Resources for me

Talking about and planning for loss of mental capacity and death of you and your partner can be hard.

But estate planning isn’t just for parents and the elderly.  Everyone should have an effective estate plan in place that protects you, your family and your wealth.

Effective estate planning offers protection and peace of mind, by:

• ensuring that you understand the 5 stages, 7 rules and 7 risks of effective estate planning so that you can make an informed decision about everything that needs to be considered
• determining who is to manage your assets and what is to happen with your personal care if you lose your mental capacity – also known as a power of attorney and a guardianship appointment
• putting in place an optional testamentary trust will for what is to happen on death, ensuring taxation benefits and risk protection benefits for your beneficiaries
• aligning your estate planning to your personal and financial circumstances, ensuring the best possible outcome for you and your family
• providing a record of what you have chosen to do and why on your loss of capacity and death, so that you and your family have a point of reflection for future review, giving peace of mind and saving you future time and cost

Ultimately, you are leaving yourself andyour family at risk.

If you lose your mental capacity and you don’t have a signed power of attorney and guardianship appointment:

• even your own spouse cannot make financial and personal decisions for you;
• an application may need to be made to a government tribunal for someone to be appointed to manage your financial needs and personal care;
• this person may not be your  first choice and they may not manage your  affairs as you would want them managed.

Without an effective optional testamentary trust will in place, assets may not pass in the way you want and your beneficiaries may lose out:

• your beneficiaries may pay unnecessary tax on the income from investment of the gifts you make to them;
• your assets may be exposed to the various risks that need to be taken into account when passing assets on death.

There are 5 stages, 7 rules and 7 risks to consider for what happens if you  lose mental capacity and when you die.

By being aware of these, you can quickly and easily develop complete estate planning, ensuring that your family and your wealth gets the taxation benefits and risk protection benefits of effective estate planning in the way you want.

• Stage 1 – The fact find | Identifying your personal and financial circumstances.
• Stage 2 – What happens on loss of capacity | Determining who is to manage your assets if you lose mental capacity, also known as your power of attorney and your guardianship appointment.
• Stage 3 – What happens on death | Determining the plan for what you want to happen when you die, including with your assets.
• Stage 4 – Tax and risk | If Stage 3 is about what happens when you die, Stage 4 is about how you want it to happen. This stage is all about showing you how testamentary trusts and other protective measures can save tax and protect assets against the risks that need to be considered when passing assets on death.
• Stage 5 – Housekeeping | Housekeeping to align your personal and financial circumstances to get the best possible outcome from your estate planning.

The 7 rules of effective estate planning are set out below. Follow the rules unless there are reasons not to and then, make decisions to suit.

• Rule 1 – Expectations | Manage expectations of your family and beneficiaries by having the hard conversations now to avoid disharmony later.
• Rule 2 – Answer | There is no correct answer. Estate planning is about making the informed decisions that are right for you.
• Rule 3 – Trust | Ensure that you trust the people that you give assets to and/or who will be in control of your assets if you lose capacity and when you die.
• Rule 4 – Shadows | Don’t box at shadows. Normally passing control of assets on loss of mental capacity and passing control and/or ownership on death happens very smoothly, so why complicate it by providing for things that are not likely to happen?
• Rule 5 – Tax & flexibility | Keep your estate planning documents as flexible as possible while allowing for tax planning opportunities.
• Rule 6 – Years of law | Trust the process. Unless you require something specific, it is likely that the documents used and the provisions of them will be right for you.
• Rule 7 – Review | Estate planning is not set and forget. Plan based on your current circumstances and revisit it every year when you do your tax.

• • Risk 1 – Spendthrift | What if an intended beneficiary is not good at managing money and you want to protect them against that?
  • Risk 2 – Special Need | What if an intended beneficiary has a physical and/or intellectual disability that means they are not able to manage their gift themselves?
  • Risk 3 – Special Need | What if an intended beneficiary develops a drugs, alcohol, gambling or mental illness problem before they take control of their gift?
  • Risk 4 – Bankruptcy | What if your intended beneficiary is bankrupt when you die or becomes bankrupt after having inherited assets from you?
  • Risk 5 – Betrayal | Will your surviving partner change their will after your death and disinherit your children or other intended beneficiary? Will they give the wealth away? Will they change the plan?
  • Risk 6 – Divorce | If you are a couple making their wills and 1 of you dies, what happens after you die if the surviving partner forms a new relationship and it breaks down? Will the assets that you intend to eventually pass to your children or other intended beneficiaries be exposed in a claim by the surviving partner’s new partner?
  • Risk 7 – Death | If you are a couple makingyour wills and one of you die, what happens if the surviving partner forms a new relationship, the surviving partner dies and does not make adequate provision under their will for their new life partner? Will the assets intended for the deceased couple’s children be exposed if the new life partner challenges the will of the now deceased surviving partner?

