Your Estate – What is it exactly?

Your Estate consists of the assets  that you are able to give to beneficiaries using a Will. Generally speaking these include assets that you own in your own name and those owned as “tenants in common”. (Where each owner has a separate interest that may be passed to specified beneficiaries.  Property owned as a joint tenancy will pass automatically to the surviving owners.) The deceased estate is held in trust from your death until the transfer of the property and assets to the beneficiaries. This might include;

Bank (or Building Society/Credit union) Accounts in your name;

Insurance payouts (excluding life insurance as it is not payable to you); Shares in publicly listed companies or that you hold in a business;

Personal Possessions including tools, a record collection, jewelry, or clothing forms part of your estate.

Superannuation

Importantly as superannuation is left to a person under a form of nomination it is not part of your estate even though it may be referred to in the Will.