Terms and conditions

These are the terms and conditions on which Nest Legal Pty Ltd (ACN 619 351 398) offers you access to our wills and estate services.

Fee

The fees are as set out above, unless otherwise agreed. We will send you an invoice for $450 after your conference, together with a request for the balance of the quoted amount. Your invoice will be paid from the funds you deposit into trust. If no funds are received within 7 days, your invoice becomes due and payable within a further 7 days. You consent to receiving our invoices by email.

The remainder of our fee will be invoiced when the final documents have been sent to you.

You authorise us to use the funds paid into trust to pay our costs after you receive our tax invoice for the work completed.  Please see the information sheet here which sets out how the law in Victoria protects your rights regarding legal fees.

Your rights: 

1. Ask for an explanation of this cost disclosure and form.

2. Negotiate a costs agreement. 

3. Negotiate the billing method (eg timing or task). 

4. Request a written progress report of costs incurred. 

5. Receive a written bill for work done. 

6. Request an itemised bill. 

7. Contact your local regulatory authority. 

How we work

1. We will prepare documents based on the information you provide us with in a questionnaire; any subsequent email communication, telephone communication and conference. 

2. We will provide you with strategic advice and guidance, with you and your family’s best interests at heart. Your estate plan will be tailored to your circumstances and your wishes, noting your assets, liabilities and any concerns you hold regarding your beneficiaries. Part of this process involves helping you make considered decisions about who will act as executor, attorney, who should receive your superannuation and discussing the succession plan for any companies or trusts in which you hold a controlling interest. 

3. We are not liable for any loss caused to you as a result of omissions or inaccuracies in your instructions to us, including but not limited to any challenges to your Will because of circumstances you have not told us about. 

4. Nest Legal does not check death notices. It is your executor's responsibility to advise us of your passing. 

5. Once the documents are drafted, Nest Legal will provide them to you with instructions on how to have them signed, witnessed and stored. It is then your responsibility to either book in a signing conference with Nest Legal or to have the documents signed and witnessed as instructed. You understand that if you do not do this, the documents may not have legal effect. 

6. Our retainer does not extend to providing you with financial or taxation advice regarding your estate plans. Should you require such advice, please speak with your accountant or seek the advice of a financial adviser. If you would like a recommendation, please do not hesitate to ask. 

7. If you choose to post your Wills to us for storage, Nest Legal is not responsible for any loss or delay caused by Australia Post. We offer a free storage service (to maximise the chance that your original Will can be located by your executor), however, this is at your own risk and it is your responsibility to advise your executor where the original Will is stored. We will not be liable for any direct or indirect loss or damage resulting from use of our Will storage service, including should there be fire or water damage.  

8. Quotes are valid for 60 days from the day it is provided to you. 

9. You must book and attend your complimentary signing appointment within 4 months of receiving your finalised documents. Any signing appointments scheduled beyond this timeframe will incur a charge of $220. 

10. Our firm may charge an internal administrative disbursement fee of up to $20 to cover costs associated with general file administration and management. This fee will be applied as necessary and reflected in your invoice. 

11. The documents we send you are intended for your benefit and use only, and subject to copyright. Nest Legal will not be liable for any copying, editing or re-purposing of the documents or any use of the documents outside of the intended purpose of the documents without our prior written consent. 

12. These are our costs and the terms and conditions on which we will provide you with estate planning assistance. You will be taken as to accepting our costs and terms and conditions by continuing to instruct us in this matter.  

Your duties 

1. You will provide us with the key information for your Will using our secure online client form here. Please allow 30-minutes to complete it. Please include ALL the details it asks for - full names, DOBs, addresses, and value of your assets. What you put in this form isn't set in stone - you can change your mind after we talk and review it during our meeting. But it will mean we can spend the meeting talking about the big strategic issues.

2. You will provide us with your photo ID either prior to or at our first conference with you.

3. You agree to provide instructions promptly.

4. We will primarily communicate with you by email. You agree to provide a secure password-protected email account and access it on a secure computer.

