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We don't like amendments to a Will a second time. One amendment (or codicil) is enough for our liking. Therefore, because you have amended the Will already once before, it is best to do a new Will or see your local lawyer.
This hint is provided by Law Central Legal.
The date of the Will is that date that you signed the original document. Get out your Will and look at the date.
This hint is provided by Law Central Legal.
If you made the Public Trustee or a trustee company one of your Executors then they may be entitled to charge your estate fees.
Public Trustees in some states argue that it is better that they be your Executor, rather than your spouse or children. With respect, they are a touch bias because they get fees to administer your estate. Ring up the Public Trustee to work out the fees you will pay.
Most people administer their own spouse’s or parent’s Will. If they need help they can ring their professional advisers, such as their lawyer and accountant. If your family ever wanted to they can appoint the Public Trustee – if they were happy to pay their fees, that is.
You can escape the Public Trustee, as executor of your Will, by doing this amendment to your Will.
Can the Public Trustee get upset or get money off me?
No they can't. After you alter your Will you can ask the Public Trustee to send you the original Will. They don’t charge to do this. If the Public Trustee is not the executor then they can't charge you.
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Put in your full correct name. This should be the exact name that you have in your original Will or you have a problem.
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Write all your middle names in the box marked "Second Names".
For example your name is "Ye San Shu Sha Fi Yi Lu". "Ye" is your name. "Lu" is your Surname.
Therefore:
First Name: Ye
Second Names: San Shu Sha Fi Yi
Surname (Family Name): Lu
This hint is provided by Law Central Legal.
If you hold assets in another name or a maiden name then press yes to "Are you known by any other Names?"
It is best to record in your Codicil if you have assets in another name. If you don't record your alias names then the Executors will have a hard time trying to get those assets brought in for distributing to the beneficiaries.
To help your Executors put in all your names in which you have assets. Just press yes to "Are you known by any other names?"
This hint is provided by Law Central Legal.
If you still have assets in a maiden name then answer "yes" to the question: Are you known by any other Names?
You must help your Executor and state all of your names in which you have assets.
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No, a Codicil does not require the signature of a solicitor.
A Codicil can be witnessed by any adult. However, a beneficiary must not witness the Codicil.
The LawCentral Codicil comes with a complete signing directions Manual for you to follow.
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Sometimes you may have assets in another name. It may be a maiden name (before you got married). You may have shortened your name from the original name on your birth certificate. You may have money in another name. You may have assets in another country under a previous name.
For whatever reason, you need to clearly state the other name. This will help your Executor get those assets later on. It helps prove that "Mary Ann Smith" and "Mary Ann (nee) Doogue" are the same people.
If you don’t have any assets in your other alias names (and if you never will) then you don’t need to worry about putting your alias name into the Codicil. (Just press the "back" button.)
This hint is provided by Law Central Legal.
If you still have assets in a maiden name then please state your maiden name (in full) here.
If in the future you may acquire assets in your maiden name or another name, then put in that maiden name or other name here.
This hint is provided by Law Central Legal.
That's fine.
If you had only one alias then you put it in like this:
First: Fred
Second: Jake
Last: Smith
If you had a 2nd alias then put it in like this:
First: Fred
Second: Jake
Last: Smith - Fredericka Jacobsen Smith
Put your 3rd alias in like this:
First: Fred
Second: Jake
Last: Smith - Fredericka Jacobson Smith - Frido Jake Smith
Therefore in the "Last Name" you just keep putting a dash for each additional alias.
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The address in your Will is mostly used to identify you. There may be 2 "Jason Richard Styles" living in Australia.
Therefore, you should put in the address that you are living in at the time you sign your Codicil.
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Sorry to hear that. However, you will need to put in the address of where you are sleeping the night you sign your Codicil.
If you are staying with your great aunt for a few months then put in her address.
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Generally, when you have the Will "proved" the Courts like to see a residential address. They may get upset if they just see a Post Office Box as the address.
There may be many people on the planet with a name the same as yours. Your address on the day that you made your Will helps identify who you are. Sometimes your address is not very useful. You may be house-sitting. You may be "homeless". You may be travelling. For example you may live at "Landsdown Farm", 3 kilometres down the Metercup Road past Miling, over by the 3rd last tree.
You are therefore welcome to put in a 2nd address. Put in the physical location (residential address) on this page. Tick yes to "I also want a postal address in my Will" and on the next page you can type in your postal address.
