Wills and Estates
What Actually Invalidates a Will in NSW and the ACT
The formal requirements are short and almost every homemade will that fails, fails on one of them. But the ground that catches
August 27, 2026
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Wills and Estates
We act for executors and beneficiaries, including where the estate crosses a border.
For families in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, and for Australian executors and beneficiaries whose estate has assets in Germany or Austria. Most of this work is led by Mason Keene-McCann.
2007
Practising in Australia since
3
Offices: Sydney, Canberra, Frankfurt
2
Legal systems, one team
1
Principal on every matter
How an estate is administered
Six stages, and the decisions inside them
01
The will, and where everything actually is
The first job is finding the last valid will and building a full picture of what the deceased owned and owed, and in which country. An estate that looks simple until a foreign bank account appears is the most common way this work goes slowly.
02
The grant
An executor usually needs a grant of probate before banks, registries and share registrars will deal with them. Where there is no will, or no willing executor, the application is for letters of administration instead, with the will annexed where there is one. Some assets never pass through the grant at all: jointly held property, superannuation and life insurance usually go straight to a survivor or a nominated beneficiary. We prepare and file the application, and deal with the requisitions that come back.
03
The foreign leg, run in parallel
Assets in Germany or Austria are, as a rule, not released on an Australian grant. That side needs its own process, and it is slower than people expect, so we start it alongside the Australian application rather than after it. Our Frankfurt office runs the German leg under German law, and works with Austrian counsel where the assets are in Austria.
04
Debts, tax and the accountant
Calling in the assets, paying the debts, and dealing with the deceased’s final tax position and any income the estate earns while it is being administered. The tax belongs with an accountant, and we bring one in rather than guess at it.
05
Distribution, and what can delay it
Distributing too early is the executor’s own risk, because eligible people can bring a family provision claim and the time limits are short: twelve months from the death in New South Wales, six months from the grant in the ACT, and the court can extend both. We advise executors on when it is safe to distribute and what should be held back.
06
When it is contested
Wills are challenged on capacity, on undue influence, on whether the will-maker knew and approved what was in it, and on the way they were executed, and beneficiaries fall out with executors over how an estate is being run. We act on both sides of those disputes, and in German succession proceedings where the dispute is being fought there.
Selected matters
Estates we have administered
No estate is identified and no one is named. The structure of the matter, the side we acted on and the jurisdictions are.
Cross-border administration
Administration of a substantial estate with assets in two countries
Acted for the executor throughout, running the Australian administration and the European leg together.
Probate and foreign recovery · NSW and Germany
Contested will
Challenge to a will governed by German law
Acted for the party contesting it.
Testamentsanfechtung · Germany
Beneficiary claims
Recovering an inheritance for an Australian beneficiary of a European estate
Acted for the beneficiary, establishing entitlement and dealing with the foreign administrator.
Cross-border entitlement · NSW and Europe
Family arrangement
Independent advice on a deed of family arrangement drawn in German
Advised the Australian party on what the deed did before it was signed.
Deed of family arrangement · Germany
Probate
Grants of probate for estates holding assets overseas
Acted for the executors, including the registry requisitions that foreign assets attract.
Supreme Court · NSW
Advice to a foreign estate
Australian advice to a European estate with minor heirs
Advised on the Australian position for beneficiaries who could not act for themselves.
Australian law advice · Austria
Wills and planning
Wills for people holding assets in Australia and Europe
Drafted so the two estates do not contradict each other, which is the failure a single-country will creates.
Estate planning · NSW and Europe
Who does the work
The person you meet is the person who runs it
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Mason Keene-McCann
Contested commercial work, run with counsel and the experts a case turns on.
Admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of Victoria and holding a practising certificate in the Australian Capital Territory. Joined Boettcher Law in 2022.
Works with barristers and experts on contested commercial matters.
Profile
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Fabian Hoffmann
Two legal educations, and the appointments that let the firm act at both ends of a cross-border matter.
Juris Doctor from the ANU and the First State Examination in Law from Bielefeld. Admitted in the Australian Capital Territory, Notary Public of the Society of Notaries of New South Wales, and a Fellow of the Singapore Institute of Arbitrators.
Vertrauensanwalt for both the Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of Austria. Tutored contract law at the ANU College of Law for four years.
Profile
Australia and Germany
One team, both legal systems
Where a matter runs across both jurisdictions, the German side is handled by our Frankfurt office under German law, not passed to correspondent counsel and marked up. That is the practical difference: one team, one set of documents, and nobody translating between two firms at your cost.
Tax on either side sits with an accountant. We work with Accru Felsers through the German Professional Services Alliance and bring them in on the deceased’s final position and on anything the estate earns while it is being administered.
Related
Also relevant to an estate
Latest
Newest in wills and estates
Everything we publish in this area, newest first. This list maintains itself.
Wills and Estates
Wills and overseas property Australia: Lessons from Varley; Veldhuis [2007] SASC 420
When clients hold property across different jurisdictions, such as overseas property in Australia, it is common to prepare separate wills for each
June 4, 2025
Wills and Estates
International Assets and Beneficiaries: International Will Planning Australia
In today’s interconnected world, Australian residents increasingly hold assets abroad or plan to leave their domestic assets to beneficiaries in other countries.
August 21, 2024
Tell us about the estate
Send us what you have, even if that is only a will and a rough idea of the assets. We will tell you what needs a grant, what the foreign side will involve, and what it is likely to cost.
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