Where there’s a will ...
Congratulations to Kay Catanzariti, who has launched a website, willityourway.com, as part of an initiative to encourage people to organise a will as soon as they turn 18.
Among the celebrity ambassadors for the Will It Your Way initiative are several sporting identities, including former Australian Rugby League player and NSW State of Origin Coach Laurie Daley, seven-time world surfing champion Layne Beachley, and Griffith-born world tennis champion from the 1970s and 1980s Evonne Goolagong Cawley.
Will It Your Way is a charity registered with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission, under the subtype of Advancing Education.
Through Mrs Catanzariti’s tireless campaigning, the initiative has the support of the ACT Government and local schools in the Griffith area.
Commins Hendriks Solicitors strongly supports the Will It Your Way campaign and encourages any person over the age of 18 to check out the website.
If someone dies without a Will, the NSW Succession Act sets out how that person’s estate can be divided. The finalisation of a deceased estate where there is no Will can be more complicated and costly. Among the issues which might arise:
Who will the debtors, creditors and businesses with whom the deceased had accounts and investments deal with?
If the deceased had begun living with a partner, who should have control over the estate – a parent or partner?
Other matters for a Will maker to consider include whether they have an up-to-date Binding Death Benefit Nomination for their superannuation or whether they wish to be an organ donor. Often in the case of a premature death there can be misunderstandings between the deceased’s partner and his/her parents/family.
As the Will It Your Way website says, “We know life gets busy, so don't say you'll do it tomorrow as tomorrow never comes”.
Bill Thompson
Coolamon
Let’s get plan right
While millions of people starve in Ethiopa, we have food production regions that are grinding to a halt as a consequence of a Murray-Darling Basin Plan that in many ways is an abject failure.
Yet our federal government refuses to pause this plan so we can reassess and try to get it right, instead insisting it will be completed “on budget and on time”.
Let me put it this way. Assume you were building a house, let’s say with a budget of $500,000, and it was due to be completed by Christmas.
In October the builder came to you and said: “Look, I can have it finished by Christmas and within budget, but there are a few problems. Firstly our drainage isn’t right and will flood the neighbours when it rains. Then there are the miscalculations with the foundations, and it looks like they won’t be strong enough to hold up the second floor, which might collapse at some point.”
Do you tell the builder to step back, analyse what has to be done and make sure the house is properly constructed, or do you push ahead with “yep, we’ll have it on budget and on time regardless of the consequences”.
I’d suggest every reasonable thinking person would go for the former, yet with the Basin Plan the federal government is adopting the latter approach.
What do we have to do for commonsense to prevail? Let’s ditch the ridiculous “on budget and on time” notion and start looking at solutions that provide a win:win for food producers, our communities, the environment and millions of starving people in Ethiopia and other countries.
Shelley Scoullar
Speak Up Campaign
