Estate Planning:
Assignment: Compulsory
· Students should read the case study relating to the ‘Family Family’. The details are set out below.
· An answer of about 500 words for each of the three matters specified is expected, and each of the three matters will be marked out of 10.
· Students should clearly identify each part at the beginning of their answer, and should commence each new part on a new page. Only one side of each page should be used. Do not print on both sides of a page.
John Family and Jennifer Family
Background facts:
1. John is aged 63 years and his wife Jennifer is aged 62 years. They are both employed in management positions and plan to retire in 2 to 3 years. They married 40 years ago and have three children, being Jessica (aged 38 years), James (aged 36 years) and Justin (aged 34 years).
2. Jessica and James are both married, and each has three children, all under the age of 10 years.
3. Justin was born with Downs Syndrome. He still lives with John and Jennifer and Justin receives a disability pension.
4. John and Jennifer have no estate planning documents in place.
5. The assets of John and Jennifer are set out in the table below:
Assets Value:
Home owned as joint tenants $1,000,000
Holiday home as joint tenants (purchased 1988 for $100,000) $800,000
Share portfolio (joint names); all purchased after 1985; cost base
$600,000
$2,000,000
Superannuation investments (John); taxable component 50% $500,000
Superannuation investments (Jennifer); taxable component 50% $500,000
Investment unit as joint tenants (purchased 1990 for $300,000 $800,000
6. John and Jennifer advise you that in the event of the death of the first of them, they wish all assets to pass to the survivor. In the event of the death of the second of them, they want their total estate divided into 4 equal parts, with one part going to each of their children Jessica, James and Justin and one part to be divided equally between their grandchildren.
Assignment Task
Students are to write a letter to John and Jennifer dealing with the following three matters:
1. What estate planning documents should they have in place, and why?