Legally Binding Will FAQ's

CREATING A LEGALLY BINDING WILL

Frequently asked Questions

about creating a Legally Binding Will

If you don’t have a Will, you may end up leaving your loved ones in a state of confusion and incurring unnecessary costs related to the distribution of your assets. It doesn’t matter how old you are, a Will is worth putting into place and My Legal Will makes it easy to create one. You also risk your assets being left to individuals in your family who you may not have chosen as recipients.

If you die without having prepared a Will, then your property and assets will be distributed according to the laws of intestacy. This means that your assets may not go to the people that you want them to.

For example, most spousal couples choose to leave everything to their partner and then the last surviving partner will leave the assets to any children you and your partner have. However, if you die without a Will, your partner may not receive your entire estate. Under the laws of intestacy, your partner will receive the first $100,000 of your estate and one-third of everything after that. The rest of the estate is then distributed to your children.

Not only that, but you will have no control over who gets specific items. You may have sentimental belongings that you want that you want to leave to particular people after you pass away. Having a written Will is the only way to guarantee that people will receive the items you want them to.

Yes. McDonald Legal is a legal firm based in Melbourne’s CBD and we provide a range of integrated legal services. McDonald Legal’s’ My Legal Will platform has been developed by our specialists Will & Estate Lawyers, who are available to discuss your Will in more depth if you require this level of service.

Yes. With McDonald Legal’s’ My Legal Will platform you can appoint guardians for one or all of your children. We’d encourage you to discuss guardianship with people you entrust your children to first, so they understand what is involved in taking responsibility as a primary care giver.

The Executor plays an important role in executing your Will. They should be someone you trust over the age of 18, who will likely outlive you and has understood and accepted the role as Executor.

Yes. The Executor is the person who carries out your final wishes and is responsible for distributing assets, they can also be a beneficiary and receive assets as well.

No. People may think that there is a certain way that you are supposed to write your Will, but this is not true. You can and should distribute your hard-earned assets in the way that seems the most appropriate to you.

Once you have signed your Will and co-signed by witnesses, your Will is a legally binding document. It must be stored in a safe place and at a location that can be accessed if required by your Executors.

Yes. McDonald Legal will store your Executed Will in our Safe Keeping Fireproof Deeds storage facility free of charge and provide yourself and your Executors with Certified Copies of your Will and instructions on how to contact McDonald Legal for accessing the original signed Will.

Your online Will is stored securely in our encrypted vault. Please review our privacy policy and data protection policy for more information.

Yes. Our firewalls and encrypted vaults have gold-standard security protocols to keep your sensitive information secure and only accessible when required. Review our data protection policy here.

Your Will is sent to you by email as a PDF. If you need to make changes to your Will, you can log on to the McDonald Legal’s’ My Legal Will online portal and update your Will when required.

You can access your Will at any time to update and make changes at no cost by simply logging into your My Legal Will account.

The person you have nominated as your Executor will need to contact us and we will make an application for a Grant of Probate on their behalf. The grant is a legal document which confirms that the executor has the authority to deal with the deceased person’s assets (property, money and belongings). This is called ‘administering the estate’. When this grant is provided, it gives your Executor the ability to execute your Will as per your instructions.

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