Rachael Rofe - Wealth Transfer Lawyer
    EOFY 2025 - closes 30 June

    EOFY Checklist: Giving While Living
    and Estate Planning

    For individuals, families and advisers considering tax, giving and wealth transfer before 30 June. This checklist is selective, not comprehensive. It covers the questions most worth asking before the financial year closes - not every issue a full estate planning and giving review would address. If anything here resonates, that is the prompt to seek advice.

    0 of 12 questions answered
    Part 1

    Giving while living before 30 June

    Question 1 · Time-sensitive
    Has there been a liquidity event or significant tax event this financial year?
    A business sale, property sale, inheritance, major bonus, vesting event, large capital gain or unusually high taxable income can change the giving conversation.
    Question 2
    Does the client want to give now, give over time, or both?
    EOFY giving does not need to mean choosing charities quickly before 30 June.
    Question 3
    What structured giving option is the right fit?
    Structured giving is no longer just a choice between a private ancillary fund and a subfund.
    Question 4
    Does the client already have a giving structure?
    This may include a private ancillary fund, a subfund in a public ancillary fund, a community foundation account or another structured giving vehicle.
    Question 5
    If the client has a giving structure, has succession been addressed?
    A giving structure should not depend entirely on the founder.
    Question 6 · Time-sensitive
    If the client does not have a giving structure, should one be considered before 30 June?
    For some clients, direct giving is enough. For others, a structure may better support long-term giving.
    Question 7 · Time-sensitive
    Is the client approaching retirement in the next three to five years?
    Retirement is not only a financial planning milestone. It is also the closing of a window for tax-effective giving.
    Part 2

    Estate planning before 30 June

    Question 1 · Time-sensitive
    Has the client's wealth changed enough to warrant an estate planning review?
    A significant change in wealth can make an existing estate plan inadequate.
    Question 2 · Time-sensitive
    Has the client's superannuation been reviewed alongside the will - including binding death benefit nominations, any Division 296 exposure, and the estate planning consequences of any strategy to reduce the super balance?
    Superannuation does not automatically pass under a will. And Division 296 adds a new dimension that most estate plans have not yet addressed.
    Question 3
    Are control roles still appropriate?
    Estate planning is not only about who receives assets. It is also about who controls them.
    Question 4 · Time-sensitive
    Has the client been making significant gifts to children during their lifetime - property deposits, business transfers, education funding, capital advances - and does the estate plan reflect those gifts?
    Lifetime giving to children can create unintended inequality in the estate if the will has not been updated to account for it.
    Question 5
    If the client has a giving structure, has its succession plan been incorporated into the estate plan?
    This is where giving and estate planning meet.
    Rachael Rofe

    Wealth transfer lawyer.

    We work with individuals, families and advisers on estate planning, structured giving and the wealth transfer conversations that sit between the two.

    Book a free introductory callContact Rachael

    Estate planning and testamentary trusts · Lifetime giving and philanthropy · Superannuation and succession