Drafting Wills for Maximum Impact - recorded lunchtime online conference

Duration: 2.5 Hours

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.

THE PROGRAM

Session 1: Too Ill to Will? Bedside Wills and Testamentary Capacity

When wills become urgent, practitioners need to not only act fast, but also manage risk in difficult circumstances. This session looks at the key issues in urgent wills, with a focus on lessons from recent case law. It covers:

• Testamentary capacity and urgent wills:
  • Applying the Banks v Goodfellow test
  • Mistakes by the testator with beneficiaries’ names or assets - is close enough good enough?
  • Are certain people cut out of the will - is it rational?
  • Doctors and capacity reports - what if the hospital refuses to provide a report?
  • Timing of capacity reports
  • How to proceed if you are unsure about capacity
• Complex versus simple wills:
  • Knowledge and approval issues
  • Should you do multiple wills?
• Importance of solicitor file notes - what needs to be included?
• Lessons from recent cases

Session 2: Over and Out: Are Electronic Wills Valid in a Coronavirus Landscape?

The coronavirus pandemic, along with advances in technology and easy accessibility, have resulted in an increase in people recording their wills or post-death wishes in a variety of informal ways. Although the law generally fails to keep up with technology, in some instances the courts can dispense with the legal requirements to find validity in such circumstances. This session will discuss relevant cases and developments in this area, including:

• COVID-19 and the continued rise of electronic or informal wills
• Formal legal requirements and common validity problems
• The availability and use of dispensing powers by Australian courts
• Developments in electronic and digital signatures
• How have the courts dealt with non-traditional will forms? Case studies:
• Text message: Re Nichol; Nichol v Nichol [2017] QSC 220
• Video: Radford v White [2018] QSC 506
• DVD: Re Estate of Wai Fun Chan [2015] NSWSC 1107
• Documents on a computer: Alan Yazbek v Ghosn Yazbek Anor [2012] NSWSC 594; The Estate of Roger Christopher Currie [2015] NSWSC 1098; Re Yu [2013] QSC 322
• Guarding against fraud and forgery and other cyber-security issues
• Case study: would an electronic will executed under US law be recognised in Australia?

Session 3: Forever in Your Debt: Will Provisions for Post-Death Financial Management

Older people are dying with a more complicated financial position than ever before, often as a result of increasing costs of living for themselves and their children. This session will provide advice on will drafting to take into account loans and debts, including:

• A review of the law on payment of debts following death – what assets are available to debtors?
• Drafting clauses for payment of debts from:

• Life insurance proceeds
• Superannuation
• Other assets

• Equalising bequests in the event of:

• loans to a child
• mortgage or charge on assets

• Directions to executors for:

• Loan collection or treatment
• Offsetting entitlements
• Recouping monies owed
• Settling debts
• Forgiving debts

• Updating wills to meet financial and regulatory changes