When Quintin Bowen died suddenly in his early 30s without a will, it left a complicated legal mess for his grieving mother that took more than five years to sort out.
His mum Helen Bowen, who lives at Glenwood, north of Gympie, is using the experience to encourage other young adults to write a will and ensure they have named beneficiaries for their superannuation funds.
“It was a nightmare,” she says. “I didn’t know where to start.”
Still trying to recover from the experience, and the loss of a second son Adam to brain cancer, Ms Bowen is urging other families to speak to their young adult children about making a will and nominating binding superannuation beneficiaries.
“Even if the parents have to help them pay for it, it would save so much trauma of dealing with complex situations afterwards,” she says.
“Young people don’t think about death. But when they’re gone, there’s someone left behind having to deal with grief and deal with this additional mess.
“When a person is dead, you don’t realise how nasty people can get and how they come out of the woodwork when money is involved.”
Quintin had no spouse or children.
His parents were divorced, further complicating the task of administering his estate without a will.
He left some cash and death benefits from three superannuation funds but had failed to nominate beneficiaries.
Cars, jewellery, computers, and even pets, can form part of a person’s estate.
‘Every adult needs a will’
Quintin’s 66-year-old mum consulted wills and estates lawyer Emma Blay to help her negotiate the complicated legal chaos his death created in the absence of a will.
During the lengthy administration of his estate, a friend came forward alleging the 32-year-old owed him money. He was eventually paid to avoid litigation.
Ms Blay, of law firm Barry Nilsson, says young people dying intestate — in the absence of a will — can create significant issues for their surviving relatives at a time when they are grieving.
“The family members left behind often have to navigate legal hurdles, which could have easily been avoided with proper estate planning,” she says.
“The administration can take much, much longer.”
Ms Blay says the distribution of Quintin’s estate would likely have been completed in less than a year had he prepared a will and nominated beneficiaries for his superannuation funds.
She says with a will, the legal fees spent on the administration of the estate would have been significantly less.
The solicitor says many people are unaware superannuation and life insurance do not automatically form a part of their estate and that only certain people are eligible beneficiaries.
They include your current spouse, your children, financial dependents, and your estate or legal representative.
“Most people don’t realise that even if they have a will, this cannot bind their superannuation fund,” Ms Blay says.
“People need to prepare a will and make sure they have completed binding death benefit nominations for their superannuation fund.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re in your 20s, or you’re in your 30s, every adult really needs to have a will and consider their superannuation as part of their estate planning.”
Otherwise, Ms Blay says situations can arise whereby the young person’s wishes are not always honoured.
Cryptocurrency further complicates matters
Ms Blay says cryptocurrency is also emerging as an issue when young people die without a will.
She says members of Generation Z — those born around the turn of the century — can have wealth in the form of cryptocurrency, such as bitcoin, which cannot be accessed without account or password details.
She cited a case involving a young man with bitcoin, a form of virtual currency, which was unable to be retrieved when he died.
“The only way to access it is with a wallet key, basically, a unique ID code,” she says.
“His bitcoin investment couldn’t be accessed so it was completely lost. That money is just gone.”
Ms Blay recommends young people consider their digital assets when formulating a will.
“Unless a person provides clear instructions about their cryptocurrency and how to access it, the currency is likely to be lost forever, no matter what its value is,” she says.
“Create a mechanism for your executor to access those digital assets.”
A will can ensure pets are looked after when an owner dies.
People can also leave instructions for funeral services, burial or cremation wishes and organ donation preferences.
Based on her own experiences as an estate lawyer, Ms Blay suspects “a lot of young people” do not have wills or powers of attorney.
But without a central will register in Queensland, the extent of the problem is difficult to gauge.
‘You don’t need any more difficulties’
Like Helen Bowen, Shaun Barclay strongly urges other parents of young adults to talk to them about setting up powers of attorney and having a will after the sudden death of his 19-year-old son Josh in 2020.
Josh, a university student, died without a will — leaving some cash in the bank, a small amount of superannuation, and his car.
His parents wanted his money to be given to his sister, but accessing that proved problematic.
“We’re going through the heartache of our son’s loss and yet for months and months and months, you’re also dealing with bureaucratic blocks,” Mr Barclay says.
“It’s indescribable as it is to lose a child. You’re just trying to live on a daily basis. You don’t need any more difficulties when you’re dealing with stuff like that. We were quite emotional and still are.”
In the end, they were able to access the $900 Josh had in his bank account after providing his death certificate, passport, and birth certificate to the bank manager.
But had he had more than $5,000 in his account, his parents would have needed to make an application to the Supreme Court.
“The car was in my name so I was able to sell the car,” Mr Barclay says. “But if that was in his name, I wouldn’t have been able to sell the car. I would have had to go to the Supreme Court.”
Four years after his death, the pain of speaking about losing Josh is still raw.
“The pain is something we now need to learn to live with, it will never go away,” Mr Barclay says.
But he wants to tell the teenager’s story to help other families who may tragically find themselves in a similar position in future.
“I’m always happy if I can share anything from Joshua’s loss that would make it easier on people that sadly might have to go through this in the future. There isn’t much good to find in this loss,” he says.
“As soon as your kids turn over 18, if they have any money in the bank, or any form of assets, make sure you’re either a power of attorney for them, or you have a will set up for them.”
Advice on how to set up a will
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