Do domestic and de facto partners have the same rights as people who are married?
The short answer is no with a ‘but’. The longer answer is maybe, with an ‘it depends’.
You might be wondering if you have the right to:
Claim your partner’s superannuation death benefits?
Challenge a Will or an estate if your partner has not made adequate provision for you?
In Australia pets cannot own property, because pets are themselves regarded as property.
This means that – unlike children – there are no automatic laws relating to the care and custody of our beloved pets if we die or become incapacitated.
Whilst the rules around child custody are clear, it’s not the same for pets. Pets aren’t mentioned in any succession or family legislation at all and it is left to the Courts to decide who gets the family pet.
One of the duties of an executor in administering an estate is to satisfy any outstanding debts owed by the deceased upon their death.
An executor who is aware of an outstanding claim by a creditor, or a possible claim against the estate, but nevertheless distributes the estate, may be personally liable to the creditor.
Although there is no requirement in South Australia to advertise for creditors, it is generally advisable to do so in order to enjoy the protection afforded to estate executors and trustees by s. 29 of the Trustee Act 1929 (SA).
Have you ever suspected that there might be a disconnect between social media on the one hand, and real life on the other? Yeah, me too.
And, have you noticed that the (generally anonymous) people who shout the loudest, often are bitter and judgmental about everyone that doesn’t conform to their particular bias?
So I probably shouldn’t be surprised that some people who hate lawyers are very loud on social media about making their own Wills.
Some misinformed people choose to believe that administering a deceased estate is simple and easy, and therefore they think that they can save the estate some money by doing it themselves, without a specialist lawyer to assist them.
Those people don’t realise that for the executor of the Will of a deceased person in South Australia, DIY means taking all the risk upon themselves for no reward.
Why? Because he was a busy person who preferred to have it done for him, and he believed (justifiably) that the chef in the kitchen had access to professional carving knives that would make sharper cleaner cuts than Elvis could achieve for himself.
The ‘King’ recognised the efficiency of employing a specialist to do something better than he could do for himself.
You remember the famous words “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for life!”
After 37 years in legal practice, there isn’t much that still surprises Rod Genders.
He’s pretty much seen it all.
His law firm is the oldest in South Australia – established in 1848 – and like his father and his grandfather before him, Genders has spent his entire working life in the law, helping generations of Australian families to sort out a multitude of legal issues.
His areas of expertise are Wills and estates, and he describes witnessing a massive increase in litigation in these areas.
Australia has committed to a national COVID vaccination program – described as the largest peacetime operation in Australia.
Australia’s federal industrial relations minister Christian Porter has reportedly told employers the government will not mandate vaccines in workplaces.
That means making the legality of workplace vaccination policies more “black-and-white” will need to come from the state and territory governments, using their regulatory powers under their work health and safety acts.
By signing a Power of Attorney you do NOT lose control over your affairs while you are able to manage them.
As long as you retain your capacity, you can always vary or revoke your own power of attorney, and you can place limitations on your agent which vary according to your requirements.
Most people execute an unrestricted Enduring Power of Attorney.
COVID has been scary and frustrating for most of us, and the future remains uncertain.
But if you were looking for a silver lining in all this, I can maybe offer two observations:
1. People have had to learn how to connect digitally a lot more efficiently, so we are all a lot more familiar with zoom meetings now.
This will hopefully mean that we stay connected a bit better from now on, no matter how busy the world gets again.