This information has been provided by
Australian law firm, Slingsby's Legal Solutions.
Beneficiaries are persons or entities that you have selected
in your Will to receive part or all of your assets in the
event of your death.
You can select anyone that you like, and more than one
person or entity can share in your estate. Examples of
beneficiaries include:
Spouses and partners
Children
Parents and brothers/sisters
More distant relatives (eg cousins, uncles, aunts)
Friends
Charities
If you are wanting to leave assets to an entity, such as a
charity, church organisation, or sporting body, then you
need to check that they are a legal entity that can take the
gift.
Consider providing some portion of your Estate to close
relatives/dependents, to reduce the risk of them sueing your
Estate.
You need to be careful, also, about leaving out people who
are closely related or dependent on you. For instance, some
parents wish to exclude one of their children from taking
part of their estate. This can be for many reasons, for
instance because the child no longer has a relationship with
the parent, or because the child has already received their
share while the parent is alive. Other dependents include
non relatives such as live in partners who have been with
the Willmaker for a number of years.
These people may sue the Estate after your death asking for
the Will to be revised to give them a share. The Court can
decide to give them part of your Estate even though your
Will specifically excludes them. What is even worse, is that
the legal costs that are incurred by your Estate in
defending any such action eat into the assets that you have
left, and Court actions can be very expensive.
