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 Selths believe their testamentary trust strategy will make it more transparent and equitable for all beneficiaries. “We had a will but it didn’t embrace everything we wanted. We knew where we wanted the money to go but we wanted to be sure the beneficiaries were our kids but that they were protected in the case of divorce.”..

In family law disputes it is a common misconception that an inheritance or other large sum received after separation will be excluded from the property pool to be divided between the parties. ..

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. ..

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. ..

What’s interesting is in many of the multi-million dollar divorce cases which have made it to court, the wife has received less than half of the assets…

With one-in-three marriages in Australia ending in divorce, it’s important for parents to consider how estate plans are impacted if their child’s relationship ends…

Let’s take the example of who gets a man’s estate if he dies while having both a wife and a mistress. If the man dies without leaving a will and his relationship with the mistress was longer than two years, then the question of who is entitled to a share of the estate falls under Sections 123 and 125 of the NSW Succession Act 2006…

DIVORCE has no winners, but who are the biggest losers? Research has found that women are often worse off financially, at least in the short term. But some men will disagree…

A THIRD of Americans have cheated on their partner … about money. It’s called financial infidelity and we suspect a similar, or greater, proportion of Australians have done the same thing…