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Best Lawyers in Australia for Trusts and Estates
Practice Area Overview
The ‘trusts and estates' practice area is a broad one.
At its foundation, the classification focuses on the ‘two life certainties' – death and taxes. In particular, trusts require a deep understanding of the taxation system, while estate planning is centred around wills.
Due to the breadth of potential areas, many lawyers in this area will have particular niche specialisations. Generally, the lawyers profiled will also work collaboratively with other advisers in the clients’ network, for example, accountants, financial planners, risk advisers, financiers, and, increasingly, other lawyers who do not have deep specialisation in this area.
Lawyers working in this area will generally have some experience, if not deep specialisation, in a range of specific areas, including:
- trust administration;
- trustee duties;
- trust interpretation;
- tax planning generally, particularly capital gains tax;
- superannuation, particularly in relation to the payment of death benefits;
- asset protection;
- all forms of inter vivos and testamentary trusts;
- administration of deceased estates;
- winding up of trusts; and
- succession planning, including business succession.
Unlike many comparative areas, lawyers in this area will need to have experience, both in relation to state based legislation (each state has its own rules in relation to trusts and succession) as well as federal legislation (there is commonwealth legislation in relation to taxation, superannuation, and bankruptcy for example).
The range of specific legal documents prepared by lawyers working in this area is extensive. Some examples include:
wills (including testamentary trusts);
- inter vivos trusts (including special purpose trusts across a myriad of areas including disability trusts, generation skipping trusts and lineal descendant trusts);
- powers of attorney, enduring guardianship, and health directive documentation;
- probate and letters of administration;
- various entities, other than trusts such as superannuation funds, companies, foundations, and partnerships;
- business succession agreements;
- family constitutions;
- loan agreements;
- variations to trusts including the extension of vesting dates, winding up of trusts, trust splitting, and trust cloning;
- superannuation death benefit nominations (including binding nominations); and
- revenue related advice in relation to the above areas (including general tax, capital gains tax, and stamp duty).
In January 2015, Matthew brought his expertise to WRP Legal after serving as a Director at a prominent national commercial law firm. Specialising in non-contentious private client matters, Matthew guides clients through estate and succession planning, estate administration, probate, and the intricacies of powers of attorney and trusts. His deep understanding of superannuation, especially SMSFs, has seen him collaborate with accountants, financial planners, private business owners, SMSF truste...
Deborah is a principal lawyer in Harwood Andrews’ wills and estates law practice team. Deborah is accredited by the Law Institute of Victoria as a specialist in Wills and Estates. Deborah has worked for various law firms in Geelong. Deborah has a caring and compassionate approach and aims to provide a solution that works for you. Deborah has in excess of twenty years’ experience in all areas of wills and estate planning, testamentary trusts, estate administration, estate litigatio...
Arthur is a Partner in Thomson Geer's tax practice and his focus is on getting cost-effective results. He has developed an enviable reputation for his strategic-thinking, decision-making, and negotiating positive outcomes for clients in dispute with government, and as a practitioner focused on dispute resolution. His main area of practice is taxation advisory, tax audits, dispute resolution and litigation. In more than 25 years’ of experience as a legal practitioner, Arthur has focused ...
Theo has more than 30 years' experience advising property industry participants on major property acquisitions, divestments, developments, structured purchases and joint ventures. What he does Theo has the legal skills and commercial nous to assist public and private entities at all stages of a project from obtaining financing to acquisition and development, titling, leasing and divestment. With more than 30 years spent advising the property sector, his diverse knowledge goes well beyond prop...
Teresa has been in private practice for over 18 years and became a Wills and Estates Victorian Accredited Specialist in 2008. She was previously a partner of a top-ten Australian legal firm and has developed and headed up Wills and Estates practices in small to mid-tier firms across Melbourne. Teresa founded iWills Legal (a specialist firm covering all areas of wills and estates law with offices in the CBD and Brighton) in late 2017 with the view of providing specialised wills and estates ser...
Loan Chow provides a personalised approach to her clients' estate planning needs and offers the full suite of services: Wills (including Testamentary Discretionary Trust Wills), Enduring Powers of Attorney, Letters of Wishes, and Advance Health Directives. With dual degrees in Law and Psychology, Loan brings a compassionate approach to her work, particularly in navigating sensitive family dynamics such as intergenerational wealth transfer, blended families, separation and divorce, and estrang...
