Live Webinar: Who is a Spouse? Why the Answer Shapes the Entire Estate Plan

For most families, identifying a spouse for the purpose of estate planning is relatively straightforward. The term is included within a firm’s inhouse precedents and included in estate planning documents often with no further thought about the potential repercussions.  It is often only in hindsight that estate planners realise that further enquiries ought to have been made in the early stages of planning to identify potential claimants against the estate arising from the different definitions of spouse across jurisdictions and practice areas. To help estate planners consider these issues in more detail, this session shall:

• Summarise the various definitions of a “spouse” and flag the differences as between jurisdictions and practice areas
• Using examples from practice, demonstrate the practical effect of these different definitions on an individual estate plan
• Explore the myriad of ways being, or not being, a ‘spouse’ may impact on an estate plan (including as a potential family provision claimant, superannuation, family law, tax and trust law)
• Provide an overview of recent cases in which the existence of a de facto relationship was in dispute
• Share tips for identifying who is or may be a de facto spouse and what strategies could be put into place as part of estate planning to limit such claims from being made after death, including the benefit of a family law binding family agreement to evidence relationship status and periods etc