Penny Jones
By Penny Jones

Attractive benefits offer companies and organisations an edge when hiring and retaining staff at a time when staff shortages are beginning to bite many kiwi businesses. Wynyard Wood is excited to offer employers our new Employee Benefit Will Funding Scheme. This scheme allows employers to provide their team with a tangible, valuable perk.

Need a will? Get started using our Will and Estate Planning questionnaire.

The importance of having a will

In New Zealand, if you own assets over $15,000 at your death, there is a set process (called Probate/Letters of Administration) to be followed. This process requires a lawyer to act, and paperwork filed with the court. The lack of a Will on death significantly complicates the lives of the family left behind. And more importantly, it may result in the deceased’s wishes not being carried out.

A special offer from Wynyard Wood

  • For employers considering paying for or towards the cost of a Will for their employees
  • This opt-in benefit may be offered to all employees after 6 months’ employment

The process of getting a Will done at Wynyard Wood

1. Obtaining Instructions

Initially, we need to obtain instructions from each of your employees who wish to have a Will.

We would tailor this process to best suit the demographic of your staff. For example, some of your team may be comfortable completing an online questionnaire. Others may prefer a face-to-face meeting. We suggest an initial group meeting for those better suited to a face-to-face meeting.

Before that group meeting, we will provide you with some essential questions (not a complete questionnaire). We recommend circulating these questions amongst staff early on to kickstart their thinking about key issues.

We will review the process at the group meeting and then answer any general queries. We would follow the group meeting with individual face-to-face meetings to obtain clear instructions from each employee.

Wherever practicable, all meetings are carried out on your premises to cause as little disruption to your team as possible.

Once we have obtained instructions, we then draft the Wills. We email a copy of the Will to each employee for their review. We aim to have the approval of the drafts provided to us within a designated time frame. A set due date ensures that the project maintains momentum at each step.

Once approved, the Will needs to be signed before two witnesses. We revisit your premises to meet with all staff to sign their Wills individually. Grouping meetings together makes for an efficient process.

We provide a copy of the signed Will to each employee. The original Will would be retained in our secure deeds system unless the employee gave alternative instructions.

Cost

Simple Will

Most often, Wills fall into the Simple Wills category. Simple Wills cater to a large percentage of the general public with straightforward family relationships and asset ownership structures. For companies who opt-in to our Employee Benefit Will Funding Scheme, we offer a set fee for each Simple Will created for your staff.

Please get in touch with us using the form below to learn the costs of each Simple Will under our Employee Benefit Will Funding Scheme.

Complex Will

Those with more elaborate affairs which need settling upon their death will require a Complex Will. For example, those with complicated family situations or existing asset ownership arrangements. We do not provide fixed fees for Complex Wills as the work varies depending on the time required to address the particular issues in each case.

Simple or Complex?

To understand the costs to prepare Wills for each of your staff, we first seek to identify the Wills that are Simple and those that are necessarily Complex. Ordinarily, Simple Wills far outnumber Complex Wills.

When categorised as Complex, we can clarify the fee for the work involved in preparing the Will. Together, the employer and the employee can then decide whether to proceed and on what basis.

Are you seeking to add a compelling new employee benefit to your list of perks? We welcome the opportunity to discuss our Employee Benefit Will Funding Scheme further.