Coffs Harbour Family and Estate Lawyers
We are not generalists. We do not “dabble”.
Led by local Gillian Hunter, our lawyers can provide you with top-tier assistance in family law, wills and estates (including Elder Law), and conveyancing, no matter the complexity.
Our family lawyers specialise in out-of-court solutions and offer a number of ways to resolve your matter before it proceeds to Court. However, if legal proceedings commence, our family lawyers are experienced and regularly appear in matters involving property division, sensitive and high conflict parenting matters, child support, domestic violence, child abduction and surrogacy agreements.
Our wills and estates lawyers work across all Australian jurisdictions. They are experts in estate planning, probate, estate administration, and estate dispute resolution. They will utilise every advantage to develop effective estate planning that is catered to your individual circumstances and save you from unnecessary tax burdens. Our estate lawyers are not adverse to litigation and are well equipped to defend your interests in an estate dispute, though place an emphasis on alternative dispute resolution to avoid incurring costs, where appropriate.
The Coffs Harbour office is your portal to obtaining local assistance that is supported by a national network of specialist lawyers.
What is a will?
It’s a document that sets out how your property is distributed when you die. The purpose of a will is to make sure that the right person gets the right property and there is no dispute. If you don’t have a will then the law says how your property is distributed. This may be different to what you would want or it may be a more expensive way of achieving the same thing.
Even when people take out wills, many people who think they have provided for beneficiaries in the way they intended are unaware of the pitfalls that can arise if a will is not prepared correctly.
What is an estate plan?
A will is often part of an estate plan but an estate plan also looks at other assets that can’t be dealt with in a will. This might include superannuation or a business or a trust. The purpose of an estate plan is to make sure that all of your property no matter how you own it ends up with the right people in a tax effective way.
What is estate administration?
It’s the process of putting a will into effect. It includes obtaining probate, finding assets, transferring or selling them, paying debts and making sure that everything is finalised. Sometimes it’s relatively easy and sometimes it is not. Whether easy or hard it has to be done properly or the executor can be liable or people can miss out on what is rightfully theirs.
We’ve written some articles about wills, estate planning, estate administration, and some of the issues that arise in these areas. Wills & Estate Lawyers | Farrar Gesini Dunn
Farrar Gesini Dunn Lawyers are across NSW, VIC and ACT
