In this video, Harley Wilkinson, a Solicitor at OMB’s Wills & Estates team, discusses contested estate matters in family provision applications and how our Gold Coast lawyers can help you with your estate planning matters.
Transcript
You Need To Know About Contesting A Will
Hello, my name is Harley Wilkinson, I’m a solicitor in the wills and estates team here at OMB. So I just wanted to talk very quickly about contested estate matters and family provision applications.
So while a lot of what we do here at OMB in the wills and estates team is giving advice about estate planning and estate administration, both in Queensland and New South Wales, we also give advice to executors and beneficiaries in a range of contested estate matters.
Whether you’re in Queensland or New South Wales, an eligible person is able to contest an estate by making a family provision application with the relevant Supreme Court. However, not everyone can make a family provision application.
There are certain eligibility criteria that apply, in New South Wales for example, firstly, you’ve have to be an eligible person, and I’ll get to that in a minute. Secondly, you need to have been either left out of a will or not been left adequate provision, or not received what you thought you might be entitled to.
So eligible persons typically include a spouse and children, although there are certain other categories of people that also fit that description and are eligible to apply.
So the process of applying for further and better provision, making family provision application in either the supreme or New South Wales Court can be confusing and complicated, and there are certainly some differences with respect to the law and the procedure between Queensland and New South Wales.
So there are some strict time limits that apply both between the New South Wales and Queensland jurisdictions, and there are some differences. So rather than wait and let it go, give us a call, get some advice, we can let you know where you stand and what the process is.