A guardian is an individual to whom a judge or a will gives the legal responsibility to care for a child or an adult who does not have the capacity for self-care. The appointed individual is often responsible for both the care of the ward (the child or incapable adult) and that person’s financial affairs.
A guardian’s role is to look after the best interests of a minor child (i.e. a child under age of 18 years) for whom they have been appointed guardian. This means that you should not choose the other parent of your children to be the guardian of your children.
The guardian will be responsible for making decisions regarding the day-to-day control and care of your children, including decisions about their upbringing, education, health and welfare. Accordingly, a decision to nominate someone as a guardian is a serious decision that should be made carefully.
If you are listed as an Executor, do you need to take up the responsibility?
A nominated person does not have to accept the appointment as executor. A nominated person can, before applying for a Grant of Probate, appoint the State Trustee to act in their stead, or simply sign a renunciation. However, once a person has undertaken any aspect of...
What if no executor is named in the Will?
If Will-maker failed to appoint an executor, usually the court needs to appoint someone to administer the estate. A person appointed by the court is called an administrator (of a Will). Often this is the beneficiary with the largest portion of the estate. An...
Why are Wills important?
Just like going to the dentist or doing taxes, many of us put off writing our Will because it’s something we don’t really want to think about. But if you aren’t specific in how you would like your estate to be distributed after you die, if something were to happen to...
Do young people need a Will?
Don’t leave anything to chance Remember when your parents used to say that you were growing up too fast? And you thought, it’s not fast enough! The thing about growing up is that before you know it, you get swamped with mortgages, insurances, paying taxes,...
Who needs a Will?
A Will is one of the single most important documents a person can have; yet, so many of us put off dealing with it for far too long. Many Australian’s assume that they’re “too young” to need a Will. Some people believe that they don’t own enough assets or have a big...
What is a beneficiary?
A beneficiary is a person who receives all or part of the distribution from the deceased estate. There are two types of beneficiaries that are included in Wills. It’s important to understand the difference so that you can think deeply about how you’d like to divide...