The Art of Estate Planning Podcast

If you’re an estate planning law firm owner wondering what on earth they need to do to comply with the expanded AML/CTF Rules… then this episode is for you!

Join our special guest Tracey Knight from Easy AML, for a practical, plain-English walkthrough of how the expanded AML/CTF regime applies to common estate planning activities with clear examples, compliance timelines, and guidance on what professionals need to do to be ready.

If you’re not ready for the AML rules – this episode is a must listen!

Watch the full presentation here.

For many clients, discretionary trusts are about one thing: protection. And when relationships break down, the question becomes: how protected are those assets, really?

In this this first episode in our new series on discretionary trusts and family law, I unpack the landmark High Court decision of Kennon v Spry. It’s the authority cited in virtually every major family law decision involving discretionary trusts since 2008.

This episode lays the groundwork for everything that follows in the series.

You can read the judgment here.

Confession: I used to be a full-blown workaholic lawyer.

Fourteen-hour days. Every meal at my desk. “Busy” as a personality trait.

Now? I run a million-dollar sole director firm working around 20–25 hours a week... with two kids, a chronic illness, and actual hobbies (yes, plural!).

So what changed?

In this episode, I’m sharing how I’ve designed my business to support my life, not swallow it whole.

We talk leverage over hustle, batching your year before it runs you, the 12 Week Year framework, building systems that work when you don’t, and protecting your energy like it’s billable (because honestly, it is).

If you’re ambitious but exhausted…
Driven but craving more space…
This one’s your permission slip to build it differently.

Most lawyers have a “basic will precedent” that’s been handed down through multiple jobs, multiple law reform changes, and at least one clause no one wants to touch.

And yet… it’s still in use.

In this episode, I talk through why your basic will precedent deserves a proper audit — and how quietly relying on an outdated template can create risk, inefficiency, and poor client outcomes.

To make this practical, I’ve created a free Basic Will Precedent Audit Checklist you can use to review your existing template — quickly and honestly.

Download the free checklist here.

Because “basic” should never mean risky, outdated, or hard to explain.

It’s not often that something genuinely new lands in the estate planning space, which is why I was so curious when I discovered that JustFund has launched a funding solution designed specifically for estate matters.

In this episode, I’m joined by Leigh McBean, to explore why Just Fund's new service is worth considering in your estate administration toolkit.

We talk through the real-world problems this funding solution is designed to address, how the model works in practice, and the situations where it can support smoother progress in complex or drawn-out matters.

If you work in estate administration, this conversation will introduce you to a fresh option that may help reduce friction in your estate planning matters.

Because sometimes the sticking point in an estate matter isn’t legal advice; it’s liquidity.

Find out more at https://justfund.com.au/