The principals of RetireLaw, legal practitioner directors Terry Purcell LLB and Dawn Wong BA(AS)Hons LLB, have a history of improving access to legal services and legal information through their long involvement as the senior management team at the Law Foundation of New South Wales.

Terry Purcell has long been actively involved in the quality management movement within the legal profession. In late 2002 he was formally recognised by his peers for his contribution towards improving management standards in the legal profession through the award of a QL Fellowship Award. 

Prior to establishing RetireLaw, Terry and Dawn consulted with a wide range of law firms on management and marketing. As a result of this experience, they recognised that very few lawyers seemed to understand the increasingly important role that changes to Federal policy relating to retirement funding particularly was creating for financial advisers. The Financial Services Reforms introduced in 2004 imposed a new range of legal and professional responsibilities on financial advisers, including the requirement on them to advise clients to have their Estate Planning reviewed and, if necessary, updated.

Many of the advisers who refer clients to RetireLaw emphasise the inadequacy of typical two or three page Wills for many clients, particularly those loosely referred to as “baby boomers”, and recommend appropriately drafted Modern Estate Planning Wills incorporating provision for beneficiary controlled testamentary trusts.

So, having built up close working relationships with a growing number of financial advisers and accountants, the main focus of RetireLaw is the provision of Modern Estate Planning Wills for their clients.

In keeping with their long interest in improving access to legal information and knowledge, Terry and Dawn are both committed to ensuring that clients are fully informed of the meaning and intent of the Estate Planning pathway and documentation that RetireLaw formulates with them, and do not consider the matter finalised until the clients are fully satisfied. Operating to a lump sum fee structure allows them to go that extra distance to achieve such a result.