It's Wills Month
September is Wills Month which is a timely reminder for farmers to make sure your will is current and deals with your assets as you would have wished.
Land, together with livestock, Fonterra shares, plant and equipment will be valued in the millions. Having a proper Will cannot be stressed enough as to die without one greatly complicates and delays the administration of your estate and adds considerably to the cost.
Apart from the cost there is also the question that your assets may not be distributed as you wish. There has been a High Court decision where a couple had been separated for eight years yet the wife was entitled to the estate as a surviving wife.
More importantly you may be under the impression that your spouse or partner will automatically be entitled to your half share of your joint assets. This is not the case.
Under the Administration Act an estate will be distributed as follows:
- If there is a spouse and no surviving parents or children, the spouse gets everything;
- If there is a spouse and children, the spouse receives the personal chattels and a one-third share of the remaining property. The other two-thirds go to the children;
- If there is a spouse, no children but surviving parents, then two-thirds go to the spouse and one third goes to the parents;
- If no spouse then the children get the lot;
- If no spouse or children then the parents get the lot;
- And so on until the situation where there are no aunts, uncles or grandparents the Crown receives the property.
It is in the best interests of farming couples to make sure you both have up-to-date current Wills as the last thing a surviving spouse needs is to have to rely on the generosity of children or parents-in-law to continue their farming business.
The message is simple – make sure you have a current Will.
(Note: spouse includes a de facto partner or civil union partner)