Caroline Harley
Principal Lawyer
07 3544 5689
charley@aitken.com.au
Caroline Harley
Areas of Law: Wills and Estates
Qualifications: Bachelor of Arts | Bachelor of Laws | Master of Laws (Applied Law) | Master of Laws (Legal Practice) | Specialist SMSF Adviser®
Office Location: Brisbane
Caroline was admitted to practice in 2008 and has spent her career helping clients navigate the complexities of trusts, superannuation, and estate planning. Drawing on her strong legal background, including earlier experience in family law, she provides clear, practical guidance that helps clients make confident decisