Clarity and guidance for your personal wishes
Memorandums of Wishes and Statements of Intention
Memorandums of wishes and statements of intention give you the chance to record your personal guidance and values alongside your will or trust. While these documents are not legally binding, they provide important direction to the people managing your affairs. At Carew Counsel, we help you draft, review, and refine statements and memorandums to ensure your voice is heard and understood when it matters most.
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Guidance you can trust for your most personal instructions
When you're writing a Will, not everything fits neatly into legal clauses. Some wishes are too personal or too emotional to express formally. That’s where a memorandum of wishes can make all the difference.
Carew Counsel’s legal specialists can help you draft a clear, thoughtful memorandum that supports your Will while communicating your intent with warmth and clarity. Whether you're explaining decisions around a testamentary trust, naming a guardian for a minor child, or asking your executor to honour a family tradition, we make sure your voice is heard and that the people carrying out your wishes feel supported and confident in doing so.
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How we help with memorandums of wishes
We help you write a memorandum of wishes that complements your Will and provides meaningful guidance to your executor or trustee.
Drafting your memorandum of wishes
We work with you to prepare a clear, thoughtful memorandum that reflects your priorities. If you are drafting a Will, our will lawyers in Melbourne can ensure your memorandum of wishes complements the structure of your formal instructions. This may include how personal items should be distributed, your hopes for minor children, your guidance around distribution of assets, or your reasons behind certain provisions in your Will or trust.
Tailoring and reviewing your wishes
If you have a testamentary trust will, family trust, or complex asset structure, we help you prepare documents that support your trustees without creating legal ambiguity. Courts may also consider memorandums in applications for family provision from a deceased estate, so we ensure your Will and memorandum are consistent and clear about your intentions. Because circumstances and relationships change over time, we also review and update your memorandum when needed so it continues to reflect your values and estate plan.
Medical treatment decision maker appointments
Alongside your memorandum of wishes, you may also want to formally appoint someone you trust to make medical decisions if you cannot do so yourself. A medical treatment decision maker appointment provides clarity for your loved ones in difficult situations and ensures your health care preferences are respected. We can help you prepare this document so it works seamlessly with your broader estate planning.
Supporting executors and trustees
If you are an executor or trustee and have received a memorandum of wishes, we can provide legal advice on how to interpret and apply it appropriately. We will help you understand the testator’s intent while meeting your formal duties.
When to speak to a lawyer about a memorandum of wishes
A memorandum of wishes is particularly useful when you want to communicate sensitive or non-legal instructions, such as how a particular person should receive a sentimental item, or how you hope a beneficiary will use their inheritance. It can also express your values about parenting, education, or care for a minor beneficiary.
You might also want a memorandum of wishes to help prevent disputes or provide clarity about provisions in your Will. Our Will and estate lawyers in Melbourne can help ensure your personal wishes are communicated clearly and respectfully. We also make sure your memorandum of wishes fits seamlessly into your broader Wills and estate planning strategy. If your estate involves a discretionary trust, stepchildren, or uneven distributions, a well-drafted memorandum of wishes can be a vital tool.
The value of working with Carew Counsel
While a memorandum of wishes and statement of intention are informal documents, they still need to be carefully written to provide meaningful guidance. Carew Counsel’s role is to support you in making sure your voice is heard and understood.
- Guidance to help you clearly express your wishes and values in plain language.
- Memorandum drafted to support, not contradict, your Will or trust.
- Statement of Intention is structured carefully to minimise the risk of misinterpretation
- Format and content tailored to align with your estate structure.
- Legal advice is available for trustees or executors receiving a memorandum.
- Legal advice is available to an appointor receiving a statement of intention.
- Assistance in resolving disputes when a memorandum of wishes or a statement of intention may be misunderstood.
- Every step is handled with empathy, discretion, and care.
Our solution-focused process
Real stories from people we’ve supported through this process
Here’s what Carew Counsel’s clients have shared about their experience working with our legal team. We’re proud to support people through important, often emotional, decisions.
"10 Stars! Very happy & relieved that I chose Carew Counsel for a family member in an extremely concerning & complicated Family Court/child protection matter. Highly professional, ethical, respectful, knowledgeable, hardworking, strategic, collaborative, communicative, caring, compassionate & child & family welfare focused. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for helping us protect our little child."
"10 Stars! Very happy & relieved that I chose Alex Carew & Carew Counsel for a family member in an extremely concerning & complicated Family Court/child protection matter. Highly professional, ethical, respectful, knowledeable, hard working, strategic, collaborative, communicative, caring, compassionate & child & family welfare focused. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for helping us protect our little child."
"Carew Counsel team was recommended to me by one of my friends and my case was handled by Keleigh and her team very efficiently, with quick replies, flexibility to change requests and professionally. I am highly recommending them to their future clients and can only thank them with this review for their great work."
"I would like to thank and acknowledge all the team at Carew Counsel Solicitors for representing me in my recent financial settlement matter. I highly recommend that you engage Carew Counsel Solicitors to represent you in your family law matter."
