Superannuation is often one of the largest and most accessible assets that we own due to the life insurance component built into industry fund policies.
Beneficiary Nominations need to be looked at carefully and a review or execution of binding death nominations is critical to ensure that the funds pas to the intended correct beneficiary.
We can review binding death nominations to ensure that they have been drawn and executed properly for both industry funds and self-managed superannuation funds.
Intestacy places a large responsibility on your surviving family as they will need to rely upon a legislative formula that guides how an Estate will be distributed. This will mean that they have no control over who distributes the estate and whether the Estate will be distributed according to their intentions.
This means that a family member will need to apply to the Supreme Court for Letters of Administration, and this may result in your estate being distributed in a way that you had not intended. In turn, disputes may arise within your remaining family which can result in unnecessary and expensive litigation.
On 1 November 2017 significant new laws came into effect in Victoria affecting intestate estates through the commencement of the Administration and Probate and Other Acts Amendment (Succession and Related Matters) Act 2017.
The majority of the changes affecting the Intestacy provisions will only affect anyone who dies after the amending Act and include:
Before granting leave to apply for an order under the Wills Act 1997 (as amended) relating to a statutory Will, the court must be satisfied that:
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