Risk 1 and Risk 2 require special treatment if you need to provide for them and they do not form part of the standard PaxAnimi documents. If you want a solution for Risk 1 or Risk 2, further work will be required.

Risk 3 and Risk 4 are dealt with as part of the optional testamentary documentation that is part of the standard PaxAnimi documents. These protections are automatically available to you by using the PaxAnimi service.

Risk 5, Risk 6 and Risk 7 are things about which you will make decisions as part of the standard PaxAnimi service.  The solution for the decision you make about each of the risks will be included in the documents.  If you want a solution other than for the standard solution, further work will be required.

When developing your estate planning, there are a number of options to be taken into consideration.  By helping you to choose what is best for your assets and your beneficiaries, you can create opportunities to reduce tax and maximise benefit for all parties involved.

Effective estate planning is a much more important task than completing a ‘will kit’ from the newsagent or a standard online will.  Without effective estate planning, you risk missing out on the tax benefits and risk protections usually dealt with by an effective Estate Planning Service.

That’s where PaxAnimi comes in.  PaxAnimi’s innovative Screening Tool goes far beyond a standard ‘will kit’ to deliver a comprehensive, online Estate Planning Service that can replace the need for costly, face-to-face legal advice of traditional estate planning and ensures you and your family are protected in the way you want.

The Standard OR The Simple. 

Testamentary trust v no Testamentary trust? Which solution to use.

Effectively preparing for your loss of capacity and death is about much more than purchasing and signing the usual online will, power of attorney and guardianship appointment or a $100 document kit from the newsagent.

Every day you protect and care for yourself and your family.  If you want to protect and care for your family, your family’s assets and your family’s future if you lose your capacity and when you die, you need effective estate planning, which is about much more than a set of documents.

Apart from signing a carefully considered will, power of attorney and guardianship appointment, effective estate planning ensures that what you want to happen when you lose capacity or die happens in the way you want it to happen and with the maximum effect.

Effective estate planning also deals with the taxation considerations for your family and the risks to your family’s assets if you lose your capacity or die.  PaxAnimi®’s innovative and unique online Screening Tool and fixed price effective estate planning service will lead you through each of these things.

PaxAnimi®’s innovative and unique online Screening Tool and fixed price effective estate planning service will bring your estate planning up to speed.  The way it should be, giving you peace of mind about your planning for loss of capacity and death.

You will not get all of that by purchasing and signing the usual online will, power of attorney and guardianship appointment or a $100 document kit from the newsagent.

You can get all of that by using PaxAnimi’s innovative and unique online Screening Tool and fixed price effective estate planning service.

Risk management and our standard solution for your effective estate planning

Our standard effective estate planning service deals with risks 3 to 7 of the 7 risks to the passing of wealth on death.  If you need a solution for risks 1 and 2, you will need to discuss that with us separately.

1. Risk 1 – SPENDTHRIFT – what if an intended beneficiary is not good at managing money and you want to protect them against that?
2. Risk 2 – SPECIAL NEED of a beneficiary – what if an intended beneficiary has a physical and/or intellectual disability that means they are not able to manage the wealth themselves?
3. Risk 3 – SPECIAL NEED of a beneficiary – what if an intended beneficiary develops a drugs, alcohol, gambling or mental illness problem before they take control of their gift?
4. Risk 4 – BANKRUPTCY of a beneficiary – what if your intended beneficiary is bankrupt when you die or becomes a bankrupt after you die having inherited assets from you?
5. Risk 5 – BETRAYAL by surviving partner – will your surviving partner change their will after your death and disinherit your children or other intended beneficiary? Will they give the wealth away?
6. Risk 6 – DIVORCE of a beneficiary – what if a relationship of a beneficiary breaks down (including a new relationship of your surviving partner after you die or a new relationship of a child)? Will the assets that you leave them be exposed in a claim by their partner?
7. Risk 7 – DEATH of a beneficiary – what if a beneficiary dies and their partner or children challenges their will as the deceased has not made adequate provision for their surviving partner or children? Will the assets that you intend to leave your surviving partner or children be exposed in a claim by their partner or children?