5. We encourage our clients to offer feedback on review sites or refer us to others. If your experience with Nest Legal has not met your expectations, we would appreciate if you could speak with us directly so that we can try to fix the situation.

6. You acknowledge our copyright in documents prepared by us.

Termination

You may terminate this agreement at any time.

Without limiting the circumstances in which we are otherwise by law entitled to terminate this agreement, we may terminate this agreement without notice and cease to act for you if you:

(a) Breach this agreement;

(b) Require us to act unlawfully or unethically;

(c) Fail to give us adequate instructions within a reasonable time;

(d) Give instructions that are deliberately false or intentionally misleading;

(e) Act in a manner which makes it impossible for the firm to have a reasonable lawyer/client relationship with you or give instructions that causes us to consider that our services are not appropriate for your legal needs;

(f) Fail to accept advice we give you;

(g) Engage another law practice to advise you on this matter without our consent;

(h) Lose legal capacity;

(i) Indicate that you have lost confidence in us; or

(j) Fail to pay our accounts or deposit monies to our trust account as required from time to time.

If the agreement is terminated either by you or by us, you will be required to pay our professional fees and disbursements work done to date up to the date of termination.

Liability

To the extent permitted by law, we exclude liability for any consequential or indirect loss or damage which may arise in connection with this agreement.  Our liability for any and all loss or damage arising from or in connection with this agreement is limited to the total value of fees payable by you to us under this agreement.

Our use of technology

Nest Legal maintains client files and documents in digital format only.

To enhance the efficiency of our practice, Nest Legal uses a variety of technology, including third party cloud based platforms, to store documents, communicate with clients and other activities. We have exercised due care in selecting vendors whose security and management practices meet or exceed applicable ethics requirements and engage in ongoing monitoring and oversight of their services. Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed as totally secure. Although Nest Legal strives to protect such information, Nest Legal does not warrant and cannot ensure the security of any information which you transmit to it. Accordingly, any information which you transmit to Nest Legal is transmitted at your own risk. Nevertheless, once Nest Legal receives your transmission, it will take all reasonable steps to preserve the security of such information. You consent to our use of these services to store your files, communicate with you and carry out other necessary tasks related to representation.  We do not sell or otherwise disclose to third parties any personal information that you provide through our website except as may be required by law.

For couple’s packages - our relationship with you both

Both of you will need to attend the first conference and signing meeting with us - we are ethically obliged to confirm both of your instructions and capacity.

We are allowed to act jointly for clients only when their interests are not in conflict. We will assume that each of you has authorised the other to give instructions on behalf of both of you. You will be liable for our costs individually and together. 

The following will apply to our joint representation of you:

• We will act in each of your best interests at all times and will not favour the interests of one of you over the interests of another, or allow anything to interfere with our loyalty to each of you or our judgement on your behalf. If we are unable to fulfil this, we will cease acting for both of you in the matter.

• If we receive information from any source that makes it clear that we are in a conflict by acting for you jointly (for example, if one of you advises us that you want to change your instructions without the other knowing), we will cease acting for both of you in the matter. We will take this course of action rather than being prevented from disclosing to each party all information relevant to the matter within our knowledge.

General

If any part of any of these terms and conditions is void, then the part that is void may be severed. Other than any local laws applicable to you that by law cannot be excluded, these terms and conditions are governed by the laws of Victoria, Australia.

Privacy 

Nest Legal understands the importance of protecting the privacy of an individual’s personal information. When you fill out our forms or speak to us and provide us with personal information, what we do with that information is set out in our privacy policy here. In particular we use a range of internet-based services hosted by third parties (cloud computing service providers) in delivering services and in the management and marketing of our business. You consent to us disclosing your confidential information to our cloud-computing service providers. You consent to us recording and transcribing telephone and electronic communications for creating accurate records and acknowledge that we may use artificial intelligence to enhance our legal service delivery. You may opt out of the use of artificial intelligence tools by notifying us in writing.