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Snapshot

  • An urgent will, a family estrangement and assets held through companies and trusts.
  • What seems like routine estate administration quickly triggers unexpected tax consequences.
  • A cautionary illustration of how estate planning can unravel catastrophically when assets are not rigorously analysed before drafting.

It has been a quiet week at work and you are starting to get that worried feeling where you think you’ll never have another client for the rest of your working life. A couple of weeks ago, you were flat out and felt secure in the work flowing through. But, as it happens, things have slowed down.

You are grateful, then, for a late-Monday afternoon enquiry that arrives in your inbox from a new client, Fred Smith (‘Fred Snr’), who has been referred by one of your longstanding and loyal clients. Fred Snr requests an urgent appointment to discuss his will as he is heading overseas that Friday and currently has nothing in place. You promptly reply, offering him an appointment the following day which Fred Snr gratefully accepts.

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