Recorded Webinar: 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
  • relevance to capacity
  • should you do multiple wills?
• Importance of solicitor file notes - what needs to be included?
• Lessons from Re Menzies [2019] VSC 179