In 2014 a man took out life insurance. He named his de facto partner as the beneficiary of the policy. In his application he had claimed to be a healthy individual who did not take drugs, and who lead a healthy lifestyle. The policy was for $2,625,000.00. Read more
In 2018 a man died without a will. He had three children. He had separated from his wife eight years prior to his death. Despite separating, the two were not divorced. Not long after the man’s death, his family was shocked to find that their father had a secret lover who they had never met or heard of. She made a claim on their father’s estate. Read more
As digital assets continue to rise in popularity, the amount of people holding digital assets and dying without either telling others of the assets, or not providing enough information in order to access the assets, is dramatically on the rise Read more
A father had six daughters. He made a will dividing his estate equally between the six of them. In 2013 he changed his will to give $40,000.00 to each of five of the daughters, and the rest of his $3,000,000.00 estate to his remaining daughter. Read more
Difficult disputes can arise when administering an estate requiring in depth legal advice that can be expensive! Read more
Grandparents generally do not have a responsibility to provide for grandchildren. So what happens when grandchildren try and bring a claim against their grandparent's estate? Read more
A parent is entitled to cut a child out of their will, particularly if there has been a serious break down in the relationship. However the reason behind the break down of the relationship can be reviewed by the court and adjustments in gifts can be made at the courts discretion. Read more
It is recommended you seek legal advice when dealing with retirement village contracts as the contract can be large with many conditions. Retirement Villages are subject to the Retirement Villages Act, but as long as a village complies with the Act it can decide on the details of its arrangements with its residents! Read more
When considering estate planning documents often clients think about keeping their wills and power of attorney's up to date but forget about making their superannuation work with their will and thus risk their wishes not being carried out. You must ensure that your superannuation death benefit ends up with the correct beneficiary or risk the Trustee ignoring your wishes! Read more
Are you a beneficiary of a Will? Do you think there are suspicious circumstances surrounding the Will’s preparation? This article talks about what circumstances are deemed suspicious by the court and how you can avoid an invalid Will.. Read more