How We’ve Helped WA Agribusiness clients
We have had a client who own a farm and wanted to give their estate to their children under their Will. We gave them advice on how best to leave their estate given the trusts that have been set up to manage the farm and other business. We also drafted binding death nominations, Enduring Power of Attorneys and Enduring Power of Guardianships for these clients.
We have had a client who own a farm and wanted to give different amounts to different children in their estate under their Will. We gave them advice on the consequences of a Family Provision Act Claim due to the discrepancies between the children’s gifts under the Will.
We have also helped farmers with drafting leases for their fames and other properties.
We have also helped clients with boundary fence disputes for their farms and enabled an amicable result between the parties.
We had a client whose son died without a Will and had no partner or children. His parents had helped him out a lot and had re-mortgaged their house to assist their adult Child through life. Their other son had died before the current son and their other son they did not speak with. As their son died without a Will his estranged brother was entitled to a share of his estate. As there was more than $50,000 in the estate the parents had to apply for the letter of administration and then distribute his estate. If the son had a Will he could have directed who he wanted to inherit his estate and not provide for his brother.
Client’s husband had died without a Will. He was survived by our client and their 3 young children. Estate value was approximately $700,000. Client was entitled to first $50,000 of estate and then one third of balance (just over $200,000). The remaining balance of the estate, about $430,000 was to be divided between the 3 young children but had to be held on trust for them until they reached 18. The $250,000 received by our client was not sufficient to pay out the existing mortgage on the property, however if the husband had made a Will leaving his estate to his wife, she would have received the whole $700,000 and would have been in a more stable financial position going forward.
The deceased’s mother lived in his property with him, however he never made a Will and so his estate was divided between his 2 brothers and his mother. Our instructions were that the deceased had wanted his mother to inherit his house, so she always had somewhere to live. Although his brothers agreed that they didn’t want to receive any of his estate and that it should all go to their mother, as no Will was made the estate had to be divided pursuant to the Administration Act. The family agreed that their mother should receive the whole of the estate (which mostly made was made up of the property) even though the brothers could give up their interest in the estate, as it was real estate being transferred, transfer duty was payable on the value of the property over and above what the mother was entitled to pursuant to the Admin Act. If the deceased had gifted the property to his mother via Will only nominal duty ($20) would have been paid rather than thousands of dollars.
