Planning your estate can be emotional and confronting. JC McEwan Lawyers can help you reach a sense of stillness, so you can focus on your loved ones.

Our personalised legal advice, coupled with a tailored approach to Wills and Estates Planning, help remove emotion, concern and confusion. Our goal is to help you to express your testamentary wishes accurately and provide surety that your assets, gifts and bequests follow your wishes.

Our mission is to develop lifelong relationships as a trusted advisor with our clients and their families.

Our aim to provide Wills and Succession Planning advice to ensure the transfer of wealth between each successive generation.

Our objective is to implement tailored testamentary oriented solutions to financially protect our clients and their loved ones for the benefit of their children and grandchildren.

Whenever families are in conflict, there is one factor that can make the difference between damaging your relationship and deepening it…..Attitude.

Estate Planning

A Will is a legal document that sets out who will receive your assets and possessions when you die. When you have minor children, you can also include clauses appointing a Guardian(s) for your children.

Power of Attorney and Enduring Guardianship appointment documents are legal documents that authorise your Attorney and Guardian to make financial and healthcare decisions for you when you become sick or when you are older and can no longer make those decisions for yourself.

When you are getting older or getting sick and not being able to make financial or health decisions for yourself can be a frightening and stressful time for you.

Therefore, establishing your Succession and Estate plan is important to give you a peace of mind that your welfare and assets are safeguarded by the people you trust most during the times when you are not able to make decisions for yourself or when you die. This will also provide you with a sense of security and certainty knowing that your loved ones will be looked after beyond the grave.

Estate Administration

We understand that you grieve when you lose a loved one and we are here to help you to alleviate the stress of dealing with the deceased person’s estate.

In New South Wales, when a person dies leaving assets, an application for a grant of administration must be made at the Supreme Court of New South Wales, before the estate can be distributed and wound up. A grant of administration can either be a grant of Probate, where there is a valid Will made by the deceased person or a grant of Letters of Administration, where the deceased person did not make a Wil.

The process of estate administration from application for a grant of administration up to winding up a deceased person’s estate can be convoluted and overwhelming, depending on the complexity of the estate. Therefore, it is important that you seek expert legal advice and assistance to ensure that the estate is administered efficiently.

JC McEwan lawyers can also assist in administering estates in another jurisdiction, other than New South Wales and obtaining a reseal of grant of administration in another jurisdiction.

Estate Dispute

It is well known that life and relationships can be messy. It can be traumatic to learn that you have been left out of a Will or you have not been adequately provided for.

The process of challenging a Will is daunting and complex. We want to make things as straightforward as possible for you and with our experienced Will Dispute lawyers to help to guide you through every step of the way, you have nothing to worry about.

A Will can be challenged on the following grounds :

If the Will is invalid on the grounds of a lack of capacity of the deceased at the time when the Will was made
If the deceased was subject to fraud or undue influence when making the Will
If you have been left out of the Will or left an inadequate provision in the Will.
If the deceased made a promise that should be fulfilled
If the deceased left a note or a particular documents (besides the Will)
If there is an error in the Will
If the Will is lost or misplaced
If the wording in the Will is ambiguous and could not be interpreted unequivocally

Why Us

Every family has different dynamics and circumstances. Discussing and implementing plans for your estate and your family can be a difficult, emotional and time-consuming process.

Succession and Estate Planning is important to protect your loved ones. Having an updated and valid Will, Powers of Attorney and Powers of Guardianship are important to ensure that your health directives, wealth and assets, including family trust, superannuation, the tax implications for beneficiaries are transferred and dealt with effectively and efficiently in accordance with your wishes. This also ensure that your loved ones will be looked after financially and they are not lumbered with any unnecessary distress or disputes on your death.

We understand that expressing your wishes legally is a complex undertaking that is amplified by emotion and cultural norms.

At JC McEwan Lawyers, we have the experience and expertise and we are here to help you with your estate and succession planning.

We want to help our clients to navigate the legal hurdles and relieving some of life’s pressures by ensuring that your legal documents, Wills, Power of Attorney, Guardianship appointments and heathcare directives are in order. This provides you with stillness in peace of mind.

Whether your affairs are simple or complex, and whatever stage of life you are in, we can help you to devise and construct an effective estate and succession plan that will suit you and your wishes.

What Our Clients Say

“Your legal representative (Jeannie) was able to spend such time with me, and was able to gently guide me through the prospective issues and possible problems that the Will I had envisaged might encounter. I especially want to thank Ms McEwan for taking the time and care to deal with my case in such a considerate and well considered way, and for taking the time to explain the implications of the issues to me.”
– James

“I imagine, in such a line of work, that nearly every client must present as a truly unique scenario and therefore, every client deserves to be able to rely on being given the time to be properly taken care of….. This is something I would like to thank Ms McEwan for…….”
– Michele