Topics: Estate planning

A ‘family provision application’ (FPA) is a type of estate challenge that can be brought to dispute the contents of a person’s Will after they die. An FPA is not the correct avenue to challenge the validity of a Will document. An FPA is usually filed where someone has been

Good estate planning ensures that your assets go to the people that you want to benefit when you die. A large part of good estate planning is having a valid and up-to-date Will.

A probate caveat is a document that is filed in court to prevent the proposed executors or administrators of a deceased person’s estate from getting permission to administer the estate assets.

People are often surprised to learn that their Will cannot deal with all of the assets that they manage or control when they die.

There are several different types of Will challenges that can be made after a person dies. However, they all fall within two general categories: challenging the actual document itself or challenging the contents of the document.

A ‘Will’ is a document setting out your wishes as to how you would like your assets and belongings (called your ‘estate’) to be dealt with after you die.

In some cases, succession and superannuation laws provide quite differently for a person who is actually a spouse, as against someone who is not. It can be difficult to determine which side of the line a relationship falls, but it can be quite important.

In the recent Victorian decision of Caruana & Ors v Caruana the deceased’s son was removed as executor of the estate and was not allowed to access estate funds for his costs. Instead, he had to pay his own legal costs and was also ordered to pay the other beneficiaries’

The Queensland Supreme Court has recently validated two informal and unconventional wills created using modern technology.

A recent Western Australian case serves as a reminder of the importance of careful estate planning where a self-managed superannuation fund is involved (Ioppolo & Hesford v Conti [2013] WASC 389).

If a deceased person’s estate is challenged in New South Wales, the court can have access to assets that do not ordinarily form part of a deceased estate to make an award to the person challenging the estate.

Where parents believe that their children may not be responsible enough to manage their inheritance or are worried about the impact of outside influences, it is common to include special provisions in the parents’ Wills in order to try and safeguard their children’s inheritance.