Talking with your family about the intentions for your estate, while difficult, is important to ensure you desires can be honoured. Having the tough conversations now means you’ve communicated your wishes and may prevent an unintended outcome.

Perhaps the business you intended to leave to your children isn’t really what they want or are even capable of taking over. Or it could be that, whilst they haven’t had a significant involvement in the business to date, with adequate preparation they would be keen to have a stake.

We’ve sat down with families on countless occasions to go through the pros and cons of various scenarios of what an estate can look like. It can be eye opening for the will makers. They are trying to be fair, but the children may not see it that way if you’ve never had a discussion with them about your wishes or their intentions.

Having the conversation also means you can do things such as preparing an Enduring Power of Attorney so that financial and medical decisions can be made for you should you become incapacitated.