We are a leading wills, estates and succession planning, and wills and estates litigation firm ranked in Chambers High Net Worth 2021-2023 for private wealth law.
Our Private Clients team are praised for being ‘exceptionally responsive and quick to come back to you’ and having ‘very strong capabilities in handling complex and sophisticated matters’ – Chambers High Net Worth 2023.
We advise private clients, including business owners, high net worth individuals and families. We are mindful of the often emotional nature of dealing with a client’s personal affairs and are skilled at navigating all relevant issues with sensitivity to achieve the desired and appropriate outcomes.
In the globalised world we now live in, many Australians either acquire assets overseas or have originally come from another country and may retain assets in their country of birth. In this video, Partner James Whiley discusses the problems this can cause from an estate planning perspective, potentially with different laws applying to different assets, and also complex tax issues. This first video in our new series considers Australian tax issues, and also US and UK estate taxes.
Our team’s extensive experience includes:
- preparing or updating estate and succession planning documents, including wills with testamentary trusts, letters of wishes and documents to deal with incapacity to allow trusted persons to make medical, lifestyle and financial decisions if the client is unable to make such decisions;
- advising on trusts, including establishing trusts, continuing administration, dealing with succession of control of trusts, managing special disability trusts, undertaking trust deed reviews, and advising on trust interpretation and trust disputes;
- preparing business succession planning, including by way of sale and inter-generational transfer, buy sell agreements and shareholder/unitholder agreements;
- administering estates (probate and letters of administration);
- resolving private client disputes, including trust disputes and claims for further provision to be made out of the estate of a deceased person;
- advising on asset protection structuring to minimise the exposure of assets to creditors and the Family Court;
- advising on charity and philanthropy, including establishing and administering charitable trusts and foundations;
- advising on superannuation and taxation; and
- advising on migration and international wealth.
Key contacts
William Moore
Partner & Head of Private Clients Advisory
William specialises in helping clients work through their personal and business succession planning and achieve their goals.
Emma Woolley
Partner & Head of Family Office Advisory
Emma has extensive experience advising clients in estate planning/administration, succession, trust structures and disputes.
James Whiley
Partner
James specialises in estate and succession planning for high-net-worth clients in Australia, the UK, Europe, the US and Asia.
Our team
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