia, we plan for many things every single day and we take out such things as life insurance so that we can further plan down the line for the ones that we love. We take out the savings plans so that we will have money put away for that rainy day or that college fund. It seems strange then that even though we make plans all the time, many of us don’t plan for when we check out of this world and we have possessions that are left behind.
The last thing that we want is our family members squabbling over what is left over and in order to make sure that you don’t find your family in this situation, you need to make sure that you talk to affordable and professionalestate planners. Many people put this off because they don’t want to think about their demise but it can have a real impact on your loved ones if you don’t have things in place pointing out exactly who gets what and when.
The following are just some of the top reasons why estate planning in Australia is incredibly important for all of us.
- It protects those that you love – People often say that you shouldn’t mix money and family and this is advice worth paying attention to. You don’t have to be really rich to create conflict within your family and you only need to own your own property for issues to arise after you die. It’s important that you get it put down on paper about who gets the property when you pass away or if it is to be divided equally among your kids.
- It reduces the tax burden – If you have a substantial estate and you die without having plans in place then this leaves everything that you have wide open to the Australian Revenue Services. This is why it is important that you take the time to maybe transfer all or some of your assets to the people that you’re going to leave them to anyway. You can always put dates in place as to when ownership changes hands to protect yourself a little.
- You keep your family together – You wouldn’t believe the amount of Australian families that drift far apart after the death of a loved one. It wasn’t down to the loss of this individual but it was down to the fact that family members were fighting over what was left behind. As was mentioned briefly before, you can’t mix family and money in this life unless you are really looking for trouble. By making sure that estate planning is in place, you make all of the decisions so that you don’t leave it down to your family members to do it properly.
You need to start thinking about talking to an estate planner today so that your assets are protected and your loved ones are as well. You do not want to leave them with a massive tax burden.
