Category: Contested Wills

Missing Beneficiaries and Benjamin Orders Everything you need to know about locating missing beneficiaries and finalising the distribution of the Estate. As an executor your role is three-fold: a) reduce the assets of the Estate into possession; b)...

I’ve been left out of the Will – what do I do now? Everything you need to know about making a family provision claim in NSW. Everyone has the testamentary freedom to decide how and to who to leave their estate to upon their death. However,...

Being appointed an Executor of a loved one’s estate is an incredibly important, yet at times, difficult task. This task is made even more complicated where co-executors cannot agree, an executor has renounced probate, or an executor has failed to...

So as you have probably gathered from our last article ‘How being a nice person may finally do your wallet some good’ the role of an Executor is an important one that involves carrying out many duties and responsibilities to ensure that the Estate of...

Friends, Administrators, Executors, lend me your ears…I bring you news of good fortune and prosperity that may await you once your days of administering your loved one’s Estate are over. Gone are the days of sighing with trepidation as you learn...

A “blended family” is a family where one or both of the parties to the relationship have children from a prior marriage or relationship. Unlike a Will for a family in which the children are children of both parties, in a blended family, one spouse...

Can a family-provision claim be brought against the estate of a step-father by a son whose mother has died? In the case of Hill v Anderson, The Supreme Court recently considered whether David Anderson was adequately provided for following the death of...

Beneficiaries of wills and estates, where probate already has been ordered, are sometimes faced with a conundrum of how to deal with an Executor who is not doing the job properly. In such circumstances it may be possible for the beneficiaries (as...

Homemade documents, such as do-it-yourself will kits or handwritten notes, are often inadequate in clearly stipulating what you wish to happen to your assets after you die. A properly laid out and executed will can avoid unintended consequences,...

The role of the executors of a will is to identify and collect the assets of the estate and then distribute them according to the will left by the deceased. But what happens if the executors fail to perform their role properly? In the case of Bird v...