SMSF Succession Planning: Why Your Self-Managed Super Fund Needs Its Own Strategy

Estate Planning, Superannuation
SMSF succession planning in Australia

Self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs) are one of the most powerful wealth-accumulation vehicles available to Australians, and for many families they represent the single largest asset outside the family home. Yet despite their significance, the succession planning dimensions of SMSFs are frequently neglected or poorly understood. A comprehensive estate plan that addresses your Will, enduring power of attorney, and advance care directive, but leaves your SMSF succession arrangements to chance, is incomplete in a way that can have serious and expensive consequences for your family.

Estate Planning for Problem Children in SA

Estate Planning for Problem Children

Estate Planning, Trusts & Guardianship, Young Children
Estate Planning for Problem Children

For most parents, providing for their children is a fundamental motivation for estate planning. Yet for a growing number of families, the question of how to provide for an adult child is far from straightforward. When a child has a gambling problem, a substance dependency, an unsuitable or unstable relationship, or simply a demonstrated inability to manage money, leaving them an unconditional inheritance may do more harm than good.
This article addresses the estate planning options available to South Australian Will-makers who are concerned about leaving assets to vulnerable or financially unreliable adult children, under the Succession Act 2023 (SA) and related legislation.

Genders and Partners

Accommodation After Death: Providing a Home for Loved Ones Through Your Will

Death Benefits, Estate Planning, Trusts, Wills
Genders and Partners

For many South Australians, the family home is the most valuable asset in their estate. It is also deeply personal – associated with decades of memory and, in many cases, currently occupied by a surviving spouse, a dependent child, an elderly parent, or another family member who has nowhere else to go. The prospect of that person being displaced shortly after the Will-maker’s death, because the home must be sold or transferred to satisfy the terms of the Will, is a genuine source of anxiety for many people making estate planning decisions.

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Expectation Management in Estate Planning

Estate Planning, Trusts, Wills, Wills and Estate Planning

Of the many aspects of estate planning that require careful attention,

Expectation Management

one of the least discussed – and arguably the most emotionally charged – is the management of beneficiaries’ expectations. People often assume, sometimes with great confidence, that they know what a relative intends to leave them. When the Will reveals something different, the consequences can range from family tension to costly litigation.
Effective expectation management is not merely a matter of interpersonal diplomacy. It is an integral part of sound estate planning that can spare families years of grief and legal expense.

5 Common Estate Planning Mistakes

Estate Planning Disasters of the Rich and Famous

Estate Planning, Inheritance Claims & Contested Estates, Wills, Wills and Estate Planning
Estate Planning Disasters of the Rich and Famous

There is a tempting assumption that estate planning is something only the wealthy need to worry about, or conversely, that wealth itself ensures a smooth transfer of assets on death. Celebrity estate planning disasters emphatically disprove both propositions. The rich and famous are as capable of catastrophic estate planning failures as anyone else – and because their assets and family disputes tend to be played out in public, their mistakes offer instructive lessons for us all.
The following cases illustrate common estate planning failures and the principles that might have prevented them. All information in this article relates to Australian law under the Succession Act 2023 (SA) and its Commonwealth and common law equivalents.

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Australian Courts Say DIY Wills Are a Curse

Do It Yourself Wills, Estate Planning, Trusts, Wills
Australian Supreme Court says DIY Wills are a curse

Western Australian Supreme Court Master Craig Sanderson has publically stated in a 2014 judgment that “Homemade Wills are a curse,” and inevitably lead to protracted and expensive legal battles in family disputes involving substantial estates.

Master Sanderson said the legal issue around the proper determination of the deceased’s Will could have been avoided if he had “consulted a lawyer and signed off on a Will that reflected his wishes”.

Master Sanderson warned of the dangers of homemade Wills, saying there was no question that engaging a properly qualified and experienced lawyer to draft a Will was “money well spent”.

“But where, as here, the estate of the deceased is substantial, the Will is opaque and there is no agreement among the beneficiaries, the inevitable result is an expensive legal battle which is unlikely to satisfy everyone.”

This view is supported by Rod Genders, who is a senior Australian lawyer specialising in trusts, Wills and estate planning, accident compensation, probate and deceased estate administration in Adelaide and throughout South Australia. His boutique specialist law firm, which was founded on 1848, is one of the oldest and most respected in Australia.

Who can inherit my Super

Who can inherit my Super?

Estate Planning
Stiffing the Undertaker

Our superannuation death benefits and our family home (if we are lucky enough to own one) are the two largest assets for most ordinary Australians.

Yet most Aussies (including most accountants and lawyers) are utterly gobsmacked to discover that their super does NOT automatically form part of their deceased estate when they die, AND that they CANNOT just treat their super like their Will, and give it to whomever they wish, as if their super is just like a bank account.

estate planning for company directors

Estate Planning for Company Directors

Estate Planning
estate planning for company directors

When people make their Will, they typically concentrate on their personal assets, and they sometimes forget about their business assets & responsibilities.

If you are a director of an Australian company, then you need to know that you have responsibilities relating to that company, which can include:

Personal liability of directors for unpaid company taxes;

Personal liability of directors for unpaid company superannuation;