Love may be dead, but the inher­i­tance lives on: Take­aways from Chie v Veale

Learn how the NSW Supreme Court case Chie v Veale [2025] high­lights estate plan­ning risks after sep­a­ra­tion and why updat­ing your will mat­ters. Dis­cov­er prac­ti­cal strate­gies to pre­vent dis­putes and ensure your wish­es are honored.

The Supreme Court of New South Wales not only deliv­ered a deci­sion, but a les­son in not leav­ing your estate plan­ning vul­ner­a­ble to unex­pect­ed cir­cum­stances such as the death of a ben­e­fi­cia­ry and sep­a­ra­tion from a part­ner, either a spouse or de facto.

In Chie v Veale [2025], David Chie (David) brought a fam­i­ly pro­vi­sion claim against the estate of his late moth­er, Char­maine Mary Joan Chie (Deceased) on the basis that her will failed to make ade­quate pro­vi­sion for his prop­er main­te­nance, edu­ca­tion or advance­ment in life. The Deceased’s will left her house and car­a­van (worth approx­i­mate­ly $2 mil­lion) to her son, John Veale (John) and her cash (worth $43,915 at the time of her death in Novem­ber 2022) to her three remain­ing chil­dren, includ­ing David, in equal shares.

Four months after the Deceased’s death, John died intes­tate (with­out a will) which trig­gered major com­pli­ca­tions for how his enti­tle­ment under the Deceased’s will was to be dis­trib­uted, con­sid­er­ing he was sur­vived by a spouse, Maria Veale (Maria) with whom John had been sep­a­rat­ed for sev­er­al years pri­or but did not for­mal­ly divorce.

Due to John’s fail­ure to draft a will fol­low­ing his sep­a­ra­tion, Maria was enti­tled to John’s per­son­al effects, a statu­to­ry lega­cy cal­cu­lat­ed in accor­dance with sec­tion 106 of the Suc­ces­sion Act 2006 (NSW) (the Act) and half of the remain­der of his estate, with the oth­er half going to chil­dren from his pre­vi­ous mar­riage, in accor­dance with sec­tion 113 of the Act. This includes John’s enti­tle­ments under the Deceased’s will.

The Court held that David was not ade­quate­ly pro­vid­ed for in the Deceased’s will and ordered that he receive $450,000 from the pro­ceeds of sale of the Deceased’s house. In accor­dance with the law of intes­ta­cy, Maria was to receive half John’s estate, while his chil­dren of his pre­vi­ous mar­riage received the oth­er half.

What can we take away from this decision?

There are many prac­ti­cal take aways from this case, learn­ings from both the Deceased’s and John’s estates. Here are some mat­ters to con­sid­er when draft­ing your estate plan­ning documents:

Review your estate plan­ning fol­low­ing sep­a­ra­tion from a partner

It is always impor­tant to ensure your estate plan­ning is in order and up to date (with con­tin­gen­cies built into the doc­u­ments) as life is unex­pect­ed and any­thing can occur at any time. When it comes to sep­a­ra­tion from a part­ner, draft­ing a will is the best way to ensure your tes­ta­men­tary inten­tions are fol­lowed if you were to die before final­is­ing a separation. 

Dying with­out a will leaves the law of intes­ta­cy to deter­mine how your estate will be dis­trib­uted, and in the case of a sep­a­ra­tion, can result in more than half of your estate being left with an ex-part­ner if not for­mal­ly finalised (i.e. divorce).

Con­sid­er alter­nate path­ways for dis­tri­b­u­tion in case the unex­pect­ed happens

Giv­en the unex­pect­ed nature of life, it is also impor­tant to con­sid­er that any­thing can hap­pen to an appoint­ed execu­tor or the ben­e­fi­cia­ries of your estate. Appoint­ing an alter­nate per­son to take on these roles if some­one either pre­de­ceas­es you, does not sur­vive you for 30 days or is unwill­ing to act is a good way to ensure your estate is not vul­ner­a­ble to the pos­si­bil­i­ty of anoth­er per­son hav­ing the author­i­ty to choose how your assets are to be administered.

Make sure your loved ones are ade­quate­ly pro­vid­ed for to avoid dispute

Chie v Veale is an exam­ple of a case where more robust estate plan­ning could have saved dis­putes, includ­ing min­imis­ing the risk of fam­i­ly pro­vi­sion claims. Draft­ing fur­ther doc­u­ments, such as a mem­o­ran­dum of wish­es  can assist with giv­ing con­text to cer­tain deci­sions made by a willmaker. 

While a will needs to com­ply with cer­tain for­mal­i­ties, the pos­si­bil­i­ties are end­less for what can be includ­ed in a mem­o­ran­dum of wish­es. A will­mak­er can, for exam­ple, take the time to explain why cer­tain choic­es have been made, express wish­es for how you would like your estate admin­is­tered, as well as aid­ing execu­tors and ben­e­fi­cia­ries of what you would do with your assets and lia­bil­i­ties if you were still alive, and more.