Pentana Stanton Lawyers helps you protect your legacy with strategic estate planning, digital asset management, and Will advice.
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Wills and Estates with Pentana Stanton Lawyers: Safeguarding Your Legacy
Life is filled with unpredictable twists and turns. At Pentana Stanton Lawyers, we understand the importance of planning for the future and ensuring that your wishes, assets, and legacy are securely and accurately reflected. Our experienced team of wills and estates lawyers are dedicated to offering comprehensive legal services that provide peace of mind for you and your loved ones.
Navigating the complexities of estate planning, will drafting, probate processes, or contesting a will can be daunting. With the meticulous guidance and expertise of our lawyers, we aim to demystify these processes, tailoring our services to fit your unique needs and circumstances. At Pentana Stanton, we’re not just lawyers; we’re your trusted partners in crafting a future that honours your intentions and safeguards your family’s well-being.
Whether you’re considering drafting a will for the first time, updating an existing one, managing an estate, or seeking advice on trust structures, Pentana Stanton Lawyers stands ready to assist. With our deep-rooted commitment to excellence, transparency, and client-centric service, rest assured that your legacy is in capable hands.
Plan for tomorrow with confidence. Entrust your wills and estates needs to Pentana Stanton Lawyers – where your legacy is our priority.
Your estate is part of your legacy.
Make sure it’s distributed the way you want.
Our Wills and Estates Legal Services
Will Creation and Updates
Powers of Attorney and Guardianship
Strategic Estate Planning
Probate and Estate Administration
Digital Asset Management
Will Disputes and Litigation
Testamentary Trusts
Succession Planning
Will Creation and Updates
Protecting your legacy starts by providing for your family.
An expertly drafted Will helps make sure that your estate is distributed in the way you want.
It also lowers the risk of challenges to your Will (when people argue that your Will isn’t valid) and family provision claims (when relatives claim that you didn’t leave them enough in your Will).
If you have an existing Will that hasn’t been reviewed in the last two years, or if you’ve experienced big changes to your relationships or assets, it’s important to get your Will updated.
By getting an experienced Melbourne lawyer to help you draft an up-to-date Will in the right way, you’re making sure your family’s future is secure if the unexpected happens.
Powers of Attorney and Guardianship
An enduring power of attorney (EPOA) is a document that lets you appoint someone to make decisions about your personal and financial matters if you lose the capacity to make decisions.
It’s a way to have someone you trust make decisions about your life when you can’t – if you don’t appoint an attorney, VCAT will appoint the Public Advocate or a trustee company to act as your attorney instead.
A guardianship order is similar to an EPOA, although guardians can only make personal and medical decisions, not financial ones.
Strategic estate planning is about seeing the whole picture. Find out what yours looks like.
Strategic Estate Planning
When you pass, it’s important that your assets are distributed in the right way.
But it’s also important to make sure that they’re distributed efficiently – the longer and more complex estate administration is, the more it costs your estate in legal fees.
Strategic estate planning helps your set up your estate in the right way so that, when you pass, your wishes are carried out in a timely, cost-effective manner.
Probate and Estate Administration
In Victoria, administering a deceased person’s estate often involves getting access to their financial holdings.
Banks, insurance companies, superannuation funds, and other asset holders may ask for a grant of probate or letters of administration (collectively, a grant of representation) before granting the estate’s executor access.
Once a grant of representation has been made by the Court or the Probate Office, administration of the estate can begin – the executor must fulfil their legal duties, which include paying debts and distributing assets as per the law and the deceased person’s Will.
Often, it’s easier to have an experienced solicitor handle probate and estate administration.
Digital Asset Management
Today, it’s normal to own assets in digital formats – photos, music, websites, cryptocurrency, or monetised social media accounts.
Unfortunately, though, it’s easy for family members to be locked out of digital accounts when someone passes.
To make sure digital assets can be properly distributed under your Will, it’s important to have a specific management plan.
This can include access instructions, specific Will clauses relating to digital assets, and even requests to have accounts shut down or deleted upon your death.
