Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE230100557
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$445,880.00
Summary
The Behavioural Economics of Inheritance Litigation. Australians are witnessing the greatest intergenerational wealth transfer in history. Unfortunately, more and more families are going to court over inheritance. These disputes tear families apart and impose excessive costs on families and the courts. This project applies legal, behavioural economic and statistical methods to study inheritance battles. It seeks to generate new knowledge about the drivers of inheritance litigation, in order to m ....The Behavioural Economics of Inheritance Litigation. Australians are witnessing the greatest intergenerational wealth transfer in history. Unfortunately, more and more families are going to court over inheritance. These disputes tear families apart and impose excessive costs on families and the courts. This project applies legal, behavioural economic and statistical methods to study inheritance battles. It seeks to generate new knowledge about the drivers of inheritance litigation, in order to make it cost-effective. Its expected outcomes include behavioural economic models of inheritance litigation to predict what cost-reduction strategies will work; a large database of real-world inheritance cases to test these predictions; and robust law-reform recommendations to reduce litigation costs.Read moreRead less
Superannuation as Inheritance: Law, Practice and Reform. Given that Australian retirees are leaving behind billions of superannuation assets for inheritance, this project aims to obtain accurate real world findings about how superfunds distribute superannuation inheritances in practice. Current law has not kept pace with reality, largely leaving superfund trustees to decide how to bequest their deceased members’ excess superannuation. Australian families are at the mercy of superfunds. The expec ....Superannuation as Inheritance: Law, Practice and Reform. Given that Australian retirees are leaving behind billions of superannuation assets for inheritance, this project aims to obtain accurate real world findings about how superfunds distribute superannuation inheritances in practice. Current law has not kept pace with reality, largely leaving superfund trustees to decide how to bequest their deceased members’ excess superannuation. Australian families are at the mercy of superfunds. The expected outcomes of this project include evidence-based proposals to reform industry practice and the law. These reforms will promote respect for Australians’ testamentary wishes, safeguard against abuse, and advance societal interests in philanthropy, wealth equality and fiscal responsibility.Read moreRead less