Estate Administration and Probate Proceedings – a recorded half-day online conference

ration: Approximately 2.5 Hours

Hear from the experts at this online 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: Complicated Probate Proceedings – Some Complex Scenarios Explained

This session examines some complicated probate matters and how to deal with them from a practical procedural perspective. It includes:

• Executor renunciation or where executor has lost capacity
• Applications if will does not allow executor to renounce
• Where executor is unwilling to apply for probate
• Application for probate where original will has been lost
• Application where a later will has been found after grant of probate
• Where beneficiary signed as witness to will
• Where there have been informal alterations to the will
• Rectification where will does not carry out testator’s intentions

Session 2: Family Provision Claims: Lessons from the Frontline

This session considers recent developments in family provision claims across different jurisdictions and the lessons practitioners can learn from recent cases. It includes:

• Are judgements taking a harder line?
• Are we seeing a more genuine assessment of the needs of the applicant?
• Establishing financial need – what are the relevant factors in recent decisions
• Cross jurisdictional issues emerging in family provision claims
• Calderbank offers in family provision claims
• Cost consequences when failing to establish financial need
• Impact of living together despite separation
• Lessons from recent cases, including Cowap v Cowap [2020]NSWCA 19; Sarant v Sarant [2020] NSWSC 1640

Session 3: Executor Limitations: The Consequences of Acting Without a Grant

Attempts by executors to deal with an estate prior to a grant of probate can be fraught with danger. This session will explore what can happen when an executor fails to follow the requirements, and the consequences for uninformed or unsuspecting financial institutions or others, including:

• Where does the authority of the executor come from?

• Nature of a grant of probate - why is it required and what does it do?
• When is a grant of probate not required or necessary? Small estates and other circumstances discussed
• Status of the executor prior to a grant of probate
• Vesting of property in the executor: the legislative position
• The use of waivers and releases pre-probate grant to deal with the estate: Public Trustee v CBA Ors [2018] SASC 25
• Ability of the executor to deal with real property in the estate before a grant of probate: Carolyn Deigan as executrix for the estate of the late James Boyd Lockrey v Barnard James Fussell [2019] NSWCA 159
• Tips for advising executors pre-grant