A Will Is One
Document Of Ten.
It is also the only one that does nothing at all while you are still alive. Most people who say “my affairs are in order” have a will and nothing else — which means that if they are alive but unable to decide for themselves, nobody can lawfully act for them, and the largest asset they own is not covered by the document they are relying on. This page sets out the full set, what each piece does, and what happens without it.
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Upload it and get a plain-English check against the Succession Act 1981 (Qld) — execution defects, structural gaps, and the clause we would insert for each. Free, and no solicitor sees it unless you ask.
What The Complete Version Consists Of
Each of these does a different job, at a different moment. Read the “when it operates” line first — that is where most of the confusion lives.
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The Order Things Actually Happen In
Life planning is easier to get right when you stop thinking of it as “a will” and start thinking of it as four separate moments.
1 While you are well
Nothing operates. This is the only window in which any of these documents can be made — every one of them requires capacity. That is the whole argument for doing it early rather than at the point it is needed.
2 If you lose capacity
The enduring power of attorney and the advance health directive take over. Your will is irrelevant here — it has not started. Without these two, your family applies to QCAT for an administrator and a guardian: months, cost, and the tribunal may appoint someone you would not have chosen.
3 In the first days after death
Funeral and burial wishes, and the location of the signed original will. A will nobody can find is a will that did not exist. Attorneys' powers end at death, which surprises almost everyone.
4 Administration of the estate
The will finally operates, alongside the binding death benefit nomination over super and any testamentary trust. Jointly held property and family-trust assets pass outside all of it, whatever the will says.
Off A Maintained Precedent Library, Not A Blank Page
Every clause we produce comes from a maintained precedent library held in full on our own infrastructure and mapped to working templates.
The wills and lifetime planning material alone runs to — precedent documents. Powers of attorney and advance health directives, estate administration and letters of administration, family provision claims and testamentary trusts are all held as separate maintained guides. The same library sits behind every other area we work in.