This hint is provided by Law Central Legal.
Generally when you have the Will "proved" the Courts like to see a residential address. They may get upset if they just see a Post Office Box as the address.
There may be many people on the planet with a name the same as yours. Your address on the day that you made your Will helps identify who you are. Sometimes your address is not very useful. You may be house sitting. You may be "homeless". You may be travelling. Sometimes your address may not be useful. For example you may live at "Landsdown Farm", 3 kilometres down the Metercup Road past Miling, over by the 3rd last tree.
You are therefore welcome to put in a 2nd address. This can be a Post Office Box.
This hint is provided by Law Central Legal.
It looks better in the Will to put in the full name rather than the abbreviation.
However, both are correct. For example, Victoria could also be ‘Vic’.
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An "old" Executor is someone who is an Executor on your Will. You may or may not want them to still be an Executor.
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A "new" Executor is someone who you want to appoint as an Executor in the Codicil. They may be an Executor already in your Will, but you will still have to name them again in your Codicil.
This hint is provided by Law Central Legal.
Yes, you can appoint persons not yet born or are under 18 years of age. However, a person can only take up the job of Executor at the minimum age of 18 years. To appoint unborn children you can use words like: "all my yet unborn children" in the Executor First Name space.
For example, you have 3 children. They are 7 months, 3 years and 8 years of age. You are leaving everything to your three children. Why not then make them your Executors. You do so. However, in the unlikely event that you die before they all turn 18 years of age (or 21 or any other age) then you can appoint some 'Backup Executors'.
So yes, you can appoint persons under 18 years of age. However, they can't take up that role unless they are a minimum of 18 years of age. Therefore, you need Backup Executors. Later you will be asked about Backup Executors. At the moment we are only asking about the Initial Executors. You can do the Backup Executors later.
This hint is provided by Law Central Legal.
If you are leaving everything to your children then you can appoint them Executors - even if they aren't born yet. (Of course you will need some Back-up Executors in case you die before they reach the Age of Majority - or are never born.)
On average your children are in their 60s when you die. You therefore may be able to have WizardDocs build you a Will today that will be exactly what you want for many years to come.
This hint is provided by Law Central Legal.
If you have children and you are leaving assets to all 8 children then appoint all 8 children the Executors.
WHAT IF THE CHILDREN HATE EACH OTHER?
That is an even stronger reason to appoint all 8 of them! I can see that this comment astounds you. Let me tell you something about Executors. Executors are servants (yes, servants) of the beneficiaries in the Will. Executors are NOT all powerful demi-Gods. They have a terribly servile position. They must act in the beneficiaries’ best interests at all times. This is called acting in the "upmost good faith". That is a high standard of care.
1. UTMOST GOOD FAITH
Let me give you an example. (I don’t want to pick on used cars sales people – but I will.) You and the salesperson walk over to the second hand car. The salesperson sees some rust on the car. The sales person stands in front of the rust so that you can’t see it. That is legal and fine for the salesperson. The salesperson isn’t stuck with the “upmost good faith” duty of care.
However, if you owe the duty of “upmost good faith” (like an Executor) then you would have to say “look please come over here, before you think about buying this car I want to show you this rust. It looks bad doesn’t it? We had better find out if the rust could be cut out. I will also get an engineer to see if this is a structural damage situation”. Wow. The Executor does owe a strong duty of care to the beneficiaries.
2. HOW DO YOU KNOW YOU ARE ACTING IN THE “BEST INTERESTS”
Let’s now move to the next stage. Let’s say you think it is in the best interests to sell some shares. Let’s say you are the sole Executor therefore you can do this. The shares are bad shares. Everyone knows they are useless shares. If you spoke with the beneficiaries they would agree with you. However, you don’t speak to the beneficiaries. You just sell the shares. You are the big Executor. You think that you can do whatever you like. The shares skyrocket in value. You my friend are going to learn about “upmost good faith” the hard way.
The first thing one of the beneficiaries says is “why did you sell the shares”? Another says “where is the written opinion from your Certified Financial Planner to say sell the shares?”. Another says “I would never have sold those excellent shares”. You were the servant of those beneficiaries – you will need to put your hand in your pocket to pay for the damage you caused.
