‘What’s the passcode?’: why iPhone access now belongs in your estate planning brief
Smartphones hold more than texts and notes—they may contain your client’s final and enforceable testamentary wishes.
Elder law & succession: March 2025
Cases on when an estate’s administration is complete, managing non-complying SMSFs, cognitive impairment and testamentary capacity, and more. By DARRYL BROWNE.
Refresher: costs in probate and letters of administration matters
There is a scale of fixed costs for the various stages of probate/letters of administration, depending on the value of assets remaining at the time…
An old, oral, unwitnessed promise can be equivalent to a testamentary act
The High Court held a promisor need not engage in conduct encouraging reliance on that promise for it to be enforceable by a court.
Elder law & succession: February 2025
Cases on engaging medical experts, the forfeiture rule, will construction and rectification, and family provision. By DARRYL BROWNE.
Elder law & succession: December 2024
Decisions on wrongful distribution, enduring powers of attorney, and testamentary and mental capacity. By DARRYL BROWNE.
Elder law & succession: November 2024
Decisions on severance by divorce, the essential validity of a will, payment of estate debts, and informal wills and costs. By DARRYL BROWNE.
In conversation with wills and estates lawyer Josephine Pignataro
Josephine Pignataro is a member of the Law Society of NSW’s Elder Law and Succession Committee. She will be speaking at the Specialist Conference Conference…
Supreme Court Practice Note and NSWCA clarifies assumptions in wills and estates law
Wills and estates practitioners have new rules and precedent to follow with a new Supreme Court Practice Note and an influential decision in Alexakis.
Elder law & succession: August 2024
Recent decisions involving mutual wills agreement, the validity of witness gifts, executor duties and elder financial abuse. By DARRYL BROWNE.
Keeping it in the family: self-dealing is as dangerous as it sounds
The rules around self-dealing can complicate seemingly simple sales to executors of an estate: solicitors have a crucial role to play at all stages.