Estate planning is not about death. It is about control, ensuring (when possible due to the many complexities of life) that what you have built, accumulated, and protected during your lifetime is transferred on the terms, to the people and causes you choose, with the minimum possible loss to tax, dispute, delay and legal fees.
Our approach
We serve individuals, families, high-net-worth clients, family offices, and business owners across Australia. Our succession practice operates at the intersection of estate law, property law, tax strategy, and business structuring — which means we consider your estate as a whole, not as a series of disconnected documents.
Lynda Saker brings extensive experience in domestic and international estate matters — including multi-jurisdictional estates, cross-border trust structures, and foreign asset reporting obligations. Ben Hook's corporate and commercial background ensures that our business succession work integrates seamlessly with your broader governance and ownership arrangements.
The most common — and most avoidable — estate planning mistake is delay. A will drafted today can always be updated. An estate administered without one is significantly more expensive, slower, and more likely to generate family conflict.
Areas of expertise
Services in detail
We design estate plans that integrate wills, testamentary trusts, binding death benefit nominations, and ownership structuring. Our approach accounts for tax efficiency, family dynamics, business interests, and asset protection — treating your estate as a unified structure rather than a checklist of documents. We work alongside your accountant and financial adviser to ensure alignment across all elements of your plan.
We draft clear, unambiguous wills — including complex testamentary trusts for clients with significant assets, blended families, or vulnerable beneficiaries. We review existing wills and draft codicils when circumstances change. We also advise on digital asset provisions and the inclusion of superannuation and life insurance nominations within your estate planning framework.
We draft enduring powers of attorney for financial and personal matters, and advance health care directives, under Queensland and applicable state legislation. These documents are as important as a will — and often more immediately relevant. We ensure they are current, clear, and reflect your actual wishes.
We establish and advise on family discretionary trusts, unit trusts, bare trusts, and Special Disability Trusts. We advise on trust variation and resettlement risks, trustee duties and liability, and the winding up of trusts at the end of their effective life. For clients with Centrelink considerations, Special Disability Trusts can preserve eligibility while securing lifelong support for a beneficiary.
We manage the full probate process — Supreme Court filings, asset identification and valuation, debt settlement, beneficiary notification, and estate distribution. We support executors through a process that is often emotionally complex and administratively demanding. Where estate structures allow, we advise on arrangements that avoid probate entirely.
We structure asset protection arrangements using discretionary trusts, corporate trustees, and SMSF strategies. Business owners benefit from hybrid trust and unit-holder agreement structures that ring-fence personal assets from commercial liability. We advise on the timing and integrity requirements for effective protection — pre-existing debt and clawback risks must be carefully managed.
We draft cross-option buy-sell agreements funded by life insurance, embed succession triggers in shareholder and partnership agreements, and advise on leadership transition structures that maintain operational continuity. For family businesses, we navigate the intersection of commercial succession and family dynamics with discretion and clarity.
We represent beneficiaries, executors, and trustees in contested estate proceedings — including will challenges on grounds of testamentary incapacity or undue influence, family provision (TFM) claims, executor removal applications, and breach of fiduciary duty actions against trustees. We pursue early resolution where it is achievable, and litigate with precision where it is not.
For clients with assets or beneficiaries in multiple jurisdictions, we draft multi-jurisdictional wills, navigate the interaction of Australian succession law with EU, UK, US, and Asian succession frameworks, and apply applicable tax treaties to manage double taxation risk. We also advise on foreign asset reporting obligations under the ATO, FATCA, and CRS regimes. Lynda Saker's international background makes her particularly well-placed to advise on cross-border estate matters.
Succession planning is one of those things that is always important and rarely urgent — until it is. Contact us to arrange a consultation.
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