27/05/2014

Referring to our 2012 BLB article Former Spouse Can Still Claim on Your Estate this article follows on from that theme…

In NSW your ex-spouse is able to make a claim on your estate even if you changed your will to exclude them after your separation.  You can avoid this happening by having the Supreme Court approve an agreement between the former spouses not to claim against each other's estate. 

The prospect of Supreme Court litigation to get that approval is no doubt a bit daunting but we've tried to make it a little easier by offering a fixed and very reasonable fee for much of the work we would do.

Although by definition you may not be around to see what happens if your former spouse makes a claim on your estate, imagine the grief that it could cause loved ones if that were to happen; not to mention the cost.

Given the emotion, time and money that these types of cases involve it is worth trying to resolve any potential dispute before it arises.

This is particularly the case with former spouses who have not released each other from claims against their respective deceased estate.

So if you want to seek your former spouse's agreement to waive each other's rights to claim on the deceased estates, Townsends has developed a staged fixed-fee service.  This way our client can make an informed decision about the process and have certainty as to the costs that will be incurred.

The Townsends fixed-fee service includes:

1.    preparation of a letter to the client's former spouse, seeking a response as to whether the former spouse agrees to sign a waiver;

assuming a positive response from your former spouse, then:

2.    preparation of a Deed of Release and Waiver;
3.    preparation of the relevant Court forms; and
4.    obtaining the Court approval and order (assuming it is granted by the Court).

The one thing we cannot control is any negotiation on the terms of our Deed that the client's former spouse's solicitor may seek to negotiate, and therefore it is those fees alone that are not covered by the fixed-fee service.

For more information on a family provision waiver or to order online, go to our website Family Provision Waiver or call our Help Desk on (02) 8296 6222.