Top Ten Estate Planning and Family Wealth Protection Resolutions

As we welcome 2024, it's an important time to prioritise your estate planning and family wealth protection. Making these resolutions now can provide you with a sense of achievement and relief from the weight of uncertainty. Here are the top ten resolutions you should start on immediately to ensure your family's future is secure.

1. Create or Update Your Will

Your will is the cornerstone of your estate plan. If you don't have one, make it a priority to create a will this year. If you already have one, review it to ensure it reflects your current wishes and circumstances. Life changes such as marriage, divorce, or the birth of a child should be reflected in your will. If it does not have a testamentary trust as part of the Will it will not protect your family wealth and that of your beneficiaries.

2. Establish an Enduring Power of Attorney

An Enduring Power of Attorney allows you to designate someone to manage your affairs if you become unable to do so. This is crucial not just for the elderly but for anyone at any age, as unexpected incapacitation can happen to anyone.

3. Review Your Beneficiaries

Ensure that your life insurance, superannuation, and other financial products have the correct beneficiaries listed. Over time, your relationships and preferences might change, so it’s essential to keep these up to date.

4. Create a Living Family Wealth Protection Trust

A living trust can help your family avoid the lengthy and expensive probate process. It also allows you greater control over how your assets are distributed to your heirs.

5. Organise Your Digital Assets

As our lives become increasingly digital, don't forget to include digital assets like social media accounts, digital currencies, and online banking accounts in your estate plan. With the right lawyers or advisers these are best enshrined within your Will as part of it or as a schedule to it.

6. Plan for Your Business's Future

If you own a business, it's crucial to have a succession plan in place. This ensures that your business continues to operate smoothly without you, providing for your family and employees. This is absolutely crucial if you are the sole director or sole shareholder of the company.

7. Secure a Life Insurance Policy

Life insurance provides your family with financial security in the event of your untimely death. If you already have a policy, review it to ensure it's adequate for your family's needs.

8. Understand Your Tax Implications

Estate taxes can take a significant chunk out of your assets. Understand how these taxes work and implement strategies to minimise their impact.

9. Establish a Healthcare Directive

A healthcare directive and a living will ensure your medical wishes are honoured if you're unable to communicate them yourself.

10. Speak with a Professional

Estate planning can be complex. Consult with the Lipins Partners Team and their Legal Support to ensure your plans are legally sound and reflect your wishes.

Embarking on these ten resolutions will not only protect your family's wealth but will also give you peace of mind knowing that you're prepared for whatever the future may hold. Start 2024 off right by ensuring that your estate plan is in order. Remember, estate planning isn't just for the wealthy or the elderly; it's for anyone who wants to protect their loved ones and ensure their wishes are honoured. Don't let another year pass without getting these essential tasks off your shoulders. Your family's future depends on it.

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Why life's big milestones are a reason to check your life insurances

By Curo Financial Services • 21 Mar, 2024

Traditionally, life’s big milestones were often summed up as getting married, buying a house, having a baby and later settling into retirement. And while all of these are still momentous and memorable life moments, today there are several other modern milestones to add to that list. These could be launching your own side hustle, investing in a property with a friend, choosing to have a child on your own, or deciding to travel in a campervan. Aside from all these moments being a cause for celebration, these milestones also mark an important point in your life to reconsider the security you have in place to not only protect yourself and everything you’ve worked towards but also the ones you love. Considering Life Insurances Big changes in your life are a time to take stock of the things you’ve achieved, your future goals and what’s important to you. And more often than not, life’s big milestones come with added financial responsibility. For this reason, it’s important to consider how you would continue to meet these responsibilities if something were to happen to you. Pooling money with family or friends to buy property can be a great way to break into the property market, however, it comes with its own unique considerations. In particular, having a plan for how you will manage and share the financial responsibility which extends to how you would cover both your shares of the mortgage if something were to happen to either of you. Life Insurance, Critical Illness Insurance and Total and Permanent Disability Insurance (TPD), are all ways to help protect yourself and people that are important to you, helping ensure that if you passed away or could never return to gainful employment, neither your friends or your family would be left to cover the cost of your financial commitment. Similarly, if you were diagnosed with a Critical Illness or experience a traumatic event that left you totally and permanently disabled, you would have lump sum payment to help offer you financial security and assist with ongoing expenses, or debts. Considering Income Protection While big life achievements are generally a result of considerable planning and preparation, you can’t always predict what will happen in life. This means that if you’re considering launching your own venture as your next big milestone, it can be helpful to have protections in place that can help prevent your goals from being railroaded in the event of an illness or accident. Often, increasing earning power is a motivator to launch a business, so it may be worthwhile considering how you would maintain this financial security if something were to happen to you. Income Protection can give you an alternative source of income if you’re temporarily unable to work due to an illness or injury that's left you totally or partially disabled. Whether you’ve launched a solo side hustle or are working with a small team, it can help you stay on top of personal living expenses, medical costs and business expenses, leaving you to focus on recovering. Every Australian is different and has their own unique ambitions, goals and milestones. If you’d like help reviewing your personal financial situation, please reach out. Any advice is general in nature only and has been prepared without considering your needs, objectives or financial situation. Before acting on it you should consider its appropriateness for you, having regard to those factors.

Reserve Bank of Australia Update - March 2024

By Lipins Partners • 19 Mar, 2024

The March Board meeting of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) concluded with a decision to maintain the official cash rate at 4.35%, following a thorough review of recent economic indicators. The official statement for this decision is available on the RBA's website .

Tax planning helps you do more with your money

By Lipins Partners • 05 Mar, 2024

Tax planning is a strategic approach to managing your business’ financial affairs, with the aim of legally minimising your tax liability. In other words, you plan ahead to make sure you pay the taxes you should be paying, but not a penny more. Working with your tax adviser, you can look for deductions, credits, exemptions and tax-saving strategies that will help to optimise your company’s overall tax position. How does tax planning affect your business? The primary goal of tax planning is to reduce the amount of taxes your business owes. But it’s also about making sure you stay compliant with all the tax laws and regulations applicable to your business. But what are the main advantages? Let’s take a look at five of the big benefits of careful, strategic tax planning. By planning your tax across the year, you can: Maximise your profits – strategic tax planning helps your company find the best available tax incentives, deductions and credits. This reduces your overall tax liability, cuts your annual tax costs and increases your overall profitability as a business. Boost your cashflow – tax planning is a great way to open up more liquid cash and achieve a better cashflow position for the business. When you cut down the company’s tax payments, that frees up cash and helps you achieve a positive cashflow position. Stay compliant and mitigate your risk – being proactive with your tax planning keeps the company compliant with the relevant tax laws and regulations. It’s a sensible way to tick the compliance boxes and reduce the risk of costly penalties and legal issues. Drive your strategic growth – smart use of tax planning helps you reduce your tax costs and reassign those funds to your strategic business goals. It’s a golden opportunity to invest in areas that promote long-term growth and competitiveness. Give your business a competitive edge – if managed well, efficient tax planning leads to lower operational costs for the business. This gives you a competitive edge when it comes to pricing, innovation, sales and revenue generation. How can our firm help you with tax planning? Getting strategic with your tax planning has many advantages for your financial stability as a business. But to maximise your planning, it’s important to work with an experienced adviser. As your tax adviser, we’ll help you look ahead across the whole financial year, looking for the opportunities to reduce your tax liability and find the best tax deductions and incentives. If you’d like to know more about the impact of tax planning, we’ll be happy to explain. Get in touch to talk about tax planning.