Adviser Support Services

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Estate planning involves more than the preparation of a will. Often clients have assets tied up in non-estate entities such as super funds, trusts and companies which are not controlled or regulated by a will. A more systematic approach to estate planning involves consideration of tax, legal, superannuation issues, how assets are controlled within these entities as well as understanding the background of family arrangements which are becoming increasingly dynamic and complex.

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There is a growing trend by financial planners and accountants to explore avenues for delivering additional but complementary services to their clients in order to increase their value proposition and to enhance the relationship with their clients. Many financial planners and accountants are searching for alliances with legal firms that can provide “holistic” estate planning advice to a larger cross section of their client base at affordable rates.

Our Offering
Hill Legal Adviser Services can prepare for you a suite of legal documents that are customised to your individual needs and circumstances for which we charge you directly, enabling you to either mark up a fee to your clients or reflecting your current fee agreement with them.

Benefits
Demographic trends indicate a rapidly aging population and so therefore demand for estate planning services is expected to increase. Clients will be seeking these services initially from those with whom they have developed established relationships, traditionally their accountant or financial adviser, and otherwise elsewhere. The following benefits emerge from offering estate planning services directly to your clients in association with Hill Legal Adviser Services:-

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• Added client value to your existing offering – you are already aware of your client’s
  financial needs, goals and objectives and estate planning is a natural and incidental add on
  to your existing services.

• Greater degree of control and input into the estate planning process and the preferred
  estate planning outcomes that you may perceive.

• Greater client retention. Clients will eventually seek estate planning from other advisers
  who may provide competing services if not offered by your practice.

• Additional revenue from providing estate planning to your existing clients.

• Building relationships with next generation beneficiaries widens your scope of
  potential new clients for the future.

• Retain or controlling funds under administration- particularly for financial planners.

• The ability to diversify your existing service offering to provide more holistic advice.

How Does it Work?
To enable you to deliver these estate planning services, we are able to assist you in the following
manner:-

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1. We provide you with a comprehensive and detailed estate planning questionnaire which
you can use with your clients to identify the relevant wills and other estate planning
documents that will be required in order to implement an estate planning goal or objective.
This questionnaire can be branded with your own letterhead should you choose to invite
clients to complete the questionnaire prior to meeting with them. Alternatively, we can
assist you with incorporating the questionnaire into your existing information gathering
procedures.

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2. Rather than simply outsourcing clients for estate planning, the process of discussing a
client’s estate planning needs, goals and objectives and implementing an estate plan is
done by you through your office. Our contact with your client can be either exclusively
arranged through your office, or if you choose, we may have limited contact with your
clients for the purposes of clarifying goals or wishes when it comes to the preparation of
any estate planning documents. At all times you maintain control of the process.

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3. The documents that we prepare are charged to you at a fixed rate enabling you to either
mark up the rate to an appropriate amount or to include in your client service offering.

Why Hill Legal Adviser Services?
Hill Legal in its association with its financial planning arm, Life Solutions has been providing advice in the areas of wills & estate planning, wills litigation, estate administration and SMSF advice, retail superannuation and asset structuring for over 25 years. Its proprietor, Chris Hill has considerable experience in a variety of legal and financial disciplines and has unique insight into estate planning beyond the scope of those services offered by traditional legal offices. We have a strong focus on client education and can assist you by running workshops or seminars on wills, superannuation and estate planning that reflects your particular client base.

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For information on this service, please do not hesitate to contact our office.