Queensland Estate Planning, Estate Administration and Estate Disputes

Estate Planning

We talk about estate planning rather than wills, because a will is one document inside a much larger set of decisions.

Superannuation often doesn’t pass under a will at all. Jointly held property may sit outside the estate entirely. Assets in a family trust or company aren’t owned by you personally, so a will can’t gift them. Then there’s who holds your enduring power of attorney, what your advance health directive says, and whether the way you own something is actually recorded anywhere.

A form can record your answers accurately. What it can’t do is notice the question you didn’t know to ask.

There’s a second thing a form alone can’t do, and it’s the part of our work that stays invisible until the day it isn’t. A will is a document, but if anyone ever challenges it, it also becomes evidence. When a will’s validity is questioned, the court isn’t primarily asking what the document says. It’s asking whether the person had capacity, whether they acted freely, whether anyone pressured them, and whether they understood what they were signing. Then it asks whether any of that can be proven.

So when we prepare an estate plan, the documents are only half of what we create. The other half is a file. Notes of conversations written at the time, an assessment of capacity, a record of who was in the room, and what advice was given. Most of the time nobody ever opens it. On the occasions when someone contests a will, that file is often the difference between a person’s wishes standing and their wishes unravelling.

Estate Administration

When someone passes away, an executor takes on real legal duties, often with no warning and no experience. Beneficiaries have entitlements they may not understand. Both can find the process opaque at the worst possible time.

We act for executors and administrators through the whole process, including applications for grants of probate and letters of administration, and estates where there was no valid will. We also act for beneficiaries who want to know where they stand.

Estate Disputes and Litigation

This is the part of succession law we’re best known for, and where Danielle’s experience is deepest.

We act for estates defending claims, and for people making them. That includes family provision claims, questions about whether a will is valid, disputes about capacity, undue influence, and whether a person knew and approved of what their will said.