Five Legal Matters to Review Before Moving Into a Retirement Village
Moving into a retirement village usually involves more legal paperwork than people initially expect.
Before signing an Occupation Right Agreement, residents are required to receive independent legal advice. Most villages will also strongly encourage residents to have current Wills and Enduring Powers of Attorney in place before moving in.
What often follows from those conversations is a broader review of the other legal arrangements sitting around them.
For many people, the move into a retirement village is the first major life transition they have faced in years. The family home may be sold. Long-standing trusts may no longer fit as neatly as they once did. Asset structures that made sense during working life may need to be simplified. Future care needs also start becoming part of the discussion in a more practical way.
The move itself is not necessarily about “slowing down” or preparing for the end of life. In many cases, it is quite the opposite. People are making active decisions about how they want to live over the next stage of life.
What the transition does tend to do, though, is highlight whether the legal structures around someone still properly support that next stage.
1. Review Your Will
One of the most common things we see is a Will that was prepared at a completely different stage of life.
Children may now be adults with families of their own. Relationships may have changed. Assets may have been sold, transferred into a trust, or replaced with entirely different investments. Sometimes a Will still refers to a property that no longer exists or assumes circumstances that changed years ago.
Moving into a retirement village often changes the structure of your assets as well. The family home may be sold. Funds may move into investment accounts. In some villages, the Occupation Right Agreement may be held personally rather than through a trust.
That does not necessarily mean your Will is wrong, but it is usually worth checking whether it still works the way you think it does.
This is also a good time to review who you have appointed as executor. The person chosen twenty years ago may no longer be the most practical person to manage things now.
2. Make Sure Your Enduring Powers of Attorney Still Work in Practice
Most people know they should have Enduring Powers of Attorney in place. Far fewer stop to consider whether the people appointed are still the right fit.
Retirement village living often coincides with a stage of life where practical support becomes more important. Your attorneys may need to deal with healthcare providers, banks, village management, insurance matters, or day-to-day financial decisions if capacity changes later on.
It is also important to remember that not all attorneys work well together simply because they are family. Sometimes appointing children jointly creates more stress than support, particularly where personalities, distance, availability or family dynamics differ.
An EPA should not just look sensible on paper. It needs to work realistically if it ever has to be used.
It is also important to understand the limits of an EPA. An attorney appointed personally does not automatically control trust assets or company-owned assets unless the trust deed or company structure properly allows for this.
3. Is Your Trust Still Fit for Purpose?
This is often one of the biggest review areas when someone moves into a retirement village.
Many family trusts were established years ago for broad asset protection reasons, tax planning, business risks, or to protect the family home while children were growing up. In some cases, the reasons the trust was established may still exist. In others, the trust continues simply because nobody has reviewed whether it still serves a useful purpose.
Under the Trusts Act 2019, trusts now carry more active administration obligations than many people realise. Trustees need to understand their duties, retain records, make decisions properly and actively manage the trust.
That becomes more significant as trustees age.
Sometimes the right outcome is to retain the trust. Sometimes it may make sense to simplify the structure, appoint replacement trustees, vary certain provisions, or consider winding the trust up entirely. There is no one-size-fits-all answer. What matters is understanding whether the trust still aligns with your current stage of life and future intentions.
A retirement village move is often the first time families properly revisit those questions.
4. Consider Future Residential Care Subsidy Planning Early
A common misconception is that Residential Care Subsidy planning only becomes relevant once someone is already entering care.
In reality, the earlier these conversations happen, the more options are usually available.
This does not mean transferring assets urgently or making reactive decisions. In fact, rushed planning can sometimes create more problems than it solves.
What is important is understanding how your current ownership structures, gifting history, trust administration and financial arrangements may be viewed in the future if care is ever needed.
For couples especially, it is important to remember that assessments are generally made on the basis of both parties as an economic unit. Proper trust administration and accurate financial records can also become increasingly important later on.
Even where a trust remains entirely appropriate, retirement village transitions are often a sensible time to review whether the trust has actually been administered consistently with its intended purpose.
5. Have the Difficult Conversations Before They Become Urgent
One of the more valuable parts of legal planning is often not the documents themselves. It is the conversations that happen around them.
Moving into a retirement village naturally prompts discussions around future wishes, healthcare decisions, support systems and family expectations. Those conversations are usually far easier to have while everyone is well, calm and thinking clearly.
This may include preparing or updating an Advance Care Plan, discussing healthcare wishes with family members, or simply making sure people know where important information can be found if needed later on.
Many families avoid these discussions because they feel uncomfortable or unnecessary. In practice, having them early often reduces uncertainty and stress for everyone involved later.
A move into a retirement village is not necessarily about preparing for the end of life. More often, it is about creating a simpler and more manageable next stage of life. Reviewing your legal affairs at the same time helps ensure the structures around you still support that transition properly.
Get in touch if you are looking to enter into a retirement village and have questions about your estate plan and/or need to get independent legal advice before signing your Occupation Right Agreement.