Morris speaks at TLANZ Cradle to Grave conference

Bethan Read today presented at The Law Association of New Zealand's Cradle to Grave Conference. TLANZ's annual conference is one of the highlights in the trust and estate law calendar and brings together industry leaders, who presented on a range of topical issues on the theme of "Advising Clients in an Evolving World".

Bethan presented on "Navigating Complexity in Modern Will Drafting". Drafting wills increasingly requires a specialised skillset. Clients' circumstances and assets are becoming more complex, and wills need to be individualised to each particular client. Bethan considered some of the main intricacies practitioners encounter in the present day, such as blended families, elderly clients and digital assets, as well as practical ways of ensuring wills are effective in these situations. 

For blended families, Bethan explored the importance of understanding the client's objectives to determine the best way to structure their will. Bethan examined the benefits and drawbacks mutual wills and life interest wills can offer blended families. Mutual wills are made by spouses/partners on similar terms and both spouses/partners make a contractual promise not to change their wills in the future. By using a mutual will, spouses/partners can leave their assets to each other and then on the death of the survivor, leave assets to the combined blended family unit in an agreed way. Life interest wills, on the other hand, create a trust over specified assets that allows a surviving spouse/partner to benefit from the asset during their lifetime, such as through living in a property or receiving investment income, while preserving the capital asset for the will-maker's children.

Bethan examined the importance of being alert to warning signs that elderly clients may lack capacity and/or are being unduly influenced to make or change their will. Bethan provided practical tips on the best way to approach these situations, including the steps lawyers need to take to complete capacity assessments where clients are unable to or refuse to obtain an assessment from a specialist doctor.

Finally, Bethan discussed the growing use of digital assets and the challenges these pose to estate planning. Unlike traditional assets, access to digital assets is held by the person who holds the access keys to the digital account or cryptocurrency. Where those access keys are lost, it can be impossible to access the asset. This can have disastrous consequences when the asset is a financial digital asset, such as cryptocurrency, as beneficiaries could lose inheritance of significant financial assets. Prudent planning for these types of assets is essential, either through digital inventories or sophisticated structuring of key-holders. Practitioners need to ensure wills not only include clauses to gift these assets, but go further to guide clients on the safe passage of access keys.

Please get in touch with Morris if you would like to make a will or have any queries on wills.

‍