When it’s time for your estate to be passed on, will it be a gift or a burden?
Last week an article discussing Estate Planning Services in the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age featured Hans Egger discussing how Estate Planner is making the estate planning process easier.
The greatest intergenerational transfer of wealth in the nation’s history is set to take place in coming decades.An estimated $3 trillion will change hands, from baby boomers to their beneficiaries.
However, surveys show Australians are unprepared for it. It is estimated about half of Australians don’t have a valid will, a problem that experts in estate planning say will lead to unnecessary heartbreak, confusion and expense.
With no will, estates often end up before the courts and assets can go to people the deceased didn’t intend to benefit.
Hans Egger, managing director of AstuteWheel, believes many people don’t make a will because they believe it’s too hard, too stressful or too expensive. That’s why his company has created an online engagement system that can make it faster and easier for professionals to guide their clients through the process.
Estate Planner software handles every aspect of estate planning, sends personalised questionnaires and informational videos to clients and automatically generates a host of visuals such as digital family trees and entity diagrams.
“Our system makes the whole process a lot easier, not only for financial advisers, accountants and lawyers, but also for their clients,” Egger says. “People who want an estate plan, but don’t have an adviser, can visit the site and we’ll refer them to one of our facilitators. Professionals can use the software to bring them to the cutting edge of estate planning and have the advantage of sending completed briefing papers to any of our online legal partners who will provide legal advice and the legal documents at discounted rates.”
