New website launched to support New Zealanders’ will to live

29 July, 2013

New website launched to support New Zealanders’ will to live

A new website encouraging New Zealanders to live their lives to the full, while preparing for death by making the creation of a will very easy, has been launched.

willtolive.co.nz is the brainchild of public law expert Mai Chen. The site harnesses the power of life and death to help Kiwis live their lives consistently with their values and priorities, in the knowledge that none of us live for ever. The ‘Will to Live’ principle is supported by several important New Zealanders, including: Sir Ray Avery, Annah Stretton, Sir Bob Harvey, Barbara Kendall, Moana Maniapoto, Cecilia and James Robinson, Nadia Lim, Michael Barnett, and Beatrice Faumuina. Their inspirational videos are available to watch on www.willtolive.co.nz.

A recent survey showed that around half of New Zealanders didn’t have a last testament and will, and two thirds of people aged between 25 and 39 have yet to make their wills.

“I am concerned that so many people in New Zealand haven’t planned for the future. I wanted to make it easier for them to protect those who are important to them and to give them the motivation to get on and live their lives to the full,” said Chen. “In my professional life, I see the results of not having a will and it is often painful and difficult for those left behind.”

“willtolive.co.nz is designed to make creating a will extremely easy through flow charts and with the click of a mouse. I hope the site will also inspire people to make the most of their lives every day and share that experience with others.”

willtolive.co.nz’s easy-to-build wills only take about 10 – 15 minutes to create. Afterwards people can move on and formulate a ‘bucket list’ of things they want to achieve while living. They might be something as simple as working less, or as exciting as visiting the Grand Canyon or as challenging as doing all of New Zealand’s great walks, or living for a month in the bush without a cell phone or computer.

Chen says the Buddhists believe that when you wake up every morning, you ask the little bird on your shoulder if it’s your last day alive. If it’s not, then you should go out and live that day as if it was.

“Nobody knows how long they have left to live,” said Chen. “So I want to make a difference every day I am alive. I read that Palliative Care nurses say that the top five regrets of the dying are:
• I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me;
• I wish I hadn’t worked so hard;
• I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings;
• I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends;
• I wish that I had let myself be happier.

“The aim of willtolive.co.nz is to help people not have these regrets,” said Chen.

A number of prominent New Zealanders are supporting Will to Live’s vision by telling their stories, including Olympian gold medallist and motivational speaker Barbara Kendall, whose philosophy for life is to follow your passions and dreams.

“One of the conclusions I got to, about 20 years ago, was that if the world ended tomorrow I could die a really happy person because I’ve done everything I wanted to do so far with the time I’ve got,” said Kendall. Despite this conclusion, she says she still likes to plan ahead for where she’ll be and what she’ll be doing in the next 20 years.

Songwriter Moana Maniapoto – founder of Moana and the Tribe – also advocates living life to the full. She makes sure she spends her time doing what she really loves, including “doing less, and doing it better.”

And, Sir Ray Avery says “everyone is born with about 30,000 days to live. I know I am in the last tenth of my life, so every day I dream big and go for it!”

To hear more from inspirational New Zealanders, please go to www.willtolive.co.nz.

Background Information
The cost of creating a will via willtolive.co.nz is $49.95. The will is then stored safely online so a copy can be accessed and updated when needed. The willtolive website is not a substitute for legal advice. Instead, it is a tool people can use to easily draft a will that suits their needs. The willtolive website contains instructions for how to execute a will — and how to seek legal advice if needed.

In New Zealand law, if you have no will, your estate will be divided up by the Administration Act:

• Your spouse or partner gets your personal chattels, the first $155,000 of the estate and one-third of the rest. The other two-thirds goes to your children.

• If you have no children, your partner gets the personal chattels, the first $155,000 and two-thirds of the rest. Your parents get the other third. Your partner gets the lot if your parents are deceased.

• If you have children but no partner, the entire estate is left to the children equally.

• If you have no partner or children, your parents inherit. If your parents are deceased, the entire estate is left to blood relatives or to the Crown if no relatives exist

• Another vital aspect of a will is appointing guardians if you have underage children. As a parent it is very important to consider whom to entrust with this important role should something happen to you and your children’s other parent. If you do not leave clear instructions someone would need to apply to court to be appointed as a guardian. While a will can be contested it is more likely that your family would accept your wishes than argue over guardianship rights.

(Source: www.consumer.org.nz)

ENDS

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