Enduring powers of attorney are an important step in ensuring your personal affairs are in order. Having signed documents in place gives you and your family certainty as to who will look after you and your assets if you cannot. This article discusses the importance of signing enduring powers of attorney and what happens if a person becomes mentally incapable without them.
Getting married or entering into a civil union may have the unintended consequence of revoking a will, while the end of a marriage or civil union may prevent a former spouse or partner from being able to act as an executor of or receive a benefit from a deceased estate. The age at which a person is able to make a will depends upon whether or not the will-maker is or has been married or in a civil union.
A death certificate forms part of the national register of the population of the country and is also an important family record. This article looks at the information needed to produce a complete and accurate death certificate.
If you are considering excluding a child from your will, you need to be aware of potential claims that child may have against your estate. This article provides a brief summary of the rights children have under the Family Protection Act to challenge their parent’s wills.
If you ended up in a situation where you were in the final stages of a terminal illness, or in a vegetative state where recovery was an unrealistic prospect, what could you have done to make your wishes for your health care known in advance?
When a person appoints an attorney under an enduring power of attorney (“EPA”), the person appointing the attorney must be advised by a lawyer or registered legal executive on the terms and implications of the power of attorney document.There is no requirement for the attorney to receive such advice before he or she signs the power of attorney document.However, it is important that an attorney knows and understands what he or she is taking on when agreeing to be appointed an attorney under an EPA.
A will is one of the most important documents you’ll sign during your lifetime. It’s important that you have one. It’s important also that you have the mental capacity to make one.
When you make or revoke a legal document, for example a will or enduring power of attorney, you have to be mentally capable at the time of signing, otherwise the document will not be valid.
Sometimes elderly people who are living happily in their own homes find themselves in a situation where they need a cash injection from an outside source to be able to finance things such as maintenance on the home, replace a motor vehicle, or pay for elective surgery, for example, because they do not have cash available in savings, and they cannot get a loan advance from a regular bank, because they do not have income flow to service the loan repayments.
We explain below some common terms and concepts that you may come across when dealing with the legal aftermath of a loved one’s death.