Personal Law
Clear advice. Calm strategy. Long-term protection.
Life changes. Families change. Priorities change. The right legal advice and structures can help protect you, your family and what you've built when they do.
Canterbury Legal provides practical advice across wills and estates, family trusts and asset protection, enduring powers of attorney, relationship property and separation.
CLEAR & PRACTICAL ADVICE
CHRISTCHURCH-BASED TEAM
30+ YEARS HELPING FAMILIES
How can we help you?
Personal legal needs don’t always fit neatly into one category. Start with what you’re trying to achieve.
Plan for the future
Wills · Estate planning · Enduring Powers of Attorney
Protect what you've built
Family trusts · Asset protection · Succession planning
Relationships & separation
Contracting out agreements · Relationship property · Separation
When someone dies
Probate · Estate administration · Wills · Trust and estate issues
Build the right plan around your life.
Estate planning & administration
Enduring Powers of Attorney
Family trusts & asset protection
Relationship property & separation
Relationship property disputes
When did you last review your Will? A lot can change in five years...
Bought property
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Bought property |
If your life has changed, your estate plan may need to change with it.
What our clients say.
The Canterbury Legal team took care of all our requirements making sure everything was in place correctly. They were great to deal with and fast to respond with advise and answers to all our questions.
When someone has died.
Clear guidance at a difficult time.
Dealing with legal responsibilities while dealing with the loss of someone close can feel overwhelming.
You don’t need to understand the process before talking to us. Our role is to establish what needs to happen and guide you through it.
- Probate applications
- Letters of administration
- Executor responsibilities
- Identifying and collecting estate assets
- Estate liabilities
- Communication with beneficiaries
- Estate distribution
- Estate and trust disputes where required
You don't need to know what happens next. That's our job.
Talk to us
We establish what's required
We handle the legal process
We keep you informed
Questions we're often asked.
Answers here are general information, not legal advice.
Planning ahead
A useful habit is to review your Will every few years, and whenever something significant changes — buying or selling property, marriage, separation, children, a new relationship, starting a business, or setting up or winding up a trust. We can tell you quickly whether your current Will still does what you want it to.
Your estate is distributed according to the rules set out in New Zealand law rather than your wishes, and someone must apply to the court to be appointed to administer it. That usually takes longer, costs more and gives your family less control.
A Will must meet formal legal requirements to be valid, and small mistakes can make it ineffective or open to challenge. A lawyer also looks at how your Will interacts with jointly owned property, trusts, relationship property and business interests — which is where most problems arise.
A Will must meet formal legal requirements to be valid, and small mistakes can make it ineffective or open to challenge. A lawyer also looks at how your Will interacts with jointly owned property, trusts, relationship property and business interests — which is where most problems arise.
An Enduring Power of Attorney lets you choose who can make decisions about your property or your personal care and welfare if you become unable to make them yourself. Putting them in place while you are well avoids a much harder process later.
It depends on how the property is owned. Ownership structure can override what a Will says, which is why property and Wills need to be looked at together. We can check the title and explain what actually happens in your case.
When someone has died
Probate is the High Court’s confirmation that a Will is valid and that the executor named in it has authority to deal with the estate. Banks and other institutions often need it before they will release assets.
It generally depends on what the estate holds and the value of individual assets — for example, property held in the deceased’s sole name or accounts above an institution’s threshold. Tell us what the estate contains and we will confirm whether probate is needed.
Timeframes vary with the estate, the court’s workload and how quickly information can be gathered. We will give you a realistic expectation for your situation once we know what is involved.
In broad terms: establish what the estate holds and what it owes, protect and collect assets, deal with liabilities, keep beneficiaries informed and distribute the estate correctly. You do not have to know how to do any of that before you call us.
Yes, in certain circumstances and within set timeframes. Whether a claim is likely to succeed depends heavily on the facts. If you are concerned about a claim — or facing one — talk to us early.
Whatever stage you’re at, start with a conversation.
Whether you’re planning ahead, updating an existing Will or dealing with an estate, our team can help you understand what needs to happen next.
Not sure exactly what you need? That’s fine. Tell us what’s happening and we’ll point you in the right direction.