Travelling overseas – got your estate plan in place?
We are well and truly on the countdown to Christmas and the end of year. Holidays are just around the corner and many people will be travelling overseas for their holidays.
There’s a lot that goes into planning a holiday such as booking flights, finding accommodation and of course packing. But don’t forgot to get your affairs in order before getting on that plane!
The three most important estate planning documents you should have are:
- will
- enduring powers of attorney (financial and personal matters)
- enduring powers of attorney (medical treatment)
The odds of having a plane crash may be one in a million but it’s certainly not uncommon for people to suffer injuries or illness leading to hospitalisation or even causing death while overseas. It’s even more likely that you could be the victim of theft or simply just lose important documents.
My brother-in-law is currently overseas and he recently had his bank account hacked. The bank identified the issue quickly but part of the bank’s security process was to freeze his account. He can’t regain access to his account until he attends a bank branch (pretty difficult if you’re in Istanbul). It would have been much easier to sort out had he made an enduring power of attorney (financial) appointing his mum and dad, then they could have attended a local bank branch on his behalf.
Estate planning documents are extremely important if things go wrong while overseas. Any trip overseas requires planning. You wouldn’t go overseas without travel insurance, the same goes for estate planning documents. Happy travels!
For advice or further information, please contact:
Sarah Cohen
Senior Associate
T 03 5226 8574
E scohen@ha.legal
or
Justin Hartnett
Principal
T 5225 5220
M 0419 571 840
E jhartnett@ha.legal
or
Daniela Pavlovic
Special Counsel
T 5225 5227
M 0417 014 455
E dpavlovic@ha.legal