How would you feel if your estate went to a complete stranger, someone you’d never even met, instead of going to your children? It’s more likely than you might expect. Protecting your children’s inheritance is about good planning – and that can only happen through pragmatic awareness and recognition of what is legally possible…

The Facebook profile of a woman who recently died from cancer is among the resources used by a court to determine who should carry out her final wishes…

Former spouse, who engaged in a relentless campaign of false allegations of physical and sexual abuse after the divorce, makes claim on late ex-husband’s substantial estate 25 years after separation. Did she get anything?..

The below list of related terms are by no means exhaustive, but they are a good starting point for anyone contemplating either beginning, ending or clarifying a important relationship that either involves us directly, or involves someone we care deeply about. ..

Wran died in April last year (2014) aged 87 after suffering dementia. He left a fortune estimated to be worth up to $40 million, largely made up of an impressive property portfolio. This estate is at the heart of a dispute within his extended family. ..

The South Australian Law Reform Institute (SALRI) is calling for public submissions on whether there should be a state scheme for recording the location of, or securely storing, South Australians’ wills…

This is the case of notorious solicitor Michael Ryan, who had numerous lovers, many of them prostitutes, who have all made claims on his $8m estate as his de facto lovers, with varying degrees of success. ..

Files Stibbe Lawyers partner Dean Stibbe said he dealt with people all the time who were experiencing massive problems with their loved ones’ estates because they hadn’t made a legal will, power of attorney or other provisions…

One of the fundamental characteristics of a will is that it may always be revoked. Revocation may either be voluntary or by operation of law…

However, courts have been slower to order the use of the science in other civil proceedings, for example claims against deceased estates, where testing can determine eligibility within Family Provision Act proceedings…