How to Leave Instructions to Sell Assets in Your Will (Australia)

Most people picture a Will as a list of “who gets what.” But sometimes the fairest or simplest outcome isn’t handing over the thing itself — it’s selling it and sharing the money. Will Hero lets you set that out clearly, so your executor isn’t left guessing.

Why leave instructions to sell an asset?

There’s no single “right” reason — it comes down to what suits your family. Some of the common situations where people choose a sale:

• To protect your family from conflict. For many people this is the single biggest reason, and it’s about far more than money. When two or more people inherit something that can’t be divided — a house is the classic example — they’re suddenly forced to agree on everything: whether to sell or keep it, whether one of them gets to live there, who covers the rates and upkeep, and what price is acceptable. One wants to sell and move on; another wants to hold on. The market shifts while they argue, the decision drags on, and by the end everyone feels short-changed and relationships that mattered are strained — sometimes permanently. Directing that the asset simply be sold takes that decision out of their hands, so the people you love are never put in a position to fall out over it.
• To share one asset fairly among several people. You can’t split a house three ways, but you can split the proceeds of selling it. The same goes for a car, a boat or a share portfolio you’d like divided evenly.
• When no one wants to keep it (or can afford to). If none of your beneficiaries wants the holiday unit — or keeping it would mean one of them buying out the others — a clean sale avoids an awkward situation.
• To turn an asset into cash. You might want specific sums to go to certain people, and directing a sale is a way to create the money to fund those gifts.
• To make your intention unmistakable. Clear instructions to sell — and how to split the proceeds — save your executor from having to guess.

What you can direct to be sold

The instruction works for the kinds of assets people most often want converted to cash, for example:

• Property — a home, an investment property or land
• Vehicles — a car, motorbike, caravan or boat
• Shares and investments — a parcel of shares or similar holdings
• Valuables and collectibles — items you’d rather were sold than kept

One important thing about how this works in Will Hero: you select the asset you want sold, and Will Hero applies its own standard legal wording to direct the sale. You don’t write or edit the legal text yourself — the platform handles the wording so the instruction is structured consistently.

Deciding who receives the proceeds — and in what shares — is done separately, through the gifts and beneficiaries you set up elsewhere in your Will. The two work together: the sale instruction turns the asset into cash, and your gifts direct that money to the people you choose, in the percentages you choose.

How to add the instruction in Will Hero

Adding a sale instruction follows the same simple pattern as Will Hero’s other provisions — like excluding a person from your Will. Here’s the flow, start to finish.

Step 1: Open your Visual Will

From your dashboard, open your Visual Will.

Step 2: Select “Provisions”

On the Visual Will screen, select Provisions.

Step 3: Select “Sell Assets”

Within Provisions, choose Sell Assets.

Step 4: Choose the asset

Select the asset you want your executor to sell.

Step 5: Will Hero inserts the clause

Once selected, Will Hero inserts a legally structured clause into your Will directing that the asset be sold before your estate is distributed. This removes ambiguity and makes your intention clear.

Because Will Hero builds your Will as a visual diagram, you can see the instruction reflected in your plan, and run a free review before you pay.

Things to know before you decide

These points are general information only — included so you understand how sales from an estate commonly work. They are not advice, and Will Hero can’t tell you what’s right for your circumstances.

• Ademption — selling it during your lifetime. If you sell or give away the specific asset before you die, the instruction can’t take effect, because the asset is no longer part of your estate. This is called ademption, and it’s a good reason to review your Will when your assets change.
• Costs of selling. A sale usually involves costs — such as agent’s commission, legal or conveyancing fees, and transfer costs. These are generally met from the proceeds or the estate before the balance is distributed.
• How the asset is owned. Some assets don’t pass under your Will at all. For example, a home owned as joint tenants typically passes automatically to the surviving owner by survivorship, so an instruction to sell it may not take effect. Whether an asset can be dealt with in your Will depends on how it’s held.
• Tax. A sale during the administration of an estate can have tax consequences, such as capital gains tax. Tax rules are complex and depend on individual circumstances.

For anything to do with tax, ownership structures or a complex estate, please speak to a qualified lawyer or financial professional. Will Hero does not provide legal or financial advice.

Other ways to deal with an asset

Selling isn’t the only option. Depending on what you’re trying to achieve, you might instead:

• Leave the asset itself to a specific person as a specific gift.
• Let someone live in a property for life before it passes on — a life interest, often used in blended families.
• Hold a beneficiary’s share until they’re older with a hold-in-trust condition.

You can explore all of these in Will Hero’s provisions, and see the full list in our guide to what you can include in a Will.

This is general information, not legal or financial advice.