What Goes Beyond Having a Will?

Getting a Will can often be thought of as a tedious task, so when you do finally go to get yours sorted it’s nice knowing you can finally check it off your to-do list. However, it shouldn’t stop there. A Will plays a big part in your estate plan. For example, you wouldn’t mow half your lawn and leave the rest untouched, so let’s make sure you finish what you started and work at maintaining your Will just as you would your lawn.

At Footprint we go beyond just helping you create a Will, we want to help make sure your estate plan is solid which is why whether you already have a Will or you need a new one, we’ve got your back! Below we explain all the other things you’ll want to keep in mind beyond just your Will. Let’s dive in.

Keeping it safe.

First and foremost you need to make sure your Will is safely tucked away. This is your personal property and potentially sensitive so you don’t want to leave it lying around willy nilly (see what we did there?). However, it does need to be easily accessible when the time comes and it needs to be clear that it is the latest legal version, this is part of the reason we provide you with a digital vault. Whether you’re bringing an existing Will with you or you’ve written it with us, your vault is your one-stop-shop (a bit like your local dairy) for all important documents. With 1GB of storage, you can safely store documents such as your Will, insurance policies, enduring powers of attorney (EPAs), copies of your passport, birth certificates, important receipts, instructions for social media accounts, a personal video message, important photos, a personal letter to support your Will instructions and the list goes on. We also offer the option to store the original Will with us offsite in our flood and earthquake-proof facility. Just send it to our Freepost address and we let you know once we receive it.

Let’s talk about maintenance.

Keeping your Will up to date is key, so with a Footprint package, you get the ability to update your Will annually. Every year on your anniversary you’ll get a notification from us with a reminder to review your Will and make sure it’s still up-to-date. This works whether you created a Footprint Will or used the BYO function. If you previously created a Will with Footprint, it’s as simple as editing your previous one that sits within your Will dashboard. If you decided to use the BYO option and instead uploaded an existing Will from another provider directly into your vault, you can continue with your current provider and simply upload it to your vault afterward.

Alternatively, the option to create a new Will with Footprint is always available. To help you out there are Learning Lab videos on your dashboard which include all the need-to-know about Wills and estate administration. We also have professional Will drafters who review every Will and who are available to you if you have any questions along the way. At the very least an annual update is a friendly reminder to make sure your Will still reflects your current situation. In addition, if you have it uploaded in your digital vault you can check it anywhere and anytime you want!

Do you know where your parent’s Wills are?

If you answered no, you’re not alone. In a 2018 survey, 39% of people didn’t know where their parent’s Wills were stored. That means when the time comes there could be valuable time wasted searching to find it or figuring out whether there even is one at all (check out our blog “Do my parents have Wills” for some tips on how to find out). To help with this we created a feature where you can set up notifications to specific people every time you update your Will. Setting up notifications won’t give anyone else access to your Will, but it will give the people you nominate some peace of mind knowing where your Will is stored and that everything’s sorted. You can change who receives these notifications anytime and the only person, other than yourself, that will have access to your vault is your appointed executor, and that’s only after you’ve passed away. Being able to access your Will is all part of their executor responsibilities.

Estate administration.

This is the big kahuna and is only available with the Footprint Will Package. Whether you have a little or a lot, there are a number of legal steps that need to be taken, admin to be sorted, people to find, accounts to be closed and so on. Without a doubt estate distribution (which is making sure those who you want to get your Deadly Ponies handbag, or autographed Richie McCaw rugby jumper actually get it) can be one of the most costly and time-consuming aspects of estate planning. In New Zealand, the average fee to administer an estate with a Will currently sits between $10k-12k and without a Will that cost goes up by an estimated 50%.

Basically high estate administration fees mean there’s less going to your beneficiaries (the people you are leaving your stuff to). At Footprint, we believe that with the aid of technology the days of high estate administration fees should no longer be necessary so we developed our first subscription-based product – Will Package to include estate administration valued at $10,000. Even holding a subscription of 30 or 40 years, the savings are still significant. Again this works whether you write a Footprint Will or Bring Your Own, the main thing to keep in mind is that in order to be able to utilise the estate administration service, you need to appoint Perpetual Guardian (our third-party provider) as your executor. If your preference is to use your own executor then they can instead utilise the executor support service. You can find what’s included in the estate administration package here.

Ready to write your Will? Create one online with Footprint!

And that’s it…, easy peasy! So whether you already have a Will or you need to get one sorted consider everything that comes along with it from updates and storage to notifications and if you have the Will package there is estate administration. Explore our Will packages online and decide which option is right for you. You can also check out our Will information hub to learn all the ‘need to know’ stuff about Wills, probate, estate administration, and more!