Nancy Collins is a commercial litigation lawyer with a particular focus on private family wealth disputes. Her expertise lies in this complex area of law, together with family trust, deceased estates, and business and commercial disputes. Nancy co-founded King & Collins understanding that people going through a stressful legal experience want the combination of personal attention and expertise that only a small, specialist firm can offer. Nancy understands the emotional impact of these ki...
Greg leads HopgoodGanim Lawyers’ Estate Planning practice and offers more than 25 years’ experience in estate planning, administration and litigation. Greg’s practice includes drafting Wills and memoranda of directions, from the most simple to the very complex; drafting powers of attorney and estate plans; and in the unfortunate incidence of an estate dispute, advising on the most effective dispute resolution strategy. He also has a comprehensive understanding of Elder Law a...
I have worked with Tim for almost two decades, the last 7 years within Croftbridge. I am proud to have helped build a firm of like-minded lawyers who genuinely care about each other and the clients they work for. Although I practise in general commercial dispute resolution, I spend most of my time working on contentious trust and estate matters. This includes Family Provision Act claims and proof of will proceedings. I have appeared for plaintiffs, defendants and executors on complex estate d...
James is a Practice Leader in the Private Clients Team at Moores and heads up the Elder Financial Abuse and VCAT Guardianship Disputes Team. James has been instructed in a number of high-value private trust disputes and has extensive experience across all aspects of Wills and Estates practice, with a particular focus on resolving complex disputes regarding trusts, deceased estates, superannuation and Guardianship and Administration. James is an Accredited Specialist Wills and Estates Lawyer a...
Kelly is the founder and Principal of Nurture Law a wills and estates law firm. Kelly is a caring Wills and Estate Lawyers, helping clients avoid and resolve estate disputes so they can focus on what matters most. Estate disputes can be messy, complex and emotional. Losing a loved one is difficult enough let alone having to engage estate lawyers and be involved in an estate claim or contesting a will. Kelly helps clients through the legal process with compassion and makes sure they understand...
As a highly skilled commercial lawyer Tim advises clients on efficient and effective business structures that facilitate access to the capital necessary for growth or acquisition. Capital Structuring extends to business restructuring whether solvent or insolvent and to enable generational business succession or exit. Tim provides pragmatic advice that has seen him develop key client relationships across a range of industries including manufacturing, construction, agri-business, technology, to...
Laura is a Special Counsel in the firm's Disputes Resolution & Litigation team, specialising in the areas of family business succession, estate planning and superannuation. She has over 16 years’ experience working with private clients and family businesses in crafting and executing succession plans. Laura’s key focus is to understand each individual or families motivation for their succession planning and tailor an appropriate plan for the individual or family. Her areas of e...
Zinta is the owner of Resolve Estate Law, a Brisbane-based boutique law firm specialising in contested estates and complex estate administrations. She is the only dual-accredited specialist in succession law and business law in Queensland, and the only specialist of this kind in Australia who is also a nationally accredited mediator and an accredited collaborative practitioner. Over the last 25 years in practice, Zinta has helped steer dozens of complex and bitter estate battles to resolution...
George is a taxation and transaction advisory specialist. George acts for a range of clients in relation to their obligations under federal, state and international taxation systems, corporations law and regulatory matters in various sectors including government, funds management, financial services, energy & resources, agriculture, property development and not for profit. George advises private, public, government and not for profit clients on taxation matters, structuring, mergers and a...
Ann’s Vision Ann Janssen founded the firm in 2009 based on her vision to deliver first-class estate planning and administration services to clients at an accessible cost. Her reasoning was that if a law firm only focussed on this area of law, it would quickly become expert and efficient at it. This has proven to be true, and now Estate First Lawyers has become one of the largest estate planning teams of its type operating Australia wide. The firm consistently receives very high feedback...
Rod is a leading succession and trusts practitioner in Piper Alderman’s Private Client Services team. His expertise includes advising on trust law, including charitable trusts and foundations, will trusts, self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs) and trust related corporate, property and commercial issues. For more than two decades he has advised family businesses on succession strategies and related dispute resolution. Rod regularly represents trust beneficiaries and institutional and...
Ron principally consults on Commonwealth and State tax laws, tax dispute resolution and compliance enforcement. Ron specialises in complex trusts and trust disputes, succession and asset protection, business and investment structuring and tax sensitive commercial and property transactions for high wealth families, privately own businesses and small to medium enterprises. He is a member of the Law institute of Victoria, the Law society of Tasmania and The Tax Institute. Ron is a Chartered Tax ...
Joe is a highly experienced commercial lawyer having acted in a wide range of property & commercial related matters. His expertise covers all areas of franchise law, business acquisitions/sales & structuring (including preparing partnership-type arrangements), estate planning, business succession, estate administration, and all aspects of property law, including acquisition and sales, property development and preparation of co-ownership and joint venture arrangements. Joe has extensiv...
Andrew provides advice on the application of a wide range of taxation. He has substantial knowledge of taxation and commercial practice and advises his clients on income tax, capital gains tax, tax audits and reviews, fringe benefits tax, business structuring and transactions, liquidations and reconstructions, superannuation, retirement planning, business succession, estate planning, and philanthropy. Andrew advises accounting and legal firms on their clients’ affairs. He also draws cli...
One of Australia’s leading estate planning lawyers, Bernie has over 40 years’ experience advising individuals, family groups and businesses on all aspects of estate and business succession. Often acting as advisor to prominent families, Bernie’s knowledge of family trusts, superannuation and estate and elder law enables him to provide clear, practical solutions for clients with complex family and asset structures. He is often asked to provide a second opinion on existing suc...
Daniela is a Principal in Harwood Andrews' wills and estates law practice area. Daniela’s extensive experience allows her to advise clients about the importance of proper succession planning. She assists clients in preparing wills and powers of attorney, including complex wills such as testamentary trusts. Daniela is experienced in all aspects of estate administration. Through the personal experience of dealing with the loss of a close family member, she understands the difficulties fam...
After 12 years at the Bar, combining advocacy and mediation work, Deborah commenced full time practice as a mediator in 2016. Deborah has been conducting mediations since 2000, initially as a court appointed mediator/Registrar of the Supreme Court and from 2004 in private practice. Deborah is an accredited mediator under the Australian National Mediator Standards and is appointed to both the Supreme and District Court mediation panels. She was a member of the ADR Committee of the Bar Associat...
Marc joined Garry Winter and Dimitris Parhas in 2015 and founded WRP Legal & Advisory following a career starting in a Big 4 accounting firm and progressing to partner through a number of large commercial law firms in Adelaide. Marc is an experienced commercial lawyer who is highly accessible and dedicated, serving an expansive client base including ASX-listed clients, small to large private enterprises and high net worth individuals across varying industries. Clients turn to Marc for his...
Edward is a Principal in the business law area at Sladen Legal, with a particular focus on equity, trusts and succession. The focus of his dispute practice is on protecting vulnerable beneficiaries and others negatively affected by the decisions of the incumbent controllers of estates and trusts. He represents plaintiffs and defendants in the County Court and Supreme Court in matters relating to: The removal and replacement of executors and trustees of estates and trusts; Applications for jud...
Daniel enjoys solving complex taxation and trust law issues for private enterprises who share his entrepreneurial spirit. He is a trusted confidant in designing and implementing robust personal and business succession plans. Daniel’s commitment to protecting and enhancing the commercial and personal interests of his clients consistently delivers great outcomes. Daniel is a Chartered Tax Advisor with The Tax Institute, accredited as a specialist in Taxation Law with the Law Institute of ...
Paul is a partner in the Tax team and has a broad range of experience in providing specialist taxation and commercial advice to a wide variety of clients. His broad base of clients includes legal and accounting firms, private and listed companies, high net worth individuals, and private equity funds. Paul advises on all areas of Federal and State taxation law and related commercial matters. Paul has experience advising across a range of sectors including transport, mining, property sale and d...
Meet Vanessa Varga, the heart and soul behind Varga Lawyers. A true luminary in Wills + Estates, Vanessa's name has graced Doyle’s Guide every year since 2018. As a dedicated legal professional, Vanessa’s passion shines through in delivering an authentic legal service with your best interests at heart. Vanessa is well equipped to assist you with all your complex Wills + Estates legal matters. Whether it is the creation of a sophisticated estate plan involving Testamentary Trusts a...
Kylie is a partner in the Holding Redlich's Corporate & Commercial practice. She is an experienced succession planning law expert and a Self Managed Superannuation Fund Professionals’ Association of Australia Ltd Accredited SMSF Specialist Advisor. Kylie works closely with advisors to prepare compliant solutions for a diverse range of individual clients with complex structures as well as rural and business clients and families with diverse dynamics. She has been awarded the SPAA CEO...
Alasdair is a Principal in the Commercial Law team at Harwood Andrews. Alasdair assists clients in a variety of areas including business and personal succession planning, trust law, business structuring and asset protection, and advising on commercial contracts and agreements including franchise agreements. Alasdair enjoys working closely with clients and their advisors to understand the issues that are unique to them. His practical and personal approach ensures clients receive the best possi...
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