5 Common Estate Planning Mistakes

Estate Planning Disasters of the Rich and Famous

Estate Planning Disasters of the Rich and Famous

Death and taxes (and illness) may be unavoidable … but they don’t have to ruin your family or your business.  Make the effort to protect the people you really care about.  Here are some lessons from famous people who made some BIG mistakes in their Wills and estate planning.

Celebrity: Allan Scott

Mistake: Not Managing Family Expectations in Will

In a Supreme Court claim in South Australia, two of Mt Gambier trucking magnate Allan Scott’s daughters settled claims against their father’s estate for more than $12 million each, more than triple what each had been left in Mr Scott’s Will, which he had signed while he was ill in the weeks before his death.  The millionaire businessman’s widow also has made a claim against her husband’s estate, yet to be resolved. In his Will, Mr Scott had left the bulk of his $600 million estate to two favoured children.

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Genders and Partners

Wills and Estate Planning Adelaide: Maintenance for Your Estate Plan

Genders and Partners

The documents in your estate plan are excellent tools, and like the tools in your shed, they need to be kept sharp to maximise their effectiveness.

Preventative Maintenance is essential. It’s the same for most important things in life.

Take your car for example. If you are doing what you should, you change your car’s oil every year or 10,000 kms.

You invest in maintenance and preventative care throughout the life of your vehicle, to keep it reliable and running well.

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Wills and Estate Planning Adelaide: Estate Planning In Adelaide For Same-Sex Couples

Estate planning is one of many legal issues facing lesbian and gay couples. Increasing numbers of LGBT parents are raising children.

Estate Planning In Adelaide For Same-Sex Couples

In the law, there are recognised categories of parenthood, including biological (genetic), gestational, surrogate, and social.
Children raised by same-sex parents may be the product of adoption, artificial insemination, surrogate birth, or biological parenthood, yet in most cases only one partner is recognised as the legal parent, with the other parent remaining a legal stranger to the child.

The phrase “nuclear family” has traditionally referred to a married heterosexual couple raising their own biological children. Nowadays, more children are living in non-traditional families than ever before. This can lead to tricky legal issues if the couple ends their relationship and the non–legally recognised parent tries to maintain contact with the child.

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Genders and Partners

Accident Compensation Lawyer Adelaide: Common Categories Of Compensation

Accident Compensation in Adelaide has become more complex since 1st July 2013 when the government of South Australia changed the laws and procedures. Accidents and personal injuries can happen at any time. They can cause huge implications on different dimensions of your life as a family. A significant accident injury can be life changing and…

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Genders and Partners | Probate and Estate Administration - Lawyer Adelaide

Probate and Estate Administration Adelaide: Some Interesting Cases

Estate Planning: Some Interesting Cases

Hornby v Cavenagh

Supreme Court of NSW

This was a claim under the New South Wales equivalent of the Inheritance (Family Provision) Act. The plaintiff was a niece of the deceased and sought to show that she was an eligible person to make a claim under the Act. To satisfy the requirement of an eligible person, the plaintiff had to show that there was some dependency on the deceased, and that she was a member of the deceased’s household.

Although the plaintiff had resided in the same household as the deceased for four years during the 1980s and was partly dependent on the deceased in this time, the relationship in the last 12 years of the deceased’s life was not close.

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