Taxation and our standard solution for your effective estate planning

Our standard effective estate planning service also does the following things for you:

1. Gives your surviving spouse and children or other intended beneficiary tax advantages after you die in the using of the personal wealth that you want to leave to them.
2. Gives your surviving spouse and each child or other intended beneficiary the option after you die to access those tax advantages through a tax effective and flexible trust that can come into existence on your death.
3. Gives your surviving spouse and each child or other intended beneficiary the option after you die to access those tax advantages through a tax effective and capital protected trust that can come into existence on your death.

Further benefits of our standard solution for your effective estate planning

Our standard effective estate planning service also does these further things for you:

1. Makes an allowance after you die that may be required to get equality between your children because during your life you have given more to one or more of them than to the others.
2. Transfers control of your companies and trusts after you die to your surviving spouse and eventually to your children but so that a majority of your children cannot do the wrong thing by a minority of them, where decisions need to be made by unanimous resolutions.
3. Staggers the timing for the passing of control after you die of the gifts you intend for your beneficiaries so that the beneficiaries do not get control of too much wealth too soon.
4. Gives you the knowledge of what housekeeping needs to be done so that you can make sure that assets pass as you want and you can maximise the risk and taxation benefits of using testamentary trusts after you die.

PaxAnimi®’s Simple Solution: If you don’t want the above things from your estate planning, PaxAnimi®’s simple and effective estate planning solution will do what you need.

PaxAnimi® offers 2 services based on your needs and choices. The standard service and the simple service, is based on the following 2 things:

Whether you ask for tax effective use of gifts you make under your will

1. Whether you ask for your beneficiaries to be able to tax effectively use the income from the investment of any gift you make to them
2. Whether you say you are concerned about at least 1 of the following:

• A partner/spouse of a beneficiary getting control of a testamentary trust set up for a beneficiary
• A partner/spouse of a beneficiary being a capital beneficiary of a testamentary trust set up for a beneficiary
• Risk 4 (bankruptcy of a beneficiary)
• Risk 6 (divorce of a beneficiary)
• Risk 7 (death of a beneficiary and a challenge to their will)

If you ask for any 1 of these 2 things, you will be able to choose to use PaxAnimi®’s standard service.

If you don’t ask for any 1 of these 2 things, you must accept that your estate planning is not going to do any of the above things for you.

If you are undecided about which of PaxAnimi®’s services to use, as a guide, if you have between $1,000,000 and $2,000,000 of personal wealth, the risk management and taxation benefits that form part of our standard fixed price effective estate planning service provide a very powerful estate planning solution.  That is a guide only, as amounts of up to $1,000,000 can also do that.  Those amounts include wealth that may arise from superannuation, including life insurance inside superannuation and they include wealth that may arise from life insurance from outside of superannuation.

2. Concessional taxation treatment

3. Streaming of income

If, 8 years after the date of the Wilson’s death, the home is sold and a $200,000 capital gain arises, income streaming could be used to eliminate the gain with no tax being payable.

As the asset (home) had been held in the trust for more than 1 year, there is only a taxable capital gain of $100,000 after the 50% general capital gain tax discount is applied.

If Tom’s wife had capital losses of $100,000, the capital gain could be streamed to the wife, resulting in no tax at all being payable on the $100,000 taxable capital gain.

This streaming example is only an example, but it shows the power of being able to stream income with different characters to different beneficiaries, which can also apply to dividends with the attached franking credit benefit.

The above things could only happen if the shares, cash and investment property were taken in a testamentary trust (or 4 testamentary trusts) instead of Tom’s name personally and the testamentary trusts have all of the required provisions in it to allow the best taxation outcome.

In summary, through considered and comprehensive estate planning, the Wilson’s were able to protect their beneficiaries and save them:

• $52,743 in tax by splitting the income through multiple testamentary trusts including to a company
• approximately a further $33,262 in tax by also paying income to minor beneficiaries instead of to a company
• $100,000 by streaming income tax effectively