Estate Planning Checklist for Retirement in Australia

Retirement planning isn't only about working out whether you have enough super or how much income you'll need.

There is another question worth considering:

If something happened to me, would the people closest to me know what I wanted — and where everything was?

That is where estate planning comes in.

A good estate plan can help make your wishes clearer after you die. It can also help determine who can make financial, personal or healthcare decisions for you if you become unable to make those decisions yourself.

And it involves much more than simply having a will.

ASIC's Moneysmart explains that an estate plan can include a will, testamentary trust and superannuation beneficiary nominations. It can also cover arrangements for your finances and medical care if you can no longer make your own decisions.

See Moneysmart's guidance on wills and powers of attorney

Here is a practical checklist to help you identify what you already have in place — and what may still need attention.

1. Make or Review Your Will

A will is one of the foundations of an estate plan.

It sets out how assets forming part of your estate are to be dealt with after your death and identifies the person or people responsible for administering your estate.

But making a will shouldn't necessarily be a once-only job.

Your circumstances can change.

Marriage, separation or divorce, children or grandchildren, significant changes in your finances, or the death of someone named in your will can all be reasons to review your arrangements. Moneysmart specifically identifies these kinds of life changes as times when reviewing a will may be appropriate.

2. Check Who Receives Your Superannuation

This is an important distinction:

Your will does not automatically control your super.

Moneysmart explains that you nominate beneficiaries through your super fund. Depending on the nomination and the fund's rules, this may include eligible dependants or your legal personal representative. If your super is paid to your legal personal representative, it can then form part of the estate dealt with under your will.

This is why having a perfectly good will doesn't necessarily mean your superannuation arrangements are sorted.

Binding beneficiary nominations also need attention. Some nominations can expire, while arrangements vary between super funds, so check the rules applying to your particular fund and nomination.

3. Review Your Insurance Arrangements

Life insurance may be held personally or through superannuation.

Rather than assuming it will simply follow the instructions in your will, identify what cover you actually have, who owns the policy and how any benefit would be dealt with if you died.

This is also a useful opportunity to bring together the details of any life, total and permanent disability, trauma or income-protection insurance you hold.

4. Decide Who Could Handle Your Financial Affairs if You Couldn't

Estate planning isn't only about what happens after death.

There is also the possibility that illness, injury or declining capacity could leave you unable to manage your own financial affairs.

Australia does not have one identical power-of-attorney system applying in exactly the same way across every state and territory, so you need to check the arrangements where you live.

The objective is straightforward: consider who you would trust to manage appropriate financial and legal matters if you were no longer able to do so yourself.

5. Consider Who Could Make Personal and Lifestyle Decisions for You

Financial decisions are only part of the picture.

Depending on where you live, separate arrangements may be available to appoint someone to make certain personal, lifestyle or treatment decisions if you lose the capacity to make those decisions yourself.

The terminology and legal documents differ between Australian jurisdictions.

That makes it important not to download a document intended for another state and assume it applies to you.

6. Think About Your Future Healthcare Wishes

Advance care planning provides an opportunity to think about what healthcare you would or wouldn't want if there came a time when you couldn't communicate or make those decisions yourself.

Again, the applicable documents and terminology depend on your jurisdiction.

This isn't necessarily about predicting every medical situation that might occur.

It's about considering your values, preferences and wishes and understanding the formal arrangements available for recording them.

A Western Australian Example

In WA, an Enduring Power of Attorney (EPA) can give another person authority concerning financial and property matters. It does not give that person authority over personal, lifestyle and treatment decisions.

Read the Department of Justice guidance on an Enduring Power of Attorney

An Enduring Power of Guardianship (EPG) can appoint someone to make authorised personal, lifestyle and treatment decisions if you become unable to make those decisions yourself.

Read the Office of the Public Advocate guidance on an Enduring Power of Guardianship

An Advance Health Directive (AHD) can record decisions about future treatment. WA Health explains that an AHD is legally binding and is used if you cannot make or communicate those choices yourself.

See WA Health's advance care planning documents and resources

These documents have different jobs. Depending on your circumstances, you might consider one or more of them.

7. Make a List of Your Important Financial Information

Imagine somebody having to sort out your affairs without knowing where anything is.

Would they know which super fund you're with? Which banks you use? Whether you have investments? Where your insurance documents are? Whether you have outstanding loans?

A simple financial inventory can make an enormous difference.

Consider recording the existence and location of your bank accounts, super funds, investments, property, insurance, loans and other significant assets or liabilities.

The purpose isn't necessarily to put sensitive passwords and financial information into one unsecured document. It is to create a sensible roadmap so the appropriate person knows what exists and where the relevant information can be found.

8. Don't Forget Your Digital Life

Modern estates can include a surprisingly large digital footprint.

Email accounts, cloud storage, social-media accounts, online subscriptions, photographs, websites and other digital records may all need to be considered.

Make an inventory of important digital accounts and consider what you would like to happen to them.

Be careful about how passwords and access information are stored. The goal is not to create a document that becomes a security risk.

9. Make Sure Someone Knows Where the Important Documents Are

Having carefully prepared documents isn't much help if nobody can find them.

Moneysmart recommends keeping your will somewhere safe and telling someone close to you where it is.

Apply the same common-sense approach to the other important parts of your estate planning.

The appropriate people may need to know where to locate your will, superannuation information, insurance records, powers of attorney or guardianship documents, healthcare planning documents and other essential records.

That doesn't mean everyone needs access to everything.

It means the right people should know that the documents exist and how they can be located when legitimately required.

10. Review Your Estate Plan as Life Changes

An estate plan shouldn't simply disappear into a filing cabinet for the next 20 years.

Your family can change. Your assets can change. Your relationships can change. Your superannuation can change. And legislation can change.

Consider reviewing your arrangements after significant life events and periodically as part of your broader retirement planning.

“I Already Have a Will. Isn't That Enough?”

Not necessarily.

Your will is important, but other arrangements can sit outside it.

Superannuation is a good example. Your will does not automatically determine who receives your super death benefit. Your beneficiary nomination and the rules applying to your super fund can be critical.

Likewise, a will generally deals with what happens after your death. It doesn't by itself establish who can manage your finances or make appropriate personal or healthcare decisions for you if you are alive but unable to make those decisions.

That is why it is more useful to think about an estate plan rather than simply a will.

Your Retirement Estate-Planning Checklist

• ✓Up-to-date will
• ✓Super beneficiary nomination
• ✓Insurance cover
• ✓Financial affairs/capacity arrangements
• ✓Personal or guardianship arrangements
• ✓Future healthcare wishes
• ✓Inventory of important assets, liabilities and accounts
• ✓Important digital accounts and records
• ✓Location of important documents
• ✓Process for reviewing arrangements when circumstances change

You don't necessarily have to solve every one of these issues today.

But knowing what has already been done — and what hasn't — gives you somewhere practical to start.

Make the Paperwork Easier to Organise

Estate planning can quickly become scattered across super funds, insurance policies, legal documents, financial accounts and family records.

RGX-103 is designed to help you organise the information and questions you may need to work through, so you can approach your estate planning in a more structured way.

An organisational workbook doesn't replace a properly prepared will, legal advice or the formal documents required in your state or territory. Its purpose is to help you get organised and identify the areas that may require attention.

The Important Part Is Getting Started

Estate planning can be easy to postpone.

Nobody particularly enjoys thinking about becoming incapable of making decisions or about what happens after they die.

But putting appropriate arrangements in place isn't really about paperwork.

It's about making things clearer for the people you care about.

Start with the basics.

Check your will. Check your super beneficiaries. Find out what decision-making documents apply where you live. Organise your important information. And make sure the right people know where it is.

You don't need to do everything at once.

You just need to start getting it organised.

Sources

ASIC Moneysmart — Wills and powers of attorney

WA Department of Justice — Enduring Power of Attorney

WA Office of the Public Advocate — Enduring Power of Guardianship

WA Health — Advance care planning documents and resources