How many estates are contested in New South Wales each year?

ABC News reported that more than 1,400 estate disputes were filed in the Supreme Court of NSW in 2024, made up of almost 1,000 family provision claims and more than 400 contentious probate matters. This is consistent with seed figures of 996 family provision claims and 465 contentious probate matters for that year. Contested estates remain a small share of the tens of thousands of uncontested probate matters the court handles annually.

How often do family provision claims succeed?

An empirical study of Australian succession case law (UNSW Law Journal, 2015) found around 74% of family provision claims that reached a final hearing succeeded. This is older data and counts only matters decided at a hearing; most disputes settle earlier through mediation, so it is not a current or all-in success rate. Outcomes depend heavily on the facts and the state.

How big is Australia's intergenerational wealth transfer?

The Productivity Commission found more than \$120 billion was transferred in 2018 and projected the annual figure could reach roughly \$500 billion over two decades, with summaries commonly citing about \$3.5 trillion cumulatively. Some later private-sector estimates revise this upward to around \$5.4 trillion. These are projections from third parties, not guaranteed outcomes.

Does having a will mean my estate cannot be contested?

No. A valid will is the best protection, but eligible people can still bring a family provision claim if they believe they were not adequately provided for, and the validity of a will can itself be challenged. Keeping a will current and seeking advice from a qualified wills and estates lawyer reduces risk. This is general information, not legal advice.

What does Afterlife AI™ do that a will does not?

A will distributes your assets. Afterlife AI™™ preserves the person: a Persona built from your own memories and answers, plus an optional consent-based voice you create of yourself, with consent that covers playback after death and is fixed at Executor Lock™™. It complements estate planning, never replaces it. The build is free to start; listening is paid on Legacy (\$14.99/mo) or above.

Wills & Estate Statistics Australia 2026

Q: What percentage of Australians die without a will?

Recent reporting and NSW Trustee & Guardian research put the figure at nearly 60% in New South Wales, and ABC News in 2025 described roughly 60% of people now dying without a valid will, up from earlier estimates closer to half. National rates vary by source and state, so treat 60% as a widely cited estimate rather than a single audited national number. This is general information, not legal advice.

A plain-language data brief on intestacy, contested estates, family provision claims, estate values and will-making behaviour in Australia. Every figure is drawn from a named third-party source and linked. General information only, not legal advice.

Reviewed: 29 June 2026 · Figures are third-party data, each linked · General information, not legal advice

Most Australians will leave behind an estate, yet a large share never record their wishes in a valid will. This page gathers the most reliable recent figures on wills and deceased estates in Australia so you can see the scale of the issue at a glance. Each statistic is a standalone, quotable sentence with its source named inline.

A quick note on terms. A will is a legal document setting out how a person wants their assets distributed after death. Dying intestate means dying without a valid will, in which case a statutory formula decides who inherits. Probate is the court process that confirms a will and authorises the executor to administer the estate. A family provision claim is an application to a court by an eligible person (such as a spouse or child) who believes they were not adequately provided for. These definitions, and every figure below, reflect publicly reported third-party data, not Afterlife AI™'s own records.

Intestacy: dying without a valid will

Nearly 60% of people in New South Wales do not have a valid and legal will, according to research published by NSW Trustee & Guardian (NSW Government). This is the headline figure behind recent national coverage of Australia's intestacy problem.

Reporting by ABC News in 2025 highlighted that roughly 60% of people are now dying without a valid will, up from earlier estimates closer to half, citing legal practitioners and NSW Government data. We present this as a reported trend rather than a single audited national series; estimates of the intestacy rate vary by source and state.

A nationally representative Finder survey of 1,054 people found that about 60% of Australian adults (roughly 12 million people) did not have a will, while around 40% did, up from about 30% in March 2020. This Finder figure was published in 2023; treat it as indicative of the recent direction of travel rather than a 2026 reading.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics recorded 187,268 deaths registered in Australia in 2024, up 2.3% on the prior year, a rise the ABS attributes to the ageing population. Set against the intestacy estimates above, this scale is why estate administration and disputes are a growing area of activity.

Contested estates and family provision claims

ABC News reported that more than 1,400 estate disputes were filed in the Supreme Court of New South Wales in 2024, comprising almost 1,000 family provision claims and more than 400 contentious probate matters. The underlying figures align with the seed data of 996 family provision claims and 465 contentious probate matters (a combined 1,461 contested estate filings) attributed to the NSW Supreme Court for 2024.