Advice for Every Stage of Life
Protect your family’s future by planning for the unexpected with a Will and provisions for your children’s care.
Revisit your Will and estate planning to account for changed assets and new relationships.
Integrate succession planning and superannuation considerations into your estate planning.
Refresh your wishes around asset distribution, guardianship, and power of attorney.
Will Disputes and Litigation
When someone passes without a Will or if their Will’s validity is disputed (as a result of poor Will drafting, lack of capacity, or some other reason), beneficiaries may choose to challenge the Will.
Family members can also contest a Will with a family provision claim – when they feel they didn’t receive what they were entitled to.
If you feel you’ve been unfairly excluded from a Will, or you think a loved one’s Will might not be valid, talk to our experienced solicitors.
Conversely, if you’re worried that your estate might not be distributed in the right way, talk to us.
Our expert estate planning team can help you draft a legally sound Will and set up specific estate structures that protect your wishes.
Testamentary Trusts
Distributing your assets isn’t the only way to provide for your loved ones.
In some cases, it can be easier to support them through housing, interest, or rental income – without actually giving them access to the assets in question.
A testamentary trust is set up in your Will and created when you pass.
It’s a way for you to protect certain assets, which, under the guidance of a trustee, can provide income to beneficiaries in a tax-efficient way.
Succession Planning
Your legacy isn’t just about your assets.
It’s also about the totality of what you leave behind – business interests, gifts, trusts, and other organisations or structures.
Succession planning addresses your legacy in a holistic way, ensuring that the things you’ve built and nurtured during your lifetime will be passed on and cared for in the right way.
Latest Testimonial
”Pentana Stanton Law Firm has been an absolute pleasure to have help me through family legal matters
Jemma Cushen
Extremely professional and understand your needs.
They gain your trust and are absolutely honest with how they can cater for your needs
Communication was extremely well, and over all happy with the correspondence received. I have recommended Pentana Stanton to other friends when needing an legal representative.
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Wills and Estates Lawyer FAQs
How much does a Will cost in Melbourne, Victoria?
Wills vary in price depending on their complexity and who writes them. A simple Will written by a junior lawyer may cost as little as $300; a complex Will for a large estate written by an experienced solicitor may cost several thousand dollars.
The easiest way to find out how much your Will is likely to cost is to contact individual law firms and ask for a pricing estimate. We strongly recommend avoiding online Will kits – although affordable, these are broad, generic Wills that may not consider all aspects of your estate, complicating estate distribution.
Do you need a lawyer to write and execute a Will in Australia?
No, you don’t need a lawyer to write your Will and, yes, you can write your own. Generally, though, using a lawyer is a good idea. Having a lawyer write your Will means you can:
- receive legal advice;
- discuss options for the distribution of your assets and care of your children;
- ensure all your wishes are clearly stated in a way that aligns with your desired outcome; and
- ensure your Will is legally valid and likely to be upheld.
You also don’t need a lawyer to execute your Will. You can name any person (and even more than one person) as the executor of your Will, although many people do name their lawyers as their executors; lawyers are experienced executors and have no personal interest in the Wills they execute.
What is probate?
Probate is the process whereby an executor of a deceased person’s Will applies to the Supreme Court of Victoria for the court to:
- approve a deceased person’s Will as valid; and
- grant the executor capacity to act on the Will.
There is no legal requirement to apply for probate after a person has passed. However, a grant of probate authorises the executor to deal with the deceased person’s assets. Therefore, without a grant of probate, an executor will be unable to distribute assets pursuant to the Will.
When should I write a Will?
There is no definite answer to when you should write a Will; however, once you turn 18, any time is a great time. When you start acquiring assets (such as cars, property, shares, cash, jewellery or collectables), it’s particularly important to have a Will to make sure those assets are distributed in the right way if you pass unexpectedly.
Similarly, if you have children under 18, it’s important to have a Will to outline your wishes as to their guardianship and care.
