What’s Estate Planning?
Estate planning is the process of organising the management and allocation of your estate, in the event you becomes incapacitated or pass away.
Why is Estate Planning important?
An estate plan involves much more than just drawing up a Will. It secures and formalises how you want to be cared for (medically and financially) if something happens to you like incapacity from illness or injury at any stage in your life. Your estate plan can also clarify how you want your assets like property to be protected during your lifetime and your preferences for how it is to be distributed after your death.
Understanding Estate Planning
Careful planning for the distribution of your estate involves protecting the assets you have worked hard to acquire, and ensuring their safe and smooth transfer to your loved ones.
Why does Estate Planning matter?
Putting a comprehensive plan in place ensures you can protect your beneficiaries’ inheritance in the event of divorce or bankruptcy, but there are many more factors which also make putting an estate plan in place worthwhile.
Here are our top reasons for getting your estate plan sorted:
- It gives you reassurance as to how your assets will be managed if you are incapacitated and unable to look after your own affairs.
- Allows you to minimise or avoid death benefits tax when distributing your superannuation benefits.
- Allows your beneficiaries to legally reduce capital gains liabilities on assets and to reduce or eliminate tax on income generated from their inheritance.
- To distribute your assets to your intended beneficiaries, not to a former partner, for example.
- Protects your assets and establishes how and when to distribute assets to your loved ones and beneficiaries in the way you prescribe.
- Guards against undue waste and extravagance due to vulnerabilities of a beneficiary.
- To cater for the current and future needs of your beneficiaries
Help protect your loved ones and beneficiaries
Whether you have a simple lifestyle or more complex, you’ve worked hard to accumulate what you own and your wealth, so it makes sense to carefully assess how structure your estate and how it can be transferred to your beneficiaries efficiently.
At CMA Accounting and Taxation Services, our team of accountants and client service managers works closely with estate planning lawyers and financial advisers to create a plan which reflects your desired distribution of wealth while providing advice on how to do this in the most tax effective and legally robust way possible.
Ready to get your affairs in order?
At CMA Accounting we work closely with our legal partners to provide advice and support in Estate Planning. To arrange an appointment or find out more, please call us on 07 5448 8161 or email info@cmaccounting.com.au