Australia faces a growing battlefield over the distribution of deceased estates as more complex family arrangements trigger post-death conflicts, and a “sense of entitlement” by family members results in expensive fights over small amounts.
Special counsel at Paxton-Hall Lawyers Sharon Winn said that, in Queensland alone, 80 to 90 small estate family provision claims were lodged in the Supreme Court every month.
Small estates were those valued at about $500,000 and based around a primary asset such as a house.
Ms Winn said disputes were commonly between a second spouse and children from a first marriage, but the large number also reflected changing social attitudes and greater knowledge of court challenge options through legal firms advertising no-win, no fee.
“We’re seeing a distinct change in the estate dynamic,” she said. “People nowadays are more materialistic and have more assets worth more money, so families want their share.
“There (also) seems to be a societal shift to towards a greater sense of entitlement.”
The comments followed the release of a national report this week calling for community and legal re-education to redress the growing cost of conflict and family fracturing off the back of will disputes.
The research, conducted jointly by the University of Queensland, QUT and Victoria University, found 74 per cent of family challenges to wills were successful, but the disputes were known to drain the entire proceeds of an estate.
Further clues to the issue emerged yesterday with the release of survey findings by law firm Slater and Gordon suggesting most Australians did not support funds being left to non-family members. This reinforced the findings of the university report, which found a strong sense of entitlement to “family money” in Australia.
Earlier Slater and Gordon research showed more than a third of Australians had experienced conflict over distribution of assets from an inheritance.
The new research, based on a survey of 2000 people, found 63 per cent of people did not believe that a non-relative was entitled to a significant inheritance even if they visited someone regularly, helped with daily tasks and celebrated holidays together.
Slater and Gordon senior estate planning lawyer Rod Cunich said people needed to be mindful when they were drafting wills of the potential to create family disputes after their death.
“Clearly, these new figures show that the majority of people feel that assets should stay in the family,” he said. “I see quite often many people who don’t have family, or aren’t close to their family members, so they choose to leave their assets to people who they have forged a strong relationship with — and that’s well within their rights.
“But we must remember that in Australia children have the right to contest a Will, so a willmaker should be very clear and concise about how their assets are to be distributed, why, and the likely consequences.”
Ms Winn suggested parties should avoid emotional distress and save money by exploring other settlement avenues such as mediation.
“What people don’t understand is (that) the legal fees surrounding these seemingly small cases can be upwards of tens of thousands of dollars, and that’s before it’s even been to court,” she said. “These cases are labour-intensive, and the same administrative procedures and standard responses need to be followed, no matter how small the estate.”
THE AUSTRALIAN, APRIL 10, 2015, Shane Rodgers, Queensland editor