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Prenuptial Agreements – Do They Stand Up?
I am often asked whether Prenuptial Agreements are binding. Given that the Family Law Act was amended over 15 years ago to enable parties to enter into Binding Financial Agreements including Prenuptial Agreements, it is surprising that there remains, in the community, a belief that they are “not really binding”.
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Thank you for supporting #TeeOffForTara
We wanted to write to thank everyone who supported the 2016 FGD Tara Costigan Foundation Golf Day
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Superannuation Changes – Implications for Family Law Superannuation Splits
In an earlier blog I wrote about how the proposed changes to superannuation will impact on estate planning. Now let’s see how they may apply to Family Law superannuation splits.
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A Donor Egg and a same sex relationship. Am I a parent?
Consider this scenario: Two women are in a relationship. Let’s call them Kylie and Rachel. Kylie and Rachel decide that they want to have a child together and want to use donor sperm to conceive. They decide that Kylie should attempt to get pregnant using an embryo created from the...
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What is a barrister and why do I need one?
Tash Priestly explains the differences between solicitors and barristers, and why you might need one or both of them for your matter.
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Child Support & the Child Support Agency -what if we agree?
The Child Support Agency can make an assessment about how much each parent should pay to financially support their children. It uses a formula based on taxable income and the number of nights that the children are in each parents’ care.
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Superannuation Changes – implications for estate planning
The government has released exposure drafts of the suite of their proposed legislative changes to superannuation. While they are just draft and subject to changes both before they are tabled into parliament and after any horse trading before becoming law they do bear some consideration. While the focus of the...
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Child Maintenance Trusts
Anyone with children will tell you they are expensive and that expense only increases following separation where there is now the added burden of managing two separate households. Yet it is particularly following separation that parents feel pressured to maintain the lifestyle that their children were accustomed too prior to...
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Divorce proofing the Family Farm
When a family who owns a farm, or rural property, experiences a relationship separation, things can get very complicated (and costly) particularly if you end up in Court. However, there are options to protect the farm, and yourselves, from a lengthy and costly battle.
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Mediation in parenting matters
Family law mediation, also known as Family Dispute Resolution, is a process option available to parents to try to negotiate post separation parenting arrangements that are in the best interest of their children. It also encourages separating couples to parent cooperatively, rather than through other process options such as Court that...
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“Alimony” in Australia?
Firstly, “alimony” is not a term used in Australian family law. The term is an American one that many of us may have heard on TV or movies. In Australia, the entitlement one spouse may have to financial support after the relationship has ended is called spouse maintenance or spousal maintenance.
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“Ink On the Wedding Dress” – Rushing into a Pre-Nup Before Your Wedding
Pre-Nups (or “pre-nuptual agreements”) are generally the colloquial or American term for “Financial Agreements”. Under Australian family law, couples can enter into these types or agreement which are meant to cover in a binding way financial matters relating to their relationship. These agreements are meant to remove a Court’s jurisdiction...
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