Understanding Discretionary Trusts in Queensland: A Powerful Asset Protection Tool
In the world of estate planning and asset protection, Discretionary Trusts have emerged as a valuable tool for individuals and families.
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Estate Services
Unique Estate Solutions
Our estate services are tailored to meet your needs through all stages of your life. As time passes and situations change, it's important that your estate planning remains current, to ensure that your last wishes are carried out.
What is Estate Planning?
Estate planning involves the establishment of legal documents to safeguard the well-being and financial security of both yourself and your loved ones in the event of your passing or incapacitation due to illness or injury.
The most crucial advice we can give our clients is that estate planning should be done at an early stage to ensure that the right people are appointed if something happens to you, or your estate is protected. It should be a priority for all individuals throughout their adult lives.
Regrettably, many individuals tend to delay their estate planning, addressing these matters when it becomes too late, leading to significant repercussions for both them and their families.
At RHC Solicitors, we strive to make estate planning affordable, accessible, efficient, and straightforward. Our team of lawyers possesses extensive experience in this domain and is dedicated to collaborating with you to minimise risks and ensure that your estate planning is tailored to your individual needs.
Advantages of Estate Planning
There are many advantages when it comes to planning your estate early. Through estate planning, you can find assurance that your wishes will be honoured, and your loved ones will be taken care of if you are no longer able to make decisions or in the event of your passing.
With expert legal guidance, your estate plan can be structured to provide flexibility in distributing income and assets among your loved ones. Estate planning also offers opportunities to minimise tax liabilities for you and your loved ones during your lifetime and after your passing.
Effective estate planning can shield your assets from potential family provision claims.
Why Engage RHC Solicitors as your Estate Planning Lawyers?
Estate planning is a complex legal area that carries substantial risks, and do-it-yourself kits often lead to mistakes. These errors can cause difficulties, conflicts, stress, and significant expenses for your loved ones once they come to light after your incapacitation or demise. Some of these mistakes can also lead to your documents being set aside, or found invalid.
Often, family members will need costly legal advice and representation to address issues arising from mistakes, including do-it-yourself wills and enduring powers of attorney, which can amount to tens of thousands of dollars more than the cost of having a skilled estate planning lawyer prepare the documents.
Why Choose RHC Solicitors?
Our estate planning lawyers always prioritise understanding your unique situation, needs, and desires and offer strategies to best protect you. As part of this, we will always identify and explain the legal complexities and risks you may face and provide guidance on various options to achieve estate planning goals. We also meticulously prepare the necessary legal documents to ensure your instructions are carried out as intended if you lose decision-making capacity or pass away. Another benefit of choose us is that our professional fees are always fixed, and affordable.
What Costs Can I Expect?
At RHC Solicitors, we believe in offering a fixed fee and giving back to the community to strengthen trust.
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Basic Will - $175.00 each provided that you complete an estate questionnaire prior to your appointment, and should you wish for us to do this, then our professional fee is $275.00 given the additional time needed to take instructions. A basic will involved straightforward estate distribution without complex specific gifts. A good example is leaving everything to a spouse, and should they pass away then down to children or other named persons.
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Enduring Power of Attorney (short) - $150.00 each. An Enduring Power of Attorney involved the appointment of health and/or financial attorneys to make decisions for you on a stated time i.e. when you lose capacity.
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Advance Health Directive - $250.00 each. This document enables you to choose what type of life-sustaining treatment you may want when you are nearing death or involved in a serious accident. For example, you may decide that you do not want life-sustaining treatment like CPR in the event you are likely to be brain-dead and could no longer recognise your family and friends.
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Mutually Binding Will - $330.00 each and $550.00 for the mutually binding deed. This type of will is suitable for blended families where the spouse's may wish to leave everything to each other and then down to all of their children.
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Complex wills – at RHC Solicitors, we also understand that some clients require more complex wills which may involve a right to reside, special disability trust, testamentary trust, international will or otherwise. Generally, our costs for these start from as little as $440.00 and generally will range up to $1,320.00.
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