Australian businesses prepare for the new privacy regime
A leading estate and trust practitioner and one of a small group of specialists in Succession Law accredited by the Queensland Law Society, Gary Lanham has over 30 years experience providing private client services to high income and high net worth clients.
While the focus of Gary’s practice is wills and estate administration and litigation, he also advises clients on substitute decision making (enduring powers of attorney), superannuation, and not for profit structuring. More broadly he advises on issues relating to intricate drafting, trustee's duties, estate and trust tax, and perpetuities.
Gary’s extensive experience is almost exclusively advising high income and high net worth individuals. He regularly assists the representatives of deceased estates emanating from outside of Australia, in the administration of Australian assets.
Gary has conducted more than 75 Supreme Court cases relating to wills, estate administration and family provision. He has acted as executor and has also been appointed by the Supreme Court as administrator to resolve troubled estates. He conducted the first Queensland application to define the Court's (then) new power to admit words to the will. He conducted the appeal to the Queensland Court of Appeal to (then) define the proper limits of step-child eligibility in Family Provision. He conducted an application to establish and define the audit-like role of the Registrar in passing estate accounts for the purpose of assessing commission. Gary brings his experience in disputes and court assisted estate administrations to bear in advising on the techniques to avoid those situations arising.
Gary has extensive experience in the procedures required to obtain reciprocal recognition of testamentary instruments from one jurisdiction to another and is a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners, which has members in all the major estate and trust jurisdictions throughout the world.
Gary co-authored the curriculum and marks papers for the specialist accreditation program in Succession Law.
Areas of expertise include:
Gary has expertise in not-for-profit structuring for charitable giving through public charities and creation and operation of ancillary funds. He has established a number of Private Ancillary Funds (previously Prescribed Private Funds), advised on and processed applications for charity sanctions (or equivalents) for Private Ancillary Funds in Queensland and other states, and advised on structuring to seek both tax exemption and deductible gift recipient status.
Gary prepares more than 100 wills annually (including tailored provisions relating to complex testamentary trusts, effective dealings with superannuation death benefits, and other testamentary provisions which are responsive to clients' personal and business structures). He has drawn in excess of 6,000 wills and 2,000 enduring powers of attorney and advance health directives. He has conducted extensive estate litigation over 30 years dealing with challenges to the validity of wills, Family Provision, interpretation of wills, applications against erring executors, applications to appoint trustees for sale or partition, applications for advice and direction by executors and trustees. In the area of superannuation, Gary has drafted amendments to trust deeds to accommodate legislative change, amendments to shore up binding death benefit nominations in self managed funds, and advised on and adapted wills and enduring powers of attorney for more effective application in the superannuation environment. He has also advised on superannuation regulatory aspects, including Responsible Superannuation Entity licensing and conducted successor fund transfers (including defined benefit funds).