Devon Miller will be running a free breakfast seminar at Gallaway Cook Allan's new offices on Level 2, 123 Vogel Street. Starting at 8.30am on April 12.
Please click HERE to RSVP to Sophie Dempster.
Moving On: Interview with Devon Miller
Devon Miller is a partner at Gallaway Cook Allan and Head of the Private Clients team. Her forthcoming seminar, ‘Moving On’, is aimed at people who have either been through a traumatic time themselves, or have friends or relatives who have.
Devon, what made you want to put this seminar together?
We deal with people every day who are going through difficult times: the death of a loved one, or the end of a relationship, for example. We work with them for a long period of time, often over several months, and at the end of it there is some kind of conclusion – the assets from an estate are distributed, say, or a relationship property agreement is concluded.
And at that point your work with them is finished?
In one sense, yes. But what we often see is that people need further help. Perhaps not right away, but when they are ready to move on with their lives.
Can you offer an example?
Some months ago we finished a very messy relationship property agreement for a client. It was a huge relief for her to get it signed and done. At that point the last person she needed to see again was me, her lawyer! But now that she is moving on, she can see the next stage of her life in front of her and knows that there are all kinds of legal bits and pieces that she should get sorted.
What do they include?
Her Will needs updating, as well as her Powers of Attorney, and she has a Trust that would benefit from some work to better protect her children, should she enter into a new relationship. She could have done all of this at the same time as the relationship property agreement, but that was all-consuming at the time.
In that example, she may find a new life partner, but it doesn’t sound very romantic if she’s putting up legal fences!
That’s how life is these days – complicated! Our view is to get these sort of issues out in the open and sorted out early on. You can move on with confidence and put all of your energy into a new relationship if your legal affairs are tidy.
As another example, we had a client who was sadly widowed and left with young children. We handled the wife’s estate. He’s now remarried, with a real patchwork family where his new wife has brought children into the family unit. He asked us to get it all organised so that he didn’t have to worry about the kids if anything happened to him.
What will attendees to the seminar learn?
We want to give people a road map for how to get their affairs in order. We’ll go through some of the more common arrangements and identify potential fish hooks and how to deal with them.
When is the seminar?
April 12, at our offices on Level 2, 123 Vogel Street. We’re running it over breakfast, starting at 8.30, done and dusted by 9.30. And we’ll shout coffee and croissants. Anyone interested should RSVP to Sophie Dempster, at sophie.dempster@gallawaycookallan.co.nz.
