Why having an up-to-date will is so important

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Transcription

Announcer: It’s we’re you’re family’s number one, it’s 96.5. And it is that time of the week where we catch up with our finance expert, Helen Baker. Evening, Helen, how are you?

Helen: Hi, good, how are you, Bec’s?

Announcer: Quite well, thanks, I just wish this cold would go away. Anyway, that’s another subject. Now this evening—

Helen: Everybody thinks that at the moment.

Announcer: Oh it’s dragging on. Now this evening, you’ve got a thing we all need to think about but we rarely ever do, and it’s a big word for us, which you will explain to us sort of common people. The word is—

Helen: Intestacy.

Announcer: Okay now I feel like I’m on Sesame Street. What does that mean?

Helen: Yeah I need to spell it. Okay so basically what it means is about dying when you don’t have a valid will, it talks about dying intestate. Now this happens often when our wills are revoked, which often happens when we get married. So when we get married, our previous will is revoked and so most people A, don’t realise that, or B, they’re on with the rest of their happy lives and now they’re having children and they just completely forget about it.

The biggest issue from a Queensland perspective is that if you were to die intestate, the first $150,000 of your estate would go to your spouse. Then the rest of the estate is split 50-50 between the spouse and children.

So you imagine a young couple who have just got two little ones, maybe two or three, and then something like that horrifically happens, then $150,000 of the insurance or what’s left in the home is going to the spouse and then the rest is being split between the children. So you don’t want money going away from the spouse when they’ve got two little ones to look after and you don’t want a lot of money going to two little ones because they’re not able to look after it.

It’s just one of those nasty ones that can slip through the cracks because no one ever really wants to deal with it but the consequences can be really messy if we don’t get it right and jump on the front foot.

Announcer: Yeah because I get it, it’s not sort of like ringing a lawyer and saying, “Can you change this?” I get that there’s lots of legal rigmarole around it once it’s happened but if you do it before, you stop all that rigmarole, right?

Helen: Yeah and if you think about a lot of people with insurance inside their superannuation funds or life insurance, it can be a million dollars. So you imagine a million dollars less $150,000 and then the children are ending up with 400-and something thousand dollars. It can be a bit of a game changer. So yeah it’s about getting it right, like it is with all of the things and that’s just another one that hopefully doesn’t give anyone a sleepless night tonight, something to do tomorrow though.

Announcer: Well maybe we’ll come back next week and we can talk about planning for those summer holidays.

Helen: That sounds good.

Announcer: Alright, well thank you for keeping us up to date, Helen, it’s always great to talk to you. If you want to find out more about our lovely Helen, because she is amazing, you can go to OnYourOwnTwoFeet.com.au.