Against those contested matters, the Supreme Court of NSW handled tens of thousands of uncontested probate matters in 2024, on the order of about 29,900, meaning contested estates remain a small fraction of all estates that pass through the court. We report the uncontested figure as approximate because we could not independently re-open the court's statistics PDF during this review; see Methodology.

An empirical study of a year of Australian succession case law (White, Tilse, Wilson and colleagues, UNSW Law Journal, 2015) found that around 74% of family provision claims that reached a final hearing were successful. This is older data and counts only matters decided at hearing; most disputes settle earlier through mediation or negotiation, so it should not be read as a current or all-in success rate.

The same body of research and subsequent legal commentary indicate New South Wales accounts for the majority of family provision matters nationally, well ahead of the next-largest state. Exact state shares move year to year, so we describe this as a consistent pattern rather than a fixed percentage.

Estate values and the great wealth transfer

The Productivity Commission's research paper Wealth transfers and their economic effects (November 2021) found that more than \$120 billion was transferred in 2018, and that the annual value of wealth transfers had more than doubled in real terms since 2002. Inheritances made up close to 90% of that total.

The Productivity Commission projected that the annual value of inheritances could rise from around \$120 billion to roughly \$500 billion per year over the following two decades, with commonly cited summaries putting the cumulative transfer at about \$3.5 trillion. Some later private-sector estimates (for example from JBWere) have revised the cumulative figure upward to around \$5.4 trillion; we flag the higher number as a third-party projection, not an official one.

Industry analysis such as the Australian Probate Report 2025 frames this as a multi-trillion-dollar transfer flowing largely through superannuation and residential property, with rising house prices lifting the value of ordinary estates. This helps explain why even modest family estates can now be worth seven figures, raising the stakes in any dispute.

Will-making behaviour

Finder's survey work indicates will-making rises sharply with age: a large majority of older Australians report having a will, while only a minority of younger adults do. Earlier Finder reporting put the gap as wide as roughly 79% of Baby Boomers versus around 20% of the youngest adult cohort; we cite the direction with confidence and the exact splits with caution given survey vintage.

Finder has also reported that only around 42% of Australians have a current will that still reflects their situation, meaning many existing wills are out of date. An out-of-date will can be as disruptive as no will at all when circumstances such as marriage, separation or new children are not reflected.

The leading reasons Australians give for not having a will are procrastination ("haven't got around to it") and a belief they do not own enough to need one, per Finder survey findings. Both are addressable, which is partly why public campaigns such as NSW Trustee & Guardian's will-awareness messaging exist.

What a will does, and what it does not

A will is essential, and nothing on this page is a substitute for making one and keeping it current with a qualified professional. But a will deals only with assets. It cannot carry forward the person: their voice, their stories, the values and small explanations a family most wants to keep.

This is the gap Afterlife AI™™ is built to address, alongside (never instead of) proper estate planning. You build a Persona from your own memories and answers while you are alive, and you can add a consent-based voice you create of yourself, with consent that explicitly covers playback after death. Your choices are fixed at Executor Lock™™ and are not changed afterwards. The voice is created free for everyone; listening is the paid experience on a Legacy plan or above, and a family inherits the time you have paid for. It is consent-based voice preservation under Australian privacy law, governed and never autoplaying in a moment of grief.

You can start the free build with no card: 60 memories and 100 conversations to shape your Persona, plus one Trusted Contact and Executor Lock™ setup, kept and never expiring. Public plans are Free, Legacy \$14.99/mo and Eternal \$29.99/mo. None of the third-party statistics above are Afterlife AI™'s own data; they belong to the sources named beside each figure.

Methodology & sources

Every figure on this page is third-party data published by government bodies, courts, academic researchers, the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Productivity Commission, or named survey and industry reports. We have linked each source in the list below and attributed figures inline. Where a number is an estimate, a projection, dated, or could not be independently re-verified during this review, we have said so in the sentence itself rather than presenting it as settled fact. Some primary pages (including the NSW Supreme Court statistics PDF and several Australian sites) blocked automated retrieval during this review, so a small number of court figures are reported via reputable secondary coverage and labelled as approximate; readers wanting exact counts should consult the Supreme Court of NSW statistics directly. Definitions of intestacy, probate and family provision vary slightly between states. This is general information, not legal advice.

Frequently asked questions

See the structured FAQ below for short answers on intestacy rates, contested estates, estate values and keeping a will current.

Sources

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