Strange but true recent Wills and estates news

Strange but true – recent wills and estates news

Wills and Estate Planning, Trusts & Guardianship
Strange but true recent Wills and estates news

Here’s a quick roundup of some interesting news items from the world of Wills and estates.

Hoist on his own petard? Father who denied paternity is excluded from dead child’s estate

A UK Court has decided that the substantial estate of a mentally disabled child who died without a Will should be distributed to his mother and his foster family.

The court excluded the child’s biological father from inheriting a share because he had denied paternity and played no part in the child’s life.

poor mans will podcast by rod genders

The Poor Man’s Will Dangers of Joint Ownership in Estate Planning

Wills and Estate Planning, Trusts & Guardianship
The Poor Mans Will Dangers of Joint Ownership in Estate Planning

Joint accounts with other people are a common method for ageing persons seeking help with money management, but this can cause problems.

What is Joint Tenancy

Joint Tenancy is used often by couples as a means of owning shared assets. There are some good reasons to do this, but there are also some drawbacks.

Joint accounts are often referred to as a “poor man’s Will” because they allow an individual to give assets to another upon death without going through the probate process. Some people have the perception from hearing horror stories that probate will consume the entire estate.

World Alzheimer's Month | Genders and Partners

World Alzheimer’s Month

Wills and Estate Planning, Trusts & Guardianship
World Alzheimer's Month | Genders and Partners

Next week marks the beginning of World Alzheimer’s Month and Dementia Awareness Month. Without a medical breakthrough, the number of people with dementia in Australia is expected to increase to 536,164 by 2025 and to 1,100,890 by 2056.

World Alzheimer’s Day is on 21 September. Here at Genders and Partners, we will be honouring our clients and their caregivers who are battling Alzheimer’s and Dementia by posting on social media in order to spread awareness and start conversations about how to make life easier for those battling through these devastating diseases.

caring for parents and kids the sandwich generation is suffering

Caring for parents and kids – the “sandwich” generation is suffering

Wills and Estate Planning, Trusts & Guardianship
caring for parents and kids the sandwich generation is suffering

Most Australians aren’t planning for their own long-term care. This is creating a major problem for the next generation, who still have their own kids to look after.

This mirrors what is happening in other western economies such as UK , Canada and USA.

Rising costs and fluctuating economic and health care are the new realities, so more than ever it is important to be proactive before a long-term event happens, to help ensure that you can still take care of your own needs, especially if you are caring for someone else’s well-being.

Critical Importance of Making a Will to Protect Children’s Inheritance From Previous Relationships

Protecting Children from Previous Relationships: The Critical Importance of a Well-Drafted Will

Blended Families and Divorce, Estate Planning, Inheritance Claims & Contested Estates, Trusts & Guardianship, Wills, Wills and Estate Planning, Young Children
Critical Importance of Making a Will to Protect Children From Previous Relationships

Modern family structures are more complex than at any previous time. Many Australians have children from more than one relationship, and may be in a subsequent marriage or domestic partnership with a partner who also has children of their own. Without careful estate planning, the competing interests of these various family members can produce outcomes upon your death that would cause you considerable distress if you could foresee them. This article explains why a well-drafted Will is indispensable for anyone with children from a previous relationship.

Family Disputes and Legal Documents in SA

Family Disputes and Legal Documents in SA

Asset Protection, Deceased Estates, Inheritance Claims & Contested Estates, Probate, Special Needs, Trusts & Guardianship
Family Disputes and Legal Documents

Families aren’t always easy. We’re bound to them by blood and history, circumstance and duty. We love them, and sometimes, if we’re really lucky, we like them too. We rarely get to choose them.

At some point in our lives almost all of us will experience some challenging times in dealing with individuals in our family.

It could be the consequences of dealing with misfortune such as illness or unemployment.

It could be your son’s unfortunate choice of girlfriend.

Maybe someone has an inflated sense of entitlement & expectation, or is lacking in appreciation for what you’ve done for them.

Genders and Partners Hurricane warns about risk planning

Hurricanes warn about risk planning

Wills and Estate Planning, Trusts & Guardianship
Genders and Partners Hurricane warns about risk planning

We all like to think of ourselves as resilient and adaptable to change. But all too often we only visualise ‘change’ of our own making, in our own good time.

It’s quite a different thing to deal with change that is forced upon us by outside forces.

The newsfeeds have been full of the deadly hurricane which wreaked havoc on the US state of Texas at the end of August 2017. This has highlighted the importance of risk management strategies to ensure that all of us can survive severe interruption.

Genders and Partners | Alzheimer's Month

How To Address The Most Overlooked Legal Consequences Of Dementia

Alzheimer’s Month, Estate Planning, Trusts & Guardianship
How To Address The Most Overlooked Legal Consequences Of Dementia adelaide

According to Alzheimer’s Australia, there are nearly half a million Australians currently living with dementia, and by 2025, this number is expected to triple. How should families of vulnerable older people help them to protect themselves and their assets?

There are several different types of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, Vascular Dementia, Dementia from Parkinson’s disease and similar disorders, Dementia with Lewy bodies, Frontotemporal dementia (Pick’s disease), Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, and others.

Some of the early effects are mild. Symptoms can seem to come and go, and people can have good days and bad days.

In the legal world, there is an emphasis on something called “capacity”, which usually refers to a person’s “testamentary capacity”.

Binding Financial Agreements are an Important Part of Modern Estate Planning

Binding Financial Agreements are an Important Part of Modern Estate Planning

Estate Planning, Trusts, Trusts & Guardianship, Wills, Wills and Estate Planning
Binding Financial Agreements Are an Important Part of Modern Estate Planning

Modern relationships are fraught with tension and complexities when it comes to finances. Looking ahead to the time when you and your partner are established in your careers and have accrued considerable assets, it makes sense to want to protect what is yours should the relationship end.

Marriage, de facto and domestic partnerships

Australian Census data from 2011 shows that the married proportion of the total population has been falling. It is no longer the case that a majority of the population is married. Not so long ago the married proportion was as high as two-thirds of the entire population during the mid-20th century.  In 2011, this has dropped to less than half., and the relative divorce rate in Australia remains one of the highest in the world.