3. WHAT IF THE BENEFICIARIES FIGHT
So, you are the servant. The beneficiaries are like your bosses. Therefore, when the bosses fight you have to sit back and let it play itself out. They go to court or whatever. You can’t do anything. If you do the bidding for 4 of the beneficiaries but the 5th beneficiary doesn’t agree then you are not a good Executor. You have to look after the best interests of all the beneficiaries. You may think you know what is in the best interests of the beneficiaries. However, a court of law many years later may well disagree with you.
If the beneficiaries fight all you can do is go to the court for directions (if that is in the best interest of the beneficiaries to pay out all that money) or put the Will back and do nothing. Your hands are tied you are the Executor – a servant.
4. Finally, let’s say you appoint your oldest child. She is a well-respected accountant. You die. Your daughter spends hours preparing to administer your estate. Tax returns, Grants of Probate, insurances – will the work ever end. Your youngest son rings up your oldest daughter and asks “What is going on? What are you hiding? Why didn’t dad and mum make me Executor as well – didn’t they love me?”
In summary if your children hate each other then make them all Executors.
This hint is provided by Law Central Legal.
If you are leaving everything to the children then it makes sense to appoint them all. If you only appoint one or a few of them then the others may get upset. At the end of the day the Executor is the servant of the beneficiaries.
Have a read of the hint above: My kids can't work together. Appoint them all?
This hint is provided by Law Central Legal.
There is a lot of debate about this. The unwritten rule is that Probate Offices around Australia don’t like more than 4 Executors.
However, you can appoint as many Executors as you like. For example, when law firms get you to make themselves Executors they may use the term “all the partners from time to time in the legal partnership known as Snuffy, Wuffy and Weigal”. That law firm may have over 100 partners. Do all 100 partners act as Executor? This is unlikely. Usually (all but one partner) will renounce their job of Executor.
You are therefore at liberty to appoint all your children or friends or whoever your residual beneficiaries are as Executors.
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You don't need to put in an address for any of your Executors. However, if there could be doubt about who this person is (e.g. you have 2 uncles with the same name) then at least think about putting in a Country or State. If the person is a distant relation living in Italy then best to put in the address so that the person can be identified. If the Executor changes his or her address then that is OK. The address is only to identify the Executor. (The purpose of the address is not to find your Executor. You are best to keep an address book near where you keep your other valuable documents so that your Executor can track down Executors from the address book.)
This hint is provided by Law Central Legal.
Yes, you can appoint partners in a business or a group of people. However, you have to be careful. If you appointed any 2 partners at Law Central Legal then your appointment would fail. Why? Because you have left no direction as to which 2 should be selected. You should have appointed "all the partners of the law firm Law Central Legal"
or
"all the partners of John Smith Accountants"
or
"my oldest 2 uncles"
If the law firm or accounting house has 35 partners then it is an easy matter for 34 of them to "renounce" and just let the Probate partner do the job of being Executor.
To insert a group like this just type in the sentence over the "First Name" and "Surname" like this:
First Name: the partners of
Second Name:
Surname: Law Central Legal
Don't forget:
1. Professionals charge fees to administer the estate or prepare up financial statements. Your family may be better of being the Executor and just giving the lawyer or accountant these difficult jobs. That way your family stays in charge.
2. You will later have the opportunity to put in "Backup Executors". It may be more appropriate to consider professional people as backups rather than "Initial Executors".
This hint is provided by Law Central Legal.
Yes, you can appoint all the members of your football club (would anyone really want to do that?). However, you have to be careful. If you appointed any 2 partners at Swan Double Bay Football Club then your appointment would fail. Why? Because you have left no direction as to which 2 should be selected. You should have appointed "all the members of the Swan Double Bay Football Club".
or
"all the partners of John Smith Accountants"
or
"my oldest 2 uncles"
If the football club has 35 partners then it is an easy matter for 34 of them to "renounce" and just let the Probate partner do the job of being Executor. (This is provided you can find them all and they are happy to renounce.)
To insert a group like this just type in the sentence over the "First Name" and "Surname" like this:
First Name: the partners of
Second Name:
Surname: Law Central Legal
Be careful also that the appointment of the Executors is "certain" and "unambiguous". Make sure the group has a definite membership list that can be checked.
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Patience my friend. You need to put in your Initial Executors first. Later you will be asked if you have any Backup Executors - this is just in case one of your Initial Executors dies or isn't of age yet.
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If you have children or unborn children then appoint them. In the unlikely event that they are never born or are too young then your Backup Executors can do the job. (Backup Executors are coming up as a question soon.)
