9.30am - Workshop commences

Workshop Outline 
This workshop will explore the will drafting process, from taking instructions to drafting the will, with a focus on where things go wrong, and where mistakes are commonly made. It will include interactive discussions between workshop hosts Craig, an experienced litigator, and Kimberley, an experienced estate planning lawyer, and workshop participants, on the following topics: 

1. Testamentary capacity — What can we learn from cases?
2. Knowledge and approval — Why the process is important? 
3. Executors and substitute executors — Who and who not to appoint?
4. Dispositions: Pecuniary legacies; Personal property; Real property; Company, partnership, business, superannuation and trust interests; Class gifts; Life interests and rights of residence; Charitable gifts; Residue; and Substitution. 
5. Family provision/TFM advice — Key risks and the use of statements and other testator evidence. 
6. Mutual wills agreements — Should they be avoided?
7. Discretionary Testamentary Trusts — When should they be used?   Do they provide adequate provision?   When are they a financial resource? 
8. Other Trusts — Special Disability Trusts and Superannuation Proceeds Trusts.
9. Checklists.

Key takeaways from this session include: 

1. How to avoid common mistakes in your estate planning practice. 
2. Drafting tips from an experienced litigator and co-author of Hutley’s Australian Wills Precedents 10th Edition 2021. 
3. Different perspectives about when discretionary testamentary trusts should be used.
4. The 'do's' and 'don'ts' of almost every aspect of will drafting.

1.00pm - Workshop concludes

Workshop Facilitators

Craig Birtles was called to the Bar in May 2017. Craig is a member of the Society of Trust & Estate Practitioners (STEP) and the Succession & Elder Law Committee of the NSW Bar Association. He is a co-author of C Birtles and R Neal, Hutley's Australian Wills Precedents 8th Edition(LexisNexis Butterworths) 2013, 9th Edition 2016 and C Birtles, R Neal and C Sims 10th Edition 2020. Craig was named in the Doyle’s Guide as a leading New South Wales Estate Litigation Junior Counsel in 2019 – 2023. He was also recognised in the 2024 Best Lawyers Lawyer of the year in the Trusts & Estates practice area. Craig has presented CPD papers and appeared in proceedings concerning all aspects of deceased estate litigation.
 

Kimberley Martin is a senior estate planning, commercial, tax and trusts lawyer experienced in all aspects of Estate Planning, including Wills, Enduring Powers of Attorney, Instruments Appointing Enduring Guardians, trust law and superannuation law. Her LLB is from UTAS, and she has an LLM (Masters) in Wills & Estates. Kimberley is a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP), an international group of professionals involved in trusts and estates. Through STEP, she is a member of the STEP Digital Asset Special Interest Group, a global group that provides an international forum of debate, education and support on digital issues. Kimberley won the Law Society of Tasmania’s Young Lawyer Award in 2016 and was awarded international Young Practitioner of the Year at the STEP Private Client Awards in London in 2018.