Simultaneous death is not uncommon. Last week we had the tragic news of the death of former All Black Jerry Collins and his wife in a car crash – only Collin’s four month old baby, Ayla, survived the crash. This is a ghastly, terrible thing: both parents dead; a little one left critically injured and orphaned. It hardly bears thinking of.

Except it happens. The simultaneous death of both parents is one of the most appalling things but, although I can find no statistics, it is not rare: plane crash, house fire, natural disaster, boating accident can all take both partners at the same time.

People with children ought to have a will that takes account of the simultaneous death of both partners. Most couples write their wills to leave their share of assets to each other and then, if both die, to the children. This is both common and, for the most part, right.

However, it poses a couple of questions: the first is at what age should the children receive their inheritances? The chances are that children will receive quite a lot of money from their parents’ estates: if the parents have died when the children were young, time will grow the estates which in some cases will be inflated by life insurance payments. It is true that the estates may be reduced somewhat by education and other costs as the child grows, but even when this is deducted, the estates can still be quite large for a young adult to inherit.

I have never much liked the idea of children growing up knowing that they only need to reach age 20 or 25 years to receive a lot of money. My concern is not just that the children may not handle the money well as young adults but, more importantly, there is little incentive for them to get on and develop their full potential.

Instead, I would rather see wills written so children receive whatever money they need from their deceased parents’ estates for their education, health and, perhaps, for a house, but no major amounts of unrestrained money until such time as they are properly grown up and standing on their own feet professionally.

This may mean that succession is structured in such a way that the trustees/executors of the will are given some discretion as to when and under what circumstances the children will receive their inheritances. A family trust is sometimes a good vehicle for this but however it is done, you must choose the right trustees who are exercising such discretion

The second thing that people with young children need to consider is guardians. Guardians are not necessarily the people with whom the child will live and grow up, but they do make or help with important life decisions: where the child will live and go to school, medical treatments and cultural, language and religion decisions.

Guardianship is an important role often for a long period of time (it usually ends when the child turns 18) and the guardians who are nominated under a may effectively stand in the shoes of the deceased parents. It is terrible to contemplate such a thing as simultaneous death but this is certainly an area where those left behind will be a lot better off if it has been properly thought through and well documented.

Martin Hawes is an Authorised Financial Adviser and a disclosure statement is available on request and free of charge, or can be found at www.martinhawes.com. This article is of a general nature and is not personalised financial advice.