“When the facts change, I change my mind.”1 What we once thought was madness we now know to be any number of medical conditions that are manageable illnesses. Neurological science has progressed significantly in the 21st Century,2 so it is no surprise that people question the legal system’s reliance on legal precedents that predate scientific advancement. An article in the Daily Mail reported on […]

Who is the client? Determining boundaries and appropriate representation in estate planning Estate planning solicitors have a particularly difficult and onerous task in assisting clients with intergenerational transfer of family wealth, because the inherent nature of families is that they see themselves as one being. Yet they are a unit of many individuals who have interests in opposition to the […]

“A promise made is a debt unpaid”1 I once acted for a person whose initial query came to me because they wanted to challenge a will. No surprises there! However, it was not a will matter at all. Why? All relevant parties were alive, including the testator. The claim was along these lines: A promise had been made to leave […]

Often when there are multiple applicants in a further provision application (FPA), practitioners grapple with the question of whether to file in the District Court or the Supreme Court. This is because of the question of whether to apply the monetary jurisdiction in respect of the total value of the estate or the total value of the claim sought? In Danckert […]

Re Mac [2020] QSC 3421 involved a seemingly narrow and specifically factual circumstance. It entailed a quest for lost beneficiaries and the impact of that on the distribution of an intestate estate. Its nexus to Vietnam later takes us to the Convention on the Rights of the Child2 and its relationship to the status of birth certificates and the right to acquire and […]

The New South Wales Office of State Revenue has deemed any discretionary trust to be foreign (and hence liable to higher duties) unless the terms of the trust make it impossible to pay money to a foreign person, now or ever, including removing power of amendment.  Any testamentary trust, wherever made, that holds real property in NSW is now affected. The changes took effect […]

In 1998 the Weizmann Institute of Science published a paper titled ‘Quantum Theory Demonstrated: Observation Affects Reality’. It discussed a phenomenon commonly referred to as the ‘observer effect’, which has entranced both philosopher and physicist alike. That is, in the very act of watching, the observer affects the observed reality.1 This phenomenon has now entered the realm of further provision […]

Removal of CGT will bring two major benefits On 5 October 2020, the Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, and the Minister for Housing and Assistant Treasurer, Michael Sukkar, announced1 the removal of Capital Gains Tax (CGT) from granny flat arrangements. “Under the measure, CGT will not apply to the creation, variation or termination of a formal written granny flat arrangement providing accommodation for […]

“Out here, due process is a bullet,” said John Wayne,1 which may provide us with some insight into the way the United States is dealing with any number of the large-scale social issues it is facing. However, regardless of what we are experiencing in the way of challenges, our justice system is founded on the rule of law. And no matter […]

For succession lawyers mental capacity issues extend far beyond the requirement for a mere will. These days clients have any number of complex asset classes undertaking any number of decisions in giving effect to a succession plan. Accordingly, there is a broad range of mental capacity contexts that must be considered, from engagement and instructions, through to post-death implementation. To […]