In Australia 1 in 5 families are a blended family or step-family. This number is expected to rise as the divorce rate increases and people take on new relationships.
More than half of parents who separate, do re-partner but there is a higher break down rate in the subsequent families. From a testamentary point of view it can create a potential legal nightmare as members of the old and new families battle out who is entitled to what. In particular there appears to be a very wrong and at times unjustifiable expectations that the children of the first marriage should take precedent over children of the subsequent marriage/marriages.
This is an area of the law frequently not addressed properly and it also creates a tendency for a badly planned estate to largely disappear into wasted and unnecessary legal costs as the various family members battle it out at the estates expense.
Thurlows Estate Lawyers are extremely experienced in ways of protecting your Estates and your assets to ensure that they are divested in accordance with your wishes rather than divided up like a cake by others. We do not post on our website the various strategies we use to ensure that we achieve what you require as it is not our job to educate our competitors. However be assured we have developed excellent strategies for a wide range of scenarios, dealing with all matter of issues including self-managed super funds, life insurance policies, binding death benefit nominations, transfer of control mechanism for family and service trusts etc.
Our job is to be aware of your circumstances, anticipate the likely issues that will arise with your estate and then design a strategy to ensure that your wishes are effectively translated into reality. It is not the easiest thing to do but we can do it.
If you or someone you know wants more information or needs help or advice, please contact us on (02) 9708 2222 or email [email protected].