estate planning

Christmas is the season of goodwill and making that extra effort to bring the families together. It's also a good time, while everyone is in the same room, to have those difficult discussions about estate planning or aged care. You don't need ... More

There is nothing like a headline about wills to get me frothing. And a headline late last year from research done by comparison site Finder certainly did that: "10 million Australians don't have a will" is pretty dramatic. This, by the way, does not ... More

Commissioner Kenneth Hayne's verdict on Australia's insurance industry is in and the game is up. From grossly inappropriate cold-calling and pressure-selling of life insurance to junk insurance sold to people who could never claim on it, the banking ... More

Does your elderly parent live with you? Around 8.2% of people aged over 65 years live with their family or other relatives. If your elderly relatives live either in your home or in a granny flat, do you have a formal agreement or a word of mouth arrangement? ... More

"Happily ever after" has not panned out. The relationship you have invested time, emotions, energy and money in has been deemed - either by you or your now ex-partner - to be irrevocably broken. Divorce is something that the Australian Bureau of Statistics ... More

One day Facebook may have more dead "memorialised" members than living ones. Planning for the ownership of digital assets in your will has never been more relevant. Ownership of digital assets is a difficult legal area as legislation and the social ... More

Q. I am 60 years old and have just retired, although I may do consulting in the future to supplement our lifestyle. We would like to have at least $75,000pa to live on. My (second) wife and I own our $1 million home outright (joint tenants) and I ... More

Q. I am 72, single (divorced) and own a mortgage-free home worth around $1.5 million. I have $610,000 in an industry super fund. I receive $14,000 a year from an overseas pension and I also receive $14,000 a year from passive income. I have $67,000 ... More

Think ahead, because the time may come when you can't manage your own affairs Chances are that if you're at all concerned about your finances, you've given some thought to how that will be managed by your loved ones when you die. But as the population ... More

As the digital world takes hold of our waking lives, everyone needs to give some thought to what will happen to our online life when we're no longer around. Our digital assets can be far more complicated to deal with at death than stocks, bonds and ... More