The wills and estates experts at MacDonnells Law have more than 100 years combined experience in all aspects of family succession planning including:
- wills and estate planning
- preparation of trusts including discretionary, fixed and charitable and TFM applications
- litigation including testator’s family maintenance and other
- applications with experience acting for both the estate and applicants
- powers of attorney
- advance health directives
- deceased estate’s administration.
MacDonnells Law has Wills and Estates lawyers (solicitors) and paralegals in its Brisbane, Cairns and Townsville offices and services clients throughout Queensland.
Wills, Powers of Attorney and Advance Health Directives
A Will and Enduring Power of Attorney should be the cornerstone of any estate plan. To ensure your Estate is administered in the manner you have chosen and to avoid unnecessary complications, it is important to seek professional advice if you intend making a Will.
There are many objectives to be accomplished through the execution of a Will. These include:
- guardianship arrangements for minor children
- business arrangements which ensure the continuation of a business until a buyer can be found or other arrangements made
- appointment of an executor
- ensuring controlled distribution of assets, which enables and obliges a person’s executor to distribute the person’s assets according to their wishes
- GST considerations for the estate
- religious obligations
A Power of Attorney is a formal document giving someone the legal authority to make decisions on your behalf. It is a legitimate way of ensuring that someone else acts for you when you cannot. This legal power is not without limits and the document can specify the type of decisions the person can make or for which the person can be responsible. A Power of Attorney can be revoked by you at anytime providing you are capable of understanding what you are doing.
An Enduring Power of Attorney, as opposed to a Power of Attorney, can remain valid even if you become legally incapable of conducting your own affairs. When a person who has not given an Enduring Power of Attorney to another becomes incapable of managing his or her own affairs, the law requires the Public Trustee to assume the management of that person’s affairs and property.
An Advance Health Directive allows you to indicate in advance how you want medical decisions to be made for you when you are unable to make them for yourself. The Advance Health Directive operates to ensure you receive the care chosen by you in the event you are unable to speak or communicate for yourself. It provides peace of mind not only for you, but for your loved ones as well.
Estate Administration
Members of the MacDonnells Law Wills and Estates team act in the administration of deceased estates in accordance with the deceased’s will. This may involve obtaining probate where it is required and transferring property, shares and other assets to beneficiaries.
The MacDonnells Law Wills and Estates team is also experienced in complex estate dispute matters, including when the deceased person died intestate.
Costs
The pricing for a basic Will is currently as follows:
Brisbane $350.00 (inc GST)
Cairns $330.00 (inc GST)
Townsville $300.00 (inc GST)
