Helping your clients take care of their Superannuation when doing their Estate Planning
You can have your client nominate a beneficiary of their superannuation fund by completing a Binding Nomination Form and giving it to the trustee of their superannuation fund. A Binding Nomination Form is effective for three years only. The benefit of making such a nomination is that the proceeds from their superannuation fund on their death will go to that beneficiary and will not form part of their estate.
This means that creditors of their estate (people to whom they owe money at the time of their death) cannot get access to those funds.
They can nominate more than one beneficiary of their superannuation policy. They can nominate themselves as one of those beneficiaries if they wish for some of the superannuation funds to form part of their estate. This could be important to ensure that there are sufficient funds in their estate to pay for their funeral and other expenses (which are paid in priority to their creditors).
On their death, the assets of their estate will be distributed in the following order of priority:
- payment of their funeral and other testamentary expenses;
- payment of their creditors;
- any specific gifts that they have specified in their Will;
- any general gifts specified in their Will;
- distribution of the balance (residuary) of their estate to the Residuary Beneficiaries.
Therefore, if some cash is left to their estate then it will be used first to pay for their funeral and other testamentary expenses before the funds are made available to their creditor.
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The team at Yodal is dedicated to simplifying what was once complex and making it easier for everyone to have a plan. Yodal assists financial advisers, accountants and insurance advisers to deliver and manage valuable Estate Planning services to which they are centric as trusted advisers. Try it now, and don’t forget to let us know what you think at info@yodal.com.au.