Plain English Guide to Estate Planning: Start Early

It is trite to say that estate planning and business succession planning should be done during your lifetime but it is surprising how many planning opportunities are simply missed. Take the example of a typical comparatively wealthy family, with elderly parents and two grown up children. You would normally expect that the family would have superannuation assets, the home would be in the parents' joint names and the business assets would be held in a family Company or a discretionary Family Trust.

The parents would usually retain the assets during their lifetimes and then they would want the assets to pass to the children. Leaving the shares in the family Company or in the Trustee Company of the Family Trust is comparatively straight forward. However, difficulties frequently arise after the parents pass away.