Complex Issues in Family Law Property Matters - recorded online conference

You can put your staff in the boardroom and watch it there. You can watch it on your computer or on your portable electronic device. All for the same low price.

The conference will be based on our highly successful video webinar technology: there’ll be a chairperson, a panel of experts, presentations and discussion.

Session 1: Carving up the Asset Pool in Property Settlement Matters

An essential component of property division is identifying and valuing the asset pool. However, determining the size of the asset pool can be difficult, particularly where parties have interests in companies, family trusts and SMSFs. This session examines these difficult issues, including:

• Identifying the relevant ownership structure
• Navigating complex company and trust arrangements – can they be brought into the pool?
• What if the party does not have a legal interest or entitlement in a trust but still receives a financial advantage – can the trust be attacked?
• Identifying relevant interests in a business – either owned personally, or through any form of corporate entity, trust or partnership structure

Session 2: After it’s all Over – Counting the Cost of Contributions in Property Matters

The assessment of contributions remains a fraught area in family law, particularly when dealing with initial contributions, windfalls and post-separation contributions. This session assumes you know the basics and instead examines the more difficult aspects of assessing contributions, including:

• Relevance of timing of contribution:
  • Value of initial contribution
  • Are later contributions given more weight?
• What constitutes a post separation contribution and when do you have to disclose? Spotlight on:
  • Significant increases in income
  • Bonuses
  • Growth and development of assets
• Treatment of windfalls and inheritances
• Contributions and the role of comparable cases – lessons from Wallis Manning
• Case law update, including Pandelis and Pandelis

Session 3: Adjusting for Future Needs in Property Settlements: Time to Take Out the Crystal Ball?

One of the key steps in property settlements is to determine whether there are any special circumstances that require adjustment to the property settlement amount. Sounds simple in theory, but future needs adjustments are anything but an exact science. This session examines the Court’s latest approach to future needs and the more challenging scenarios that can arise. It covers:

• What happens when the pool is insufficient to cater for future needs? Should the “clean break” principle still apply?

• Impact of children on s 75(2) factors

• Dealing with a high-income earner with very few assets

• What if there is a significant disparity between the parties’ respective post-separation standards of living?

• Future needs adjustments and addbacks post Trevi Trevi

• Family violence – how is it taken into account in the future needs assessment?

• Can and should you address future needs via spousal maintenance?

• Future needs and double-dipping – what to watch out for

• Update on recent cases