A battle over the multimillion-dollar estate of Sydney businessman Andrew Findlay has erupted in the Supreme Court and fractured relations within his family almost a year after his body was found washed up on rocks near The Gap at Watsons Bay.
The late Andrew Findlay and his former partner Liz Kemp, who has launched proceedings in the Supreme Court over his multimillion-dollar estate.Credit: Matthew Tompsett
Findlay’s former de facto partner of seven years and the mother of his three young children, Liz Kemp, from whom he separated in 2019, has launched legal proceedings against Findlay’s family to have a 2015 will – witnessed and signed before a solicitor, and which names her as sole executor and beneficiary – recognised by the court.
Findlay’s family argue a 2019 informal will Findlay wrote following his split with Kemp expresses his true final wish that only his three children should inherit his estate.
Findlay, 51, died after a suspected freak wave hit the 7.8-metre Brig inflatable vessel he was in during a fishing expedition off Watsons Bay in July last year. It also claimed the life of his friend, fellow angler and prominent Indigenous art dealer Tim Klingender.
The incident sparked intense media scrutiny as the overturned boat was found smashed on rocks and the friends’ loved ones began an anxious wait. A large-scale sea and air rescue initially located Klingender’s body off Watsons Bay among debris. However, it took another week before Findlay’s remains were found nearby.
Andrew Findlay (left) was missing for nearly a week after a suspected boating accident which also claimed the life of his friend Tim Klingender.
Their untimely deaths reverberated through Sydney’s social, business and arts circles, with their funerals drawing hundreds of mourners.
Findlay’s 2015 will was written four years before the end of his relationship with Kemp in 2019, which resulted in a multimillion-dollar property settlement in 2021, after which Kemp bought a $4.25 million five-bedroom “architecturally reimagined” home in Balgowlah.
If recognised by the court, the 2015 will would see Kemp inherit an estate estimated to be worth at least $20 million, including one of Sydney’s most-prized trophy homes – the mid-century designer property Camelot in Centennial Park, which Findlay received as part of the property settlement with Kemp in 2021.
Trophy home: Camelot in Centennial Park.
Kemp’s claim is being disputed by Findlay’s family, who say the 2019 will, which only names his three children as beneficiaries but was never signed or witnessed, should be upheld.
The 2019 document names Andrew’s cousin, David Findlay, as executor and trustee of the estate until his children reach adulthood.
David Findlay is named as the defendant in Kemp’s lawsuit.
According to David Findlay’s cross-claim, Andrew Findlay wrote in an email accompanying the disputed document to his cousin on June 5, 2019: “This is my new will. I am yet to get it signed in front of Emma Grimes (my lawyer) but I intend [to]”; and “I just sent you the will as I haven’t changed it with my lawyer yet. If I went under a bus between now and then my wishes would at least be clear.”
On June 11, 2019, Findlay is alleged to have told his solicitor Nabil Wahhab words to the effect of “I have changed my will recently”.
Both Kemp and the Findlay family declined to comment on the legal row this week – however Kemp’s lawsuit denies the 2019 informal will “embodies the testamentary intentions” of Findlay.
Her lawyers claim Findlay was a “sophisticated businessman” who knew the “execution requirements” of a will and who “consulted lawyers regularly … notwithstanding this, did not execute the purported 2019 informal will”.
Kemp also claims she and Findlay continued to “live under the same roof” following their split for several months, and that he drafted the 2019 document “at the peak of an emotionally turbulent period”.
Before her relationship with Findlay, Kemp was married to former star cricketer Brett Lee, with whom she has a son. Their marriage ended after two years amid a blaze of headlines, during which time the podiatrist stated she did not seek media attention.
Kemp’s relationship with the wider Findlay family broke down in the months following his death last year and it is understood they no longer have contact.
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