The perfect Executors are the people that get all your goodies. If the Executors are too young or unable to look after themselves then appoint a law firm, accounting house, financial adviser or Trustee company to do the job. They all however, charge fees, one way or another.
This hint is provided by Law Central Legal.
Yes, the Executors can be both Executors and Beneficiaries.
If you are leaving everything to your children then it makes sense to make them all your Executors. If the children are under 18 years of age (or any age you select) or never born then you can get some Backup Executors.
This hint is provided by Law Central Legal.
A young person, that hasn't had any children yet, often appoints "all their unborn children" as Executors.
A parent with babies and small children normal appoints all their children as Executors - even though they are all under 18 years of age.
This is because your children may well be 60 years of age when you die. You don't want to have to keep amending your Will all the time so you appoint your young children.
However, what happens if you die and your children are under 18 (or whatever age you selected as your Age of Majority)? Or you die and your unborn children never were born?
You need Backup Executors. You can appoint your mum and dad. However, because they are older they are more likely to die before you. Therefore, you may want to appoint a brother, sister or younger aunt or uncle as Backup Executors. Close family friends may also be happy to act as your Executor. Ask them first.
This hint is provided by Law Central Legal.
Your Initial Executors:
1. may all die before you
2. may never be born
3. may be under 18 (or whatever your Age of Majority is)
4. may not want to do the job (it is a voluntary job after all)
5. may be too old or lack the mental ability to sign documents.
What do you do then?
You appoint Backup Executors, just in case.
This hint is provided by Law Central Legal.
Last screen you put in your Initial Executors. Now is the time to consider Backup Executors. If you decide to put in Backup Executors then you have 2 choices:
"In addition to the Initial Executors"
If you select this option then you get both the Initial Executors that are left (i.e. not dead and are over the above age you select) PLUS the Backup Executors.
or
"In replacement of the Initial Executors"
This option means that if one or more of your Initial Executors is unable to act as your Executor then they are all REPLACED with these Backup Executors.
Which one you use is up to you.
This hint is provided by Law Central Legal.
You don't need to put in an address. However, there may be two Dick Seddons. Therefore, to put more certainty into your Will you can insert an address for each Backup Executor.
An address is not required, but it helps with certainty.
This hint is provided by Law Central Legal.
You must be of sound mind to make a valid Codicil. If you have suffered a stroke or have any other medical condition that might allow someone to say that you do not have mental capacity to make a Will, then you need to go to your doctor and get a note say that you are capable of making a Will, and then keep this letter with your Will.
This hint is provided by Law Central Legal.
When making a Codicil you must know what it is that you are signing, to do this you must be able to see the written word. If you can not see clearly, then you will need someone to read the Codicil to you before it is considered a valid Codicil.
This hint is provided by Law Central Legal.
As your Codicil is created in English, you must be able to understand English to understand what you are signing. If you do not understand English the Will must be translated into a language you understand before it can be signed as a valid Will.
If you understand English but cannot read or write English, then the Codicil must be read to you and you must understand everything that is in your Codicil for it to be valid.
This hint is provided by Law Central Legal.
A Codicil must be signed in a formal way before it is considered a valid Codicil. For example, each page must be signed by the Will Maker and by two witnesses.
If you are unable to put pen to paper - or make a mark on the Codicil - then a separate person will sign the Codicil for you, after you tell this person to do so.
The only people that I can think of that can't put pen to paper and make at least some sought of mark would be someone that had a stroke and couldn't make a mark with their hand, feet or mouth.
Obviously, if the person was unconscious or couldn't communicate with the world with even a wink or a nod wouldn't be able to make a Codicil at all, because they couldn't convince or explain to the witnesses that they approve of the Codicil. Sorry about that.
This hint is provided by Law Central Legal.
If you can put a pen to paper and make a mark then that is as good as a signature. (Well it isn't as good as a nice crisp signature. A clear strong signature suggests you were of sound mind. A feeble mark on the Codicil as a signature suggests you were not of sound mind. I know it is unfair, but there you have it.)
A mark on a Codicil, such as a cross is your signature if that is all you are able to do.
If you can't write for example then a circle or a cross is your best signature.
If you have no arms but can sign in another way or put a mark on the Codicil (i.e. use your toes) then you are in business.
This hint is provided by Law Central Legal.
This document has been prepared by the law practice Law Central Legal
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