Wockner Lawyers in Surfers Paradise, Queensland | Estate planning solicitor

Wockner Lawyers

Locality: Surfers Paradise, Queensland

Phone: +61 7 5679 0070

Address: 2 Elkhorn Ave #1 4217 Surfers Paradise, QLD, Australia

Website: http://www.wocknerlawyers.com.au

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24.01.2022 Qld Contracts: Embarrassment reducing ! Weve been waiting for 25 years, but it appears that the Queensland government may finally be about to improve the embarrassingly poor quality of Contracts for the sale of real estate. The Commercial and Property Law Research Centre at the Queensland University of Technology is a specialist network of researchers with a vision of reforming legal and regulatory frameworks in the commercial and property law sector. The public can make su...bmissions regarding their report up to 10 November 2017. The Current Situation The current process requires a Buyer to sign a Contract without the Seller disclosing the most fundamental of information which would directly impact upon whether (i) the Buyer would want to buy the property, and, (ii) at what price the Buyer would be prepared to pay for the property.

23.01.2022 https://wocknerlawyers.com.au/banks-big-mistake-not-reques/

22.01.2022 One of the great advantages of having a SMSF is that the fund is able to buy your business premises, and then lease the property to yourself (or the company or trust that conducts your business). If you (or your company or trust) already own your business premises, you can sell the property to your SMSF but only after obtaining professional advice & following the rules. http://ow.ly/HjIJ30et6mH

21.01.2022 Leasing your business premises from your SMSF

21.01.2022 Fresh is best !!!

21.01.2022 STEP Conference Qld 2019

20.01.2022 No land tax if family trust owns your home Earlier this week, clients sent me a Land Tax Assessment Notice for $18,000. Their family trust owns an impressive house, which they rent out. They intend to move into the house as the family home. Bearing in mind that land tax is an annual charge, which usually increases each year - they wanted to know whether the land tax could be avoided.... Todays article provides some good news, as it explains the circumstances where Land Tax wont be payable on a family home owned by your family trust. You can enjoy the asset protection benefits of a Family Trust without paying the ever-increasing burden of annual land tax payments. Most people own their home in their personal names & enjoy these financial benefits: lower (or no) Transfer Duty no Land Tax no Capital Gains Tax However, asset protection is becoming more important to many people, and they avoid owning assets in their personal names. The problem with owning your home in your family trust is that you lose these 3 major financial benefits.

20.01.2022 Who can make decisions for you when you cant? A spouse, friend or relative would be unable to act on your behalf or assist you with any of your personal, legal or financial affairs unless you had previously signed an Enduring Power of Attorney. A General Power of Attorney ceases to operate where you lose mental capacity due to accident or illness. http://ow.ly/cJLO30eNGgm

19.01.2022 Land Tax Planning - ignore at your cost!

19.01.2022 Moving Home: Same-day Settlements Moving Home: Same-day Settlements. When you decide to move your home from your current address to a new premises, its common to try and sell your existing home, and buy the new home at the same time - and to settle the 2 Contracts on the same day... You may have successfully bought and sold on the same day before - and if it all went smoothly, youd think its common-place and the normal thing to do.

19.01.2022 Can you inspect a Will? When someone passes away, family members and interested parties may want to obtain a copy of the Will. Often, someone will be told that they are not entitled to see the Will or receive a copy of the Will - even when they are legally entitled to the document.... Todays article clarifies who is entitled to be provided with a copy of a Will. Last week I received a phone call from a young man who was very disturbed at being told that he would not be provided with a copy of his fathers Will. His father had remarried, and the new wife was the Executor of his estate - after he died prematurely following an accident. His father had previously reassured his son that he was well looked after in his Will. I could understand his real concerns about the behavior of his step-mother. Hes heard all the stories!

18.01.2022 Testamentary Trust tailored for you Why Everyone should Upgrade to a Smarter Will Smarter estate planning is not just for the wealthy... Even if all you own is your house/ apartment, you should still upgrade from a so-called simple will to a more sophisticated will that properly protects your assets and reduces unnecessary tax.

18.01.2022 When you buy a home, you are entitled to a transfer duty concession. Depending on your circumstances, you may pay no duty at all, or you may pay a reduced amount compared with what you pay for an investment property or holiday home.

17.01.2022 https://wocknerlawyers.com.au/upgrade-to-a-smarter-will/

15.01.2022 STEP Qld Conference Program 2019

14.01.2022 Dont make a Will on your mobile Helping your family get their legal affairs organised is not as easy as it sounds. For a start they have to want to do it! When it comes to their Will, they dont deal with the consequences - and it isnt the most uplifting of topics!... The understandable media attention on a Supreme Court decision declaring that a Will made on a mobile phone was valid can be wrongly interpreted by some as meaning that they dont need to prepare a proper Will.

14.01.2022 Our final comments for 2018. Look forward to chatting in 2019. Let me know if you need a question answered ! https://wocknerlawyers.com.au/thats-it-for-2018-almost/

13.01.2022 Earlier this year, I mentioned that for New Zealanders buying Queensland property, it would be a good idea to obtain legal advice (before signing any contract). At the Property Law Conference held in Brisbane last week, the Office of State Revenue clarified their approach to the treatment of New Zealand citizens regarding the amount of transfer duty that might be payable. http://ow.ly/s5ev30fjxvY

11.01.2022 Where you pass away without a valid Will, you are classified as dying intestate. Where your Will doesnt deal with all of your estate assets, you are partially intestate. If intestate, your assets are distributed according to a rigid set of rules. The consequences can be disastrous for your family, as those people closest to you could miss out entirely. http://ow.ly/lDf330eDCsu

11.01.2022 https://wocknerlawyers.com.au/drinking-from-a-fire-hydrant/

11.01.2022 Land Tax: lodge valuation objection by 8 May 2018 This week, property owners are receiving the Annual Land Valuation Notice from the State Valuation Service. Many people wont pay much attention to the Notice as its only a valuation of property you own. The Notice doesnt require you to pay any money.... The problem is that the valuations are used to calculate the Land Tax that you will pay in October. And if the valuations are unreasonably high, you have to take action now. Any objection has to be lodged by 8 May 2018. Its worth taking this issue seriously. One government agency is determining the value of your property so that another government agency can send you a bill based solely on their own assessment.

10.01.2022 Signing a Contract this weekend?

10.01.2022 The reason I attend STEP Conferences! Business Card draws!!

09.01.2022 https://wocknerlawyers.com.au/land-tax-in-2019/

09.01.2022 When you meet with a lawyer to discuss your estate planning needs, the lawyer may want to verify that you have the mental capacity to make decisions regarding your personal and legal affairs. Why do lawyers question your sanity? This doesnt mean that the lawyer thinks that you may not be of sound mind. What it does mean is that the lawyer is trying to protect you and your beneficiaries from having your wishes challenged by someone else at some future time! http://ow.ly/TcEr30f3qRe

08.01.2022 Significant changes to how you engage with your lawyer in 2019! https://wocknerlawyers.com.au/2019-changes-that-cant-be-ig/

08.01.2022 How not to do a Financial Agreement We constantly recommend being proactive about the management of our personal affairs. Taking action to prepare for the future. The benefits of firstly - planning, and secondly - executing the plan, can reap enormous rewards for you and your family.... Todays article is about someone who planned for the breakdown of his marriage, but his execution of the plan was poor.

08.01.2022 Son loses mothers superannuation When it comes to bankruptcy and superannuation, a lump sum death benefit payment from a regulated super fund to a bankrupt is protected, and that money will not be available to creditors. But what happens when the lump sum death benefit payment is paid to the estate, and the estate pays the money to the bankrupt? Andrews Story... Andrew Gapes was made a bankrupt on 17 January 2011. On 18 December 2013, his mother died. Andrew was an executor and beneficiary of his mothers Will. The proceeds of the mothers superannuation fund were not paid directly to Andrew or his siblings, but rather were paid to her estate. On 12 March 2014, in accordance with the terms of her Will, the superannuation funds were distributed to Andrew and his siblings. Andrew directed that his share, being $87,900.33, be paid to his wife because he did not operate a bank account at that time. The Trustee in Bankruptcy of Andrews estate commenced legal proceedings against Andrews wife on 14 November 2016 demanding the payment of the money. The Court had to decide whether the death benefit which was firstly paid by the superannuation fund to the estate of a deceased, and then secondly was paid by the estate to the bankrupt person, was protected from creditors. The answer: NO. On 13 July 2017, the wife was ordered to repay the money!

