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…

People who want to end a relationship abruptly are almost always out of the resilient zone. They are feeling agitated and usually ascribing the reason they feel this way to you.

In the dark recesses of their mind, however, a shred of doubt will always linger.

We are going to use that shred of doubt to increase your chances of not getting divorced…

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. ..

The new laws declare that de facto couples who satisfy basic criteria – such as being in the relationship for at least two years – will be treated in the Family Court in the same way as a married couple. It also applies to same-sex couples…

The relationships of Australia are about to get a free tune-up, courtesy of Kevin Andrews. In July this year he will introduce a program whereby couples of all persuasions — those about to be married, the already married, the unmarried, same-sex couples, those hoping to soup up a sagging sex life — will be able to apply online for a $200 counselling voucher…

De facto couples – even those who have a child and live together – have significant social, financial and emotional “differences” to married couples, according to a Federal Circuit Court judge…

Application for domestic partner declaration – plaintiff and deceased knew each other for approximately 38 years – from time to time lived together in a “close personal relationship” – plaintiff married on three occasions each, apart from the last, of relatively short duration – whether plaintiff and deceased were domestic partners one of the other as at date of death or at an earlier time for a period of three years or an aggregate period of three out of four years – alternatively, whether it is in the interests of justice that a declaration be made…

Financial planners and accountants need to know how their clients’ relationship status is seen in the eyes of the law, according to lawyer Nabil Wahhab, or things like super splitting after a break-up can get very complicated…

HAVING regular sex with a house mate does not mean you’re in a “relationship” – even if the arrangement lasts more than a decade, a judge has ruled…