There are a lot of succession cases which involve children inheriting farms. This is because often one child will work on the farm while other...
Not many realise but a will doesn’t necessarily need to be followed. It can be varied. One way of doing this is for all interested parties agree...
When a person dies if they have not made adequate provision for certain persons, these persons could potentially make a claim against the estate....
Most would assume a person can only have one will, but this is not the case - a person can have multiple wills all of which can be valid at the...
When a person leaves a gift to 2 of more people under a will, unless specified otherwise the gift is to then as joint tenants – generally. To...
A great strategy is to leave assets to a TDT – Testamentary Discretionary Trust. Under NSW land tax law a beneficiary under a Testamentary...
What! I hear you ask, but wait, there can be good reasons to appoint an outsider as trustee of ‘your’ trust. This is especially so after your...
When making a will the testator should consider the potential effects on the pension of recipients. Mum and Dad might qualify for the pension...
Death allows for many strategies to be employed. Instead of paying off loans on properties they can be left in place to allow for debt recycling...
Marriage revokes a will! Some people go from de facto to marriage with the same person, but it is often not realised that this will generally...
If you are too specific in a will you might need to make frequent changes to it so that it reflects the changes to your life. This happens when...
When making a family trust election (FTE) careful consideration should be given to the potential future estate planning effects, especially on the...
A variation of Legal Tip 235 – Should Your Spouse’s New Spouse Be Excluded from a Trust you set up? Legal Tip 235: Should Your Spouse’s New...
What happens if a parent has let an adult child use their home as security for the child’s loan and then mum dies? The guarantee would have...
I have encountered a few people who were beneficiaries of an informal trust set up under someone’s will. It goes something like this: I want to...
I have encountered many people who tell me their house is paid off when it isn’t. It might have a fully offset loan against it, but it is still a...
When making a will you should consider what could happen to your estate if your children die before you. Most people don’t want to consider this...
Loans can be great tools in estate planning. One strategy is the gift and borrow back which I have described at Legal Tip 115: The Gift and...
When setting up a discretionary trust generally people want to set it up in such a way the class of beneficiaries is wide. Often the deed is...
When preparing a will for a client I had to ask the question ‘what if your wife remarried?’ He started yelling “I will kill the *******, who is...
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