Managing Complex Will Arrangements – recorded lunchtime online conference

Hear from the experts at this online lunchtime conference. You can watch it on your computer or on your portable electronic device from anywhere.

The conference will be based on our highly successful video webinar technology: there'll be a chairperson and presentations.

One registration can be shared by colleagues within the same firm utilising the same login.

Knowing how to draft a will that not only meets the needs of your clients, but also minimises the risk of future challenges is an essential part of a succession lawyer’s practice. This conference will provide you with the advanced drafting skills you need, from managing negligence risks in will drafting, dodging the hazards of enduring powers of attorney, to drafting effective testamentary trusts.

This is a national conference and is suitable for succession lawyers Australia wide.

Session 1: Will Drafting: Managing Tricky Family Arrangements

The rise of increasingly complex family relationships, asset holdings and business structures have all impacted the way in which wills are drafted and assets are divided following death. This session will explore the more complex arrangements that a will may need to cover and how to incorporate these into the document, including:

• Rights of residence and life interests and ongoing costs and entitlement issues

• Drafting mutual wills – more trouble than they’re worth?

• Issues in passing on the family business and partnership interests

• Capital gains tax and other implications of asset sale and distribution

• The effect of asset distribution on a beneficiary’s Centrelink or other entitlements

• The interplay between superannuation funds and wills, including the effect of binding death benefit nominations

Session 2: Adjustments and Advances in Wills: Drafting Essentials

It’s not uncommon for parents to use non-estate assets to provide for some children, but not others. Adjustments in wills may be necessary in order to achieve fairness, but they can be difficult to do. Drafting suitable adjustment clauses is the subject of this session, including:

• Achieving equality amongst children – how to do it when parents have provided for children in varying amounts using varied means

• Adjustment provisions in estate plan if one child is favoured over the other

• Will adjustment clauses and drafting hot spots:

  • super death benefits paid directly from the fund to a beneficiary

  • family trust loan account balances standing to the credit of a beneficiary

Session 3: The Testing Issue of Testamentary Capacity Under the Spotlight

Lawyers are well versed in the need to ensure that a client has testamentary capacity before preparing a will. However, recent cases on testamentary capacity have highlighted the challenges practitioners can face when applying the test in practice. This session covers:

• Assessing the person’s ability to understand the decisions they are making and the presence of any cognitive impairment

• “Red flags’ and appropriate responses

• Questioning and documenting capacity

• Competing medical opinions – how far do you need to go? Do you need an updated medical opinion prior to execution of the will?

• Recent cases and testamentary capacity

• A key checklist of things to be mindful of when assessing testamentary capacity