The conference will be based on our highly successful video webinar technology: there'll be a chairperson, presentations and you'll have an opportunity to ask questions via online chat.

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

Session 1: Bequest but Beware: Will Drafting to Prevent Gift Failures

The time difference between will preparation and death can result in changes in circumstances that may impact on the bequests in the will. This session will provide guidance on will drafting to minimize risk in gifts failure, including:

• Clarity and specificity in beneficiary names and asset descriptions
• Gifts to charities: identifying entity and allowable purposes
• What are “personal effects” and what is excluded from this description?
• Crystal ball gazing and covering possible eventualities:

• Beneficiary death or bankruptcy
• Breakdown in family relationship
• Sale of specific gifted assets
• Purchase of assets

• The potential consequences of conditional gifts
• How to draft gifts for greater certainty – residuary clauses
• Will health-checks and reviews to minimise gift failures
• Case update and recent developments in the law.

Session 2: Binding Death Benefit Nominations: Better the Devil You Know? 

A BDBN can provide certainty regarding who will receive the member’s death benefit. However, BDBNs continue to come unstuck on grounds of invalidity. This session examines how to use BDBNs for maximum impact, including:

• Understanding limitations of BDBNs – pros and cons explained
• Binding versus non-binding nominations
• Choosing appropriate beneficiaries
• What are the consequences of an invalid BDBN and can a BDBN be overruled?
• Issues arising on marriage breakdown – the importance of planning
• Limitations on an enduring attorney to make a death benefit nomination for a principal
• Making binding death benefit nominations for ‘protected persons’ – lessons from G v G (No. 2) [2020] NSWSC 818
• Case law update

Session 3: Mutual Wills and How to Use Them

Like wedding vows, mutual wills involve two people making promises to each other regarding what the future will hold. And like wedding vows, they often don’t go to plan. This session examines the benefits and pitfalls of mutual wills, including:

• How mutual wills differ to joint wills and mirror wills
• When will a mutual will be appropriate for your client?
• The nature of mutual wills – contract or equitable estoppel?
• Can there be a finding of a mutual will despite words to the contrary in them?
• What is to happen during the lifetime of the survivor?
• Mutual wills and the implementation of a constructive trust
• The role of mutual wills in blended families
• Lessons from recent cases

Paul Paxton-Hall, Director, Paxton-Hall Lawyers, Brisbane, Qld (Chair)

Jennifer McMillan, Manager, Practice Support Services, Lawcover, Sydney, NSW

Philippa Briglia, Senior Associate, Sladen Legal, Melbourne, Vic

Lee-Ann Cartoon, Principal, Succession Solutions Perth, WA

• It was just like being at a well run conference but in many ways better. 
• This option is of great assistance to country practitioners.
• The live online conference format worked well and made the speakers more engaging than a recording.
• Our team used the boardroom.  We could talk and discuss the presentation without feeling we were imposing on others and you could submit a question, which we did.  All from the comfort of our own office.
• The conference was well organised and the email links very useful.

Delegates registered to attend the LIVE event will receive a CPD certificate for attendance.  Lawyers can claim up to 2.5 CPD units/points (substantive law).

If you register and pay by 17 June 2022 you will pay only $495 – a saving of $55 off the full price conference registration fee of $550.