"Across my two year fight to save my son from serious harm, Alex Carew was there every step of the way. His wisdom, professionalism, empathy, meticulous notes, and steadfast negotiation yielded a result which will protect my son now, and for years to come. I can't recommend him and his firm highly enough."
"To the Carew Counsel team. I would like to thank you all for your interest, professionalism, and humanity. You enabled a very stressful process to be handled with diligence and care. I am very grateful to you all for assisting me with this. Most of all, a big thank you to you Jenni Mooney, for your competence, professionalism and humour. Because of you, the process was as least stressful as feasibly possible. My heart goes out to you. Carew Counsel are lucky to have you. All the best to you all."
"To the Carew Counsel team. I would like to thank you all for your interest, professionalism, and humanity. You enabled a very stressful process to be handled with diligence and care. I am very grateful to you all for assisting me with this."
"In what was a difficult time to go through, I'm thankful that I had the team at Carew in my corner. I received sound advice all the way through the process and felt proud of the dignified way that my case was being responded to. I would certainly recommend Madison and the team at Carew for their professionalism, experience, integrity and dedicated service."
"I highly recommend Carew Counsel Solicitors for anyone seeking a dedicated and knowledgeable solicitor for family law matters. Madison Ogilvie excelled in her communication, ensuring I was kept informed every step of the way. Although it got stressful, Madison's professionalism was top-notch."
Why people trust us with their estate planning
Guidance that reflects your values
We take the time to understand what matters to you and tailor your memorandum of wishes and statement of intention accordingly.
Deep experience with complex estates
We’ve worked with everything from simple personal letters to detailed statements supporting testamentary trusts, Wills, and family trusts.
Clear, personal advice without the jargon
We help you express what you want to say clearly, calmly, and in your own words.
Transparent pricing with no surprises
We offer clear, upfront pricing and explain all costs before you proceed.
Meet the team who will help you express your wishes
Practical answers to common questions about letters of wishes
These questions often come up when clients are thinking about writing a memorandum of wishes or statement or intention or have been asked to follow these documents. We’ve answered each one below to help guide you through what can feel like a sensitive and uncertain process.
No, a memorandum of wishes is not a legally binding document. It does not override your Will or create enforceable obligations.
However, it can still be incredibly valuable. When properly drafted, it provides guidance and clarity for your executor or trustee. This helps reduce the risk of confusion or conflict after your death. Most letters of wishes are provided on a confidential basis, separate from your Will.
You can include anything that helps explain your preferences, intentions, or hopes for how your estate will be administered.
Common examples include:
- How you’d like personal belongings distributed
- Guidance for a particular beneficiary
- Wishes regarding the distribution of assets
- Support for a nominated guardian raising minor children
- Requests that someone be treated fairly, even if not formally included in the Will
No, there is no fixed legal format for a memorandum or letter of wishes. Some people write it as a formal statement. Others prefer a more personal tone.
What matters is that the document is clear, consistent with your Will, and easy for your executor or trustee to interpret. Our estate planning lawyers can help you draft something that reflects your tone and still fits within your overall estate planning.
That depends. Some clients prefer to keep their expression of wishes private, while others feel it helps reduce surprises.
Your memorandum of wishes is typically provided on a confidential basis to your executor or trustee. Your executor or trustee can exercise their discretion in distributing your memorandum after your death if they see it fit. If your intent is to reduce the likelihood of a dispute, it may help to share your reasoning with family during your lifetime, especially if the memorandum helps clarify a complex or emotional choice.
Yes. Unlike your Will, a memorandum of wishes can be updated at any time without formal legal steps.
This flexibility makes it ideal for responding to changing family relationships, evolving values, or updated instructions about personal belongings. If you do update it, make sure your executor or trustee has the most recent version.
Your executor or trustee is responsible for administering your estate and managing your instructions. While a memorandum of wishes is not a legally binding document, your executors and trustees are expected to read and consider it when interpreting your intentions.
If your memorandum includes complex guidance (for example, about how to treat a testamentary, family or discretionary trust), we recommend getting legal advice to ensure it supports, rather than complicates, your estate plan.
A memorandum of wishes is not a formal part of the estate or a legal clause in the Will.
However, it plays a powerful supporting role. It’s a document that provides context and guidance for how the estate will be distributed, especially where personal values and family dynamics are involved.
The Court can consider a memorandum of wishes if an application is made for family provision after your passing.
There’s no single way to write a memorandum of wishes, but working with a lawyer ensures it complements your legal documents and serves its intended purpose.
A well-drafted memorandum:
- Reflects the voice of the person making the Will
- Explains personal decisions with care and clarity
- Is consistent with your estate plan and legal instructions
- Can be provided on a confidential basis to reduce stress for the family
- Avoids wording that might conflict with a legally binding document
Is there a standard structure I should follow when drafting a statement of intention?
There is no single legal template, but good statements are well-structured, clear, and written with purpose.
A helpful structure includes:
- The parties involved and their roles
- The proposed goals or arrangements
- Any important background or motivations
- A note on whether the document is intended to be legally binding or not
- Clarification that it is not a formal document, if that’s the intention
