Wills & Estate Planning Lawyers in Perth
Our legal team provide wills and estate planning advice.
During your lifetime, effective estate planning will ensure that should you suffer from physical ill health or mental incapacity, others can make decisions on your behalf or act on your directions.
At Davies & Co Lawyers our services include:
A Will is the legal document that describes how you wish your assets to be distributed upon your death. A Will also allows you to choose an Executor who will be responsible for making sure your wishes are met.
Discretionary and Non-Discretionary Trusts are often created in Wills.
In a Discretionary Trust, the distribution of income and capital is made at the discretion of the Trustee.
In a Non-Discretionary Trust, often referred to as a “Bare Trust”, the Trustee has no discretion and must transfer to the beneficiary of the Trust, on demand, legal ownership of assets within the Trust.
If you establish a Discretionary Trust in your Will, it will be valid for a period of 80 years from the date of your death, which means that the Trust is capable of distributing income across multiple generations, protecting assets from marital disputes and creditors.
An EPOA is a legal document that:
You can make an EPOA that is either:
In order for an attorney to deal with land transactions on your behalf, the EPOA must be registered with Landgate.
An EPOG is a legal document that authorises a person of your choice, to make important personal, lifestyle and treatment decisions on your behalf, should you ever lose the legal capacity to make such decisions yourself. This person is known as an enduring guardian.
An enduring guardian could be authorised to make decisions about things such as where you live, the support services you have access to and the treatment you receive.
An enduring guardian cannot be authorised to make property or financial decisions on your behalf.
When making an EPOG:
Alternatively, you may restrict the decision-making authority of your enduring guardian. For example, you may authorise your enduring guardian to make decisions about any treatment you receive, but not about where you live or who you associate with.
When making an EPOG you must also determine the circumstances under which your enduring and substitute enduring guardians will act. For example, you might direct that your enduring guardian act only when they are in the same State as you.
Contact our legal team today for a confidential discussion on a Enduring Power of Guardianship.
An AHD is a legal document that enables you to make decisions now about the treatment you would want – or not want – to receive if you ever became sick or injured and were incapable of communicating your wishes. In such circumstances, your AHD would effectively become your voice.
The term ‘treatment’ includes medical, surgical and dental treatments, including palliative care and life sustaining measures.
An AHD would come into effect only if it applied to the treatment you required and only if you were unable to make reasoned judgements about a treatment decision at the time that the treatment was required.
An AHD sits at the top of the hierarchy of treatment decision-makers. (The hierarchy sets the order in which health professionals must seek treatment decisions when treating a person with a decision-making disability). This means that even if you had an enduring guardian, the health professional would be obliged to follow your wishes as outlined in your AHD, except in very limited circumstances.
Contact our legal team today for a confidential discussion on Advance Health Directives (AHD).
Probate Lawyers in Perth WA
Our experienced probate lawyers provide advice for probate and letters of administration.
The Supreme Court of Western Australia deals with all matters relating to Wills and the administration of deceased estates. It does so by making one of the following grants:
Letters of Administration with the Will annexed are normally granted to an appropriate person (who will usually be a beneficiary of the deceased’s estate) where a deceased person has not nominated an Executor in their Will, or the nominated Executor is unable or unwilling to apply for a grant of probate.
Letters of Administration are normally granted to an appropriate person (who will usually be a beneficiary of the deceased’s estate) where a deceased person has died without leaving a valid Will.
An application must be made to the Supreme Court to obtain a grant. Banks, financial institutions and government agencies may refuse to allow any dealings with the deceased persons assets until the Supreme Court has made a grant in favour of an Executor or an Administrator.
Contact our legal team today for a confidential discussion in regards to our Probate services in Perth.