Private Clients

Effective estate planning is fundamental to protecting your legacy and providing for those you care about. Our experienced team guides individuals and families through every aspect of the estate planning process, providing tailored advice that reflects your specific circumstances, family structure and long-term objectives.

Our estate planning expertise includes:

• Drafting wills (whether simple or complex, such as establishing testamentary trusts), rights of residence/occupancy and life estates
• Preparing enduring powers of attorney, appointments of enduring guardians and advance health care directives
• Comprehensive succession planning including corporate structures, family trusts, companies, partnerships and self-managed superannuation funds
• Assessing insurance and superannuation policies and preparing appropriate death benefit nominations (including for self-managed superannuation funds)
• Life tenancy agreements
• Mutual will agreements
• Statutory will applications.

We provide comprehensive, practical advice to executors and administrators, guiding them through every stage of the deceased estate process with confidence and ensuring their duties are properly and efficiently discharged.

Our deceased estate expertise includes:

• Assessing and determining deceased estate requirements for simple and complex estate matters
• Obtaining a grant of probate or letters of administration
• Providing sound advice to executors regarding their estate management duties
• Assisting executors with the administration and distribution of domestic and international assets, including collecting assets, paying estate liabilities and expenses, and facilitating the transfer and distribution of assets to beneficiaries
• Preparing deeds of family arrangement
• Advising and acting on informal will applications where the will does not comply with formal requirements (for example, handwritten or DIY wills)
• Advising and acting on will rectification and construction issues
• Assisting with and collecting entitlements for superannuation and insurance death benefit claims
• Advising on and applying for executor’s commission.

We understand that estate and will disputes can be emotionally challenging as well as legally complex. Our team guides clients through contentious matters with sensitivity and efficiency, resolving disputes through negotiation, mediation and, where necessary, litigation.

Our will and estate disputes expertise includes:

• Contesting or challenging a will due to no (or inadequate) provision made under a will (known as family provision applications)
• Defending the estate to uphold the provisions of a will in family provision applications
• Contesting, challenging or defending the validity of wills based on issues including lack of testamentary capacity, undue influence or fraud
• Resolving conflicts between executors, trustees and beneficiaries, including breaches of fiduciary duty and mismanagement of assets
• Protecting the rights of beneficiaries in disputes over inheritance and asset distribution
• Addressing allegations of misconduct or negligence by executors, trustees and other fiduciaries

Advocating for the rights and best interests of incapacitated individuals through guardianship and conservatorship, ensuring they receive proper care and management of their affairs.

We advise families and family offices on the establishment and ongoing management of family groups, family office agreement, and trust structures. Our services extend to drafting family office agreements and governance frameworks, advising trustees on their duties and obligations, and structuring family investment and wealth management arrangements to support inter-generational wealth transfer.