When most people think about estate planning, they think about property, bank accounts, superannuation, and personal possessions. Few think about their email inbox, their cryptocurrency wallet, their Netflix subscription, or the thirty thousand photographs stored on a cloud service. Yet for many Australians in 2026, the digital estate is substantial — and it is almost entirely unplanned for.
For a business owner, the question ‘what happens to my estate when I die?’ is inseparable from the question ‘what happens to my business?’ The death of a business owner without a succession plan can destroy value that has been built over decades, trigger crippling disputes among partners or shareholders, leave employees without direction, and saddle the surviving family with an asset they cannot manage, cannot sell, and cannot afford to run.
Business succession planning is the process of ensuring that your business has a clear, documented path forward in the event of your death or incapacity — and that your estate plan is properly integrated with that path.
Australia’s rates of relationship breakdown and re-partnering mean that blended family structures — where one or both partners bring children from a prior relationship into a new household — are now a common feature of Australian life. Estate planning in a blended family is one of the most complex and emotionally charged challenges in succession…
In June 2010 the Supreme Court of South Australia Court effectively granted an elderly woman’s wish to die.
The woman was in her 70s and confined to a wheelchair. She instructed her nursing home to stop giving her food and drink and the drug insulin, knowing she would die.
She clearly asserted her right to refuse to take food and medication. The Court case was instigated by the Nursing Home in which she resided, because of concerns that her carers might face prosecution for assisting in a suicide or committing other crimes if it complied with her desires.
The judgment is a first in South Australia and reflects a similar ruling in Western Australia in 2009, where the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Western Australia, held that Christian Rossiter be allowed to withdraw nutrition & medication, even though the undoubted consequence of this would lead to his death.
Rossiter had become a quadriplegic after a road accident, and retained full ability to understand his condition and to make reasoned choices on his own behalf. His fully functioning mind was trapped within a body which was unable to undertake any basic human functions’. Nutrition was provided to him through a tube inserted directly into his stomach.
Several times each year my phone rings and someone asks me how they can locate and view the Will of someone close to them.
The circumstances of these requests vary, but can be broken down into two main groups: Someone has recently died, and their relative wants to know if they are a beneficiary; or an elderly person is becoming forgetful and their relative is concerned that they have been coerced into changing their Will, and want to satisfy their curiosity.
In this age of political correctness, it seems that humour is a dangerous occupation. Each joke must be carefully scrutinised for potential offence to some minority group, and then sanitised of any disrespect to anyone whose delicate sensibilities might be burdened with the weight of somebody laughing at their expense.
Social media seems filled with humourless people who aren’t happy unless they are fired-up and ranting against somebody for some perceived slight or ‘tone-deaf’ comment.
As a result, what used to pass for harmless fun is now seen as social activism. Everyone must be a ‘role-model’ at all times, and everything is a ‘learning-moment’.
Facing our mortality can be stressful for many of us. But failing to plan has the same outcome as planning to fail.
So all of us need to be brave enough to do what needs to be done, despite our fears.
After 38 years in legal practice, there isn’t much that still surprises me. I think I’ve pretty much seen it all.
Mr B granted power of attorney to his daughter M.
B had significant medical issues and was highly vulnerable.
When B lost his capacity, and needed to move into a nursing home, M sold her father’s home under power of attorney.
However she did not use the money to pay the upfront capital cost of a Refundable Accommodation Bond.
England’s second-highest court has granted an ex-wife a THIRD bite at the cherry – 12 years after the divorce, because her ex-husband kept lying about (not disclosing) his assets.
In February 2023, Julia Goddard-Watts (the wife) won the first stage of her appeal against an England and Wales Family Court judgment that left her with less than 10 per cent of the assets from her 14-year marriage to businessman James Goddard-Watts (the husband).
… an interview* with refreshingly honest observations from a specialist lawyer …
After 35 years in legal practice, there isn’t much that still surprises Rod Genders. He’s pretty much seen it all.
I have made my Will with him, and I am glad to have his strength and knowledge on my side. Standing at 6’4” Genders is a big man, and he has an imposing presence. I wouldn’t like to confront him in Court – or in a dark alley, for that matter!