Carving Up the Willmaker's Estate: The Challenges for Succession Lawyers - Recorded Online Conference

12^th September 2018

Our annual 2-day wills and estates conference is highly regarded amongst the professional development events we run, but we realise that not everyone can spare two days out of the office. So we’re offering you a new way to access the experts online – a half-day online conference, focused on challenging aspects of preparing wills.

You can put your staff in the boardroom and watch it there. You can watch it on your computer or on your portable electronic device. All for the same low price.

The conference will be based on our highly successful video webinar technology: there’ll be a chairperson, a panel of experts, presentations and discussion – and you’ll have an opportunity to ask questions.

Session 1: Relationship Changes, Defining Spouses and the Effect on Wills, EPOAs and BDBNs

Marriage, relationship changes and divorce can have a big impact on your estate plan. You are likely to find your will is no longer valid. This session looks at relationship formation and cessation issues and how they impact your will, BDBNs and powers of attorney. This session covers:

• How does being in a de facto relationship affect my will?
• What is considered a de facto relationship?
• De facto relationships and conflicting wishes in the Will
• Does separation affect the Will?
• Divorce and the will – what happens if your will is void due to divorce and you have failed to update it?
• Revocation of powers of attorney – what is the position with your ex-spouse?
• BDBNs and ex partners – what is the effect?
• Spotlight on same-sex couples following marriage equality
• Case update, including McFadyen v Bluett [2017] TASSC 72 (12 December 2017)

Session 2: Family Trusts, Company Loans and Unpaid Present Entitlements: How and When to Tidy Them Up

This session looks at having loans and unpaid present entitlements in a company or family trust and how they should be dealt with in your estate plan. We will look at estate planning strategies for clients with discretionary trusts. This session covers:

• Division 7A loans from private companies to the willmaker:
  • what is their status on the death of the willmaker?
  • what is the position with partly repaid s 109N regulated loans at death?
  • what strategies can you adopt to tidy them up as part of the estate plan?
• Unpaid present entitlements from family trusts in favour of the willmaker:
  • their status as part of the estate
  • their effect on the value of the family trust
  • when and how to reduce or eliminate them prior to death – disclaimer, payout, conversion to debt and forgiveness etc.
• Unpaid present entitlements in favour of corporate beneficiaries:
  • their effect on the value of corporate beneficiaries vs the distributing trust
  • dealing with the ownership of corporate beneficiaries
  • UPEs under 7/10 year loan arrangements at death
  • pros and cons of tidying them up as part of the estate plan

Session 3: Gifts and Family Loans Under a Will

Making a specific gift under a will presents issues for both the will maker and the recipient. Careful consideration of a range of matters is required, not least of which is to ensure the gift does not fail for any reason. This session looks at the key issues:

• Making an effective gift under a will
• Not underestimating estate assets prior to making gift
• Understanding liabilities and making gifts
• Risk of large specific gifts to the estate
• Dealing with the ademption risk
• Loans v gifts – documenting the process
• Treatment, waiver and forgiveness of loans made by the willmaker
• Loans and abatement when making gifts
• Case update, including Berhan Anor v Berghan [2017] QCA 236