Estate Planning In A Socially Complex World

Date: 01/04/2011

If you're advising your clients on succession planning, don't overlook estate planning as well. In our changing social landscape, it's more important than ever to think about the future.

Most business owners and their advisors will have taken account of the need for succession planning and an exit strategy, but do they also appreciate the need for comprehensive estate planning? Louise Bedson of Tresscox Lawyers says Australia's changing social landscape - growing wealth, higher divorce rates, blended families, overseas links - make it more important than ever to ensure that your clients have a clear plan for the future of their business and their entire estate. It's a complicated subject, with implications in Family Law, tax, potential loss of capacity and the treatment of superannuation. But it deserves attention, and the earlier the better: the risks of ignoring it, or getting it wrong, can be expensive and divisive in the family setting.