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Defend family wealth from an outside claim

We will keep the claim away from the assets, and show why they were never available to it.

Family wealth usually gets attacked from outside the family. A creditor of one member’s business. A claim against an estate. A separating partner of a child, reaching for a trust they were never a beneficiary of. Each of those is resisted differently. They have one thing in common. The outcome is decided by how the assets were held and documented long before the claim arrived. We defend the claim and, where the structure allows it, keep the assets out of reach of the argument entirely.

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Nothing made worse in week one

Moving assets once a claim is in prospect can be unwound, and the attempt becomes evidence.

Exposure measured, not feared

What a claim can actually reach is usually narrower than the family assumes, and occasionally wider.

The record does the arguing

A trust that observed its deed and documented its decisions defends itself far better than any explanation.

How does a third party reach family assets?

A claim against family wealth generally comes by one of three routes. A creditor pursues a member personally, usually under a guarantee or a director’s liability, and looks for whatever that member owns or controls. A disappointed beneficiary or family member brings a claim against an estate, arguing they should have received more. A separating spouse of a family member argues that assets held in a family trust are, in substance, a resource available to their partner. What each route can reach depends on title, control and documentation. Assets genuinely held by a trust for a class of beneficiaries sit differently from assets a member effectively controls and treats as their own.

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Can I move assets to protect them now?

No, and it is the most damaging thing you can do. A transfer made when a claim is in prospect can be set aside, and the attempt itself becomes evidence against you. It can also expose the people who assisted. Nothing should move until you have advice.

Can a family trust be reached in a separation?

It depends on how the trust has actually been run. Where a family member effectively controls it and treats it as their own, a court can treat it as a resource available to them. Where it has been genuinely administered for a class of beneficiaries, that argument is much harder to make.

What if someone challenges the will?

Estate claims are decided on their own criteria, including the claimant’s relationship to the deceased and their needs. Some have merit and some do not. The estate should be defended properly, and distributions should generally be held until the position is resolved.

Does a creditor of one family member reach everyone's assets?

Not usually. A creditor pursues what that member owns or controls. The difficulty arises where a member controls an entity holding family assets, or has given a guarantee nobody else knew about. Establishing exactly what is exposed is the first piece of work.

Get advice before you respond to anything

Tell us who is claiming and what they are reaching for. We will tell you what is genuinely exposed and how the claim should be answered.

What a claim can reach was decided years before it was made

Someone outside the family is making a claim, and the assets in question took a generation to build. The instinct is to move things or to explain the arrangement informally, and both usually make it worse. What determines the outcome is how the assets are held and who controls them. It also matters whether the paperwork supports the way the family says things work.

We will tell you immediately what must not be moved or said.
We will work out which assets are genuinely exposed to the claim.
We will assemble the record showing how the trust or entity has actually been run.
We will respond to the claimant's requests without conceding more than is required.
We will tell you where the claim has merit and settlement is the better outcome.

Somebody outside the family is reaching for something inside it

A business has failed and a bank is calling on a guarantee. Or a will has been challenged by someone the family did not expect. Or a child’s relationship has ended and their former partner’s lawyers are asking detailed questions about the family trust. The family’s first reaction is usually disbelief, followed by a conversation about moving assets. That conversation is the dangerous one.

What's included in defending a claim

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Immediate advice on preserving your position.
An assessment of what the claim can genuinely reach.
Assembly of the administration record for the entity under attack.
Management of correspondence and information requests.
Defence of the claim, including proceedings where required.
Advice on settlement where the claim has merit.

The two things families do that make it worse

Families facing a claim almost always damage their own position in the first fortnight, and they do it in one of two ways.

The first is moving assets. A transfer made once a claim is in prospect can be unwound, and the attempt itself becomes evidence. It converts a defensible position into a narrative about concealment, and it can expose the people who helped. Nothing should move once a claim is on the horizon.

The second is explaining too much, too informally. Family members describing how things really work often say things that are fatal. That a trust is really one member’s money. That distributions go wherever they are needed, and the trustee does what it is told. A trust attacked as a sham, or as a mere resource, is attacked using exactly those descriptions. They usually come from correspondence written by the family itself.

From a claim against the family to a position that holds

We start by stopping anything from moving and by taking control of what is being said. Then we work out what is genuinely exposed, which is usually narrower than the family fears and occasionally wider.

From there the defence is about substance and paper. Where a trust has been properly administered, the deed observed and the decisions documented, it is a different proposition. A trust run as somebody’s private account is not. We assemble that record and deal with the claimant’s requests for information without conceding more than is required. We argue the position on the law rather than on the family’s version of it. Where a claim has merit, we will tell you, because settling early is sometimes the best available outcome.

How we defend family assets

Move nothing, say nothing, then answer it properly.

Stop the damage

We tell you what must not move and take control of what is being said to the claimant.

Measure the exposure

We work out what the claim can genuinely reach, as distinct from what it has asked for.

Answer it properly

We assemble the record, respond to requests, and argue the position on the law.

A defence built on how the assets were actually held

A claim on family wealth feels personal in a way a commercial dispute does not, because it usually is. It is also the point at which the family’s instinct and its interests pull in opposite directions.

Two of our lawyers are full members of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners. Three of our lawyers are recognised in Doyle’s Guide for estate and succession law. We defend family assets against creditor claims, estate challenges and claims arising from a family member’s separation. The first advice is almost always the same. Move nothing, and let us handle what gets said.

Our great lawyer guarantee

Six principles we hold to, whatever you bring us and however long it takes.

Take the time

We listen carefully to understand what you want to achieve, then step you through the advice and the documents.

Share our knowledge

We pass on as much as we can, so you can make your own informed decisions.

Stick to our knitting

We only do what we are good at, so you never pay for our learning.

Work as one team

Someone is always available to answer your question or point you the right way.

Fair pricing

A fixed or capped quote for advice and documents, so you do not carry the price risk.

It is your show

We are in it for a front row seat to witness your success, not for our egos.

Get the claim handled before it gets worse

Tell us who is claiming and what they are reaching for, and do not move anything in the meantime. We will tell you what is exposed and how it should be answered.

Speak to a lawyer 1300 654 590