Wills and estate planning

Wills

Your Will is a legal document setting out how your assets will be distributed when you pass away.

It can also cover things like:

• who will benefit from your estate
• who gets personal or family items or other property you might have
• what happens to things like life insurances or other investments
• sharing any wishes for your funeral
• picking someone to administer your Will (called the executor)
• naming who will look after your pets.

You should review your will every 3 to 5 years to ensure it still reflects your wishes.

There are 3 main ways to prepare a Will:

• Through a qualified legal professional such as a solicitor or lawyer.
• A trustee organisation such as Queensland Public Trustee. They provide a free Will-making service to Queenslanders over the age of 18.
• Self-made Wills. You can purchase a Will kit from a newsagent, some Post Office locations, or download one from the internet.

Enduring power of attorney

An enduring power of attorney is a legal document giving someone you choose and trust the legal authority to make decisions on your behalf.

They would make decisions for you should your decision-making capacity ever become impaired. This could happen to at any time, perhaps due to illness, injury or disability.

Decisions they can help with include:

• day-to-day tasks like paying your bills
• operating and managing your bank accounts
• managing property matters, such as buying, selling or renting
• preparing tax returns
• making medical and healthcare choices around things like treatments and medicine
• living arrangements.

There are 3 main ways to put an enduring power of attorney in place:

• Through a qualified legal professional such as a solicitor or lawyer.
• A trustee organisation such as Queensland Public Trustee.
• By downloading the enduring power of attorney form from the Queensland Government website.

Advance health directives

If you become seriously ill, you may be unable to communicate your healthcare decisions.

An advance health directive allows you to plan what medical treatment or health care you would like in the event that you cannot make decisions for yourself. It also enables you to appoint an attorney for health matters if you wish.

Make an advance health directive

Statutory health attorney

A statutory health attorney is someone with automatic authority to make health care decisions on your behalf if you’re an adult whose capacity to make health care decisions is permanently or temporarily impaired. A statutory health attorney will make decisions about your health care if you are too ill or incapable of making them.

For example, consent may be needed for medical treatment or an operation while you are unconscious. Or you may have an intellectual disability, dementia or an acquired brain injury and may be unable to make your own decisions.

A statutory health attorney will act if you have not:

• set out relevant directions for your medical treatment in an advance health directive (see above)
• appointed an attorney for personal matters under an enduring power of attorney (see above)
• had a guardian appointed for health care matters by the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

You do not need a special form to formally appoint a statutory health attorney. A person automatically acts in this role because of their relationship to you.

Read more about your statutory health attorney’s responsibilities.