Your Will allows you to give assets that you personally own to those persons that you nominate. Often these people include your children. But what happens if your children get divorced?
If one of your children has received assets from you after your death, those assets will be part of the pool of property that is available for division with their spouse. At FGD we assist clients who wish to put in place some protective measures to prevent such a thing from happening.
The device we adopt in drafting our Wills is called a Testamentary Trust. The drafting of a Testamentary Trust needs to be done with care to ensure that the mechanisms which govern the Trust are properly allocated and that in essence the right person or persons are controlling how the assets are dealt with.
For more information in relation to how you might adopt such a mechanism or to understand whether your current Will provides adequate protection, contact FGD and we are able to assist you.
Kathryn Heuer is a Family Lawyer and Director at Farrar Gesini Dunn, Canberra Office.