1 Substantive Law

Overview of Wills and Estate Planning Law

LawCPD author: Lucy Dickens
LawCPD author: Michael Hodgkins
Multiple Experts
Rating:
4.8/5
$129
1 CPD Point

Features

Interactive Content
Self-Paced Completion
On-demand and on Any Device
Receive Certificate of Completion

Overview

This course provides a practical introduction to Wills and estate planning law in Australia, covering the key considerations for lawyers when giving estate planning advice.

Despite being one of the most important documents a person can make, statistics show that more than 50% of Australian adults do not have a Will. However, estate planning is much broader than simply preparing and executing a Will – it involves a process of helping clients to rearrange their affairs during their lifetime to best achieve the desired outcome on their death. This is a key area where lawyers can assist clients.

This course provides a practical introduction to Wills and estate planning law in Australia. The course covers the key considerations for lawyers when giving estate planning advice:

  • identifying assets and liabilities, particularly assets that require special treatment;
  • dealing with life insurance and superannuation benefits;
  • requirements for preparing and executing a valid Will;
  • limiting the impact of family provision legislation;
  • using testamentary trusts in Wills; and
  • testamentary capacity and substitute decision-making documents.

Last Updated: February 2024

Meet the experts

LawCPD author: Lucy Dickens
Lucy Dickens
Director Birman and Ride

Lucy is a Director at Birman & Ride where she brings together people, process and technology to reshape the provision of legal services, constantly challenging the way things are done to see if they can be improved.

Learn more
LawCPD author: Michael Hodgkins
Michael Hodgkins
Director Birman and Ride

Michael has been a partner of Birman & Ride since July 2009. He leads the firm’s family and property law teams which offer a broad range of services including settlements, commercial law, family law, wills and estate planning.

Learn more

Reviews

  1. 5.0/5
    Good course
    This course is useful for every body whether he is solicitor or a company director or a good father or mother. It refreshes all about knowledge about will and family law provisions. This course should be one of mandatory course for all types of graduates in Australia .
  2. 5.0/5
    Good course
    This course was excellent and kept me engaged the entire time. It is more 'course work' style, where you read the information in a self-paced way and then answer some questions at the end. It stuck to the main issues and was very relevant.
  3. 5.0/5
    Good overview of the issues in preparing Wills and a guide for lawyers.
    Logical and readily comprehensible outline of taking instructions for and preparing Wills.
  4. 5.0/5
    An excellent course
    This course had great coverage of important facts on wills and estate planning law.
  5. 5.0/5
    Very Informative & easy to understand
    This course was easy to follow and the interactive quiz were helpful in recalling the knowledge.
  6. 5.0/5
    Clear and well structured
    I found this course to be really useful. The language was clear and the course was very well structured. I'd love another course by these people.
  7. 5.0/5
    a great course
    Excellent refresher on this topic.
  8. 4.0/5
    useful info
    Useful information on wills, trusts and estates.
  9. 5.0/5
    Good course
    The course is informative and extends the field of knowledge for my practice in this area of law.
  10. 4.0/5
    Some great insights added.
    There were definitely various items in this course that allowed me to understand where I need to further research for better in-depth understanding.
  11. 4.0/5
    Substantive overview
    This is a substantive overview of Wills and Estate Planning, for non-specialists.
  12. 5.0/5
    Very informative and useful for practice in this area of law
    Whilst I prefer interactive courses with videos to watch, this had all the elements I needed for a refresher in this area of law. The information was current and relevant and helpful to me in matters I am currently working on.
  13. 5.0/5
    Recommended
    I highly recommend this course prepared by Lucy Dickens.
  14. 5.0/5
    Thank you
    The course was excellent and enjoyable to undertake. It was interesting and a healthy refresher.
  15. 5.0/5
    Good overview
    A very good overview of an often misunderstood and underrated area of the law.
  16. 5.0/5
    Super helpful
    I tracked back through this course that I did last year to learn a little more about a Will - so it has been super helpful.
  17. 4.0/5
    A useful course.
    I found this course useful and the website was easy to navigate.