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…
Western Australian Supreme Court Master Craig Sanderson has publically stated in a 2014 judgment that “Homemade Wills are a curse,” and inevitably lead to protracted and expensive legal battles in family disputes involving substantial estates.
Master Sanderson said the legal issue around the proper determination of the deceased’s Will could have been avoided if he had “consulted a lawyer and signed off on a Will that reflected his wishes”.
Master Sanderson warned of the dangers of homemade Wills, saying there was no question that engaging a properly qualified and experienced lawyer to draft a Will was “money well spent”.
“But where, as here, the estate of the deceased is substantial, the Will is opaque and there is no agreement among the beneficiaries, the inevitable result is an expensive legal battle which is unlikely to satisfy everyone.”
This view is supported by Rod Genders, who is a senior Australian lawyer specialising in trusts, Wills and estate planning, accident compensation, probate and deceased estate administration in Adelaide and throughout South Australia. His boutique specialist law firm, which was founded on 1848, is one of the oldest and most respected in Australia.
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.
Choosing who will take on the role of Executor of your Will can sometimes be challenging.
Most Will-makers (aka ‘Testators’) appoint a trusted friend or family member as their executor. This person will end up playing a very important role, with a lot of responsibility.
If they instruct an experienced lawyer who specialises in Wills and Estates, then most of the ‘heavy-lifting’ will be done for them by the lawyer.
In my four-decade career, I have never come close to charging $10,000 to create a Will for any of my thousands of clients, and that includes an international billionaire who controlled 27 different trusts, each with a corporate trustee!
However, I have acted in plenty of probate applications where a cheap or DIY Will has cost at least $10,000 to ‘fix’ after the testator died.
Here are three true examples from my clients in just the last twelve months:
As the end of the financial year approaches, it is crucial for adult Australians who have a family trust to take proactive steps to ensure the smooth distribution of their trust’s capital and income.
With the potential to significantly impact your family’s financial well-being, making informed decisions about your family trust is essential.
This article aims to provide practical advice and recommendations to empower you to take action.
In 2023 South Australian law regarding Wills and estates is about to undergo a massive change.
For a long time, people have complained that it is too easy for gold-diggers to challenge a Will – especially adult children who are not deserving.
Think: estranged adult child who never visited or supported their old mum in any way, only turning up to claim a share of mum’s estate after she died.
YOYO stands for You’re On Your Own, and it has never been truer for Australian retirees.
In the 1980’s when Bob Hawke and Paul Keating changed government policy to encourage us all to save enough money for our eventual retirement, we did so with an expectation of mastering our own destiny to enjoy a wonderful and carefree retirement.
The idea was to reduce the dependence upon government funds for the old-age pension.
There has been a tremendous change in the social culture of Australia in the 40 years or so since superannuation commenced.