Suppose George owns a farm, and Tom has stayed and lived with George all this time so as to help him work the farm. The farm is the only asset of value in George’s personal estate, and it is worth half of the value of George’s superannuation. Under George’s Will, he wants to leave the farm to Tom. However, this will mean that there will be nothing left for Dick and Harriet in his estate.
George’s lawyer suggests that George put into place the following conditional BDBN:
“I direct that on my death my superannuation death benefit is to be dealt with as follows:
- if my last valid Will gives my farm at 1 Georges Street, Georgeville, NSW to my son Tom, and if each of my children Dick and Harriet have executed a Court approved release of their rights to apply for a family provision order pursuant to section 95 of the Succession Act 2006 NSW, then my superannuation death benefit is to be divided in equal shares between my children Dick and Harriet and paid as lump sums;
- otherwise my superannuation death benefit is to be divided equally between such of my three children Tom, Dick and Harriet who survive me by 30 days in equal shares as lump sums.”
Therefore, if the condition is satisfied, Tom ends up with the farm under George’s Will, and Dick and Harriet share the super death benefit equally, and each child has received an equal share of George’s overall wealth.