07.01.2022 Wockner Law Offices

06.01.2022 Overseas or disadvantaged beneficiaries Its impossible to over emphasise the huge financial benefits to families of working together when planning their financial affairs. Todays article provides more examples of the potential for huge financial benefits which are easily available to families with simple estate planning arrangements.... When a person passes away, any capital gain they made in respect of an applicable asset they owned is disregarded, UNLESS the asset passes to a beneficiary that is an "exempt entity" such as a foreign resident. The benefits for families in executing a plan can reap enormous financial rewards - which brings greater happiness through reducing financial stress. This means that, where an applicable asset passes directly to a foreign resident (which usually occurs in a simple Will), Capital Gains Tax (CGT) is triggered. That CGT can be overcome by instead passing the applicable asset into a Testamentary Discretionary Trust created in your Will.

06.01.2022 Retirement Villages: Getting Started As we age, many people decide to sell their house or apartment and move into a retirement village. If you find a village that appeals to you as a place to live, and you make an application, you will be provided with a very complex and challenging set of documents. At a time when older Australians might expect to encounter a system which has been tailored to their needs, they instead find themselves entering into a legal minefield of agre...ements, obligations and costs - including a significant limitation on their rights. What is a Retirement Village? There are many different types of Retirement Villages offering many different styles of purchase or occupancy arrangements. A Retirement Village consists generally of accommodation units and/or rooms set around community facilities such as a community centre and pool. Retirement Villages cater to the needs, services and lifestyle choices of people who are, generally, 60 years of age or older. Retirement Villages provide residents with a lifestyle and facilities that their income may not support, on the basis that some of the cost of that lifestyle is deferred until the resident exits the Retirement Village and their Unit is re-sold. When the Unit is re-sold, a share of the sale price usually goes to the Scheme Operator in the form of their capital gain share, exit fees and other exit charges. The amount the Scheme Operator receives can vary significantly from Retirement Village to Retirement Village - and are not regulated by law. You should not disregard the exit deductions on the basis that you intend to remain in the Village until you pass away. Many residents leave Retirement Villages earlier than they expected, either for family reasons or to move into an Aged Care Facility. At that point, the loss of capital via the exit deductions can impact on your ability to fund an alternative residence of the same standard, or an Aged Care Facility of the standard you desire. You should consider this scenario in assessing the exit charges for this Village. A Retirement Village is not an Aged Care Facility or a Manufactured Home Park. You must be capable of living independently to reside in a Retirement Village. The Scheme Operator can require you to leave the Village (and incur the exit charges) if you are assessed as needing to move into an Aged Care Facility.

05.01.2022 Two important changes were made to Queenslands Succession laws on 5 June 2017: 1 ) The end of a defacto relationship is now treated the same as the end of a marriage. 2) Step-children are now eligible to make a claim on the estate of their step-parent. http://ow.ly/UiSM30ehfVh

04.01.2022 During severe illness, you may be unconscious or otherwise unable to communicate your wishes at the very time when many critical decisions need to be made. You have the ability to help your family make critical decisions about the medical treatment you receive and ease the emotional trauma encountered when making life and death decisions. Help your family make critical health decisions. http://ow.ly/L1XJ30eNHkD

03.01.2022 Worth a look - although a limited audience !

03.01.2022 Son loses deceased fathers estate to ex-wife! By failing to consider his fathers estate planning, this man had to give $150,000 of his dead fathers assets to his ex-wife! This is a summary of a Family Court decision made in July 2017!... This relationship lasted a little over 8 years. However the parties didnt take action to finalise a property settlement until 5 years after separation. It is likely their focus was on providing a stable environment for their child - as they continued to share parenting. 3 1/2 years after separation, the husband received a large inheritance from his fathers estate.

02.01.2022 One afternoon, Gary was driving home from work. As he approached his house, he noticed a pile of material on the footpath outside his property. The sort of scene you see after a flood, when all your water damaged furniture is dragged onto the footpath to be transported to the local tip! Alarmed at what calamity had taken place, he quickly ran up to the house. As he approached the front door, he noticed a note pinned to the door: Ive sold the house. It settled today. Goo...d-bye. Susan http://ow.ly/YbJo30ftQ1p

01.01.2022 Save Tax using a Smarter Will Its impossible to over emphasise the huge financial benefits to families of working together when planning their financial affairs. Most families do not plan, and the Australian Taxation Office thanks you for your generosity in contributing more of your income than is necessary.... Todays article presents a fairly straightforward scenario. The figures do the talking. The cost of a Will could be recouped in 3 months - even though the benefits could continue for decades. The benefits for families in executing a plan can reap enormous financial rewards - which brings greater happiness through reducing financial stress. The primary advantage of having a sophisticated will is that they include optional testamentary trusts. Where a testamentary trust is used, income can be split amongst children and there are preferential tax rates for distributions to minors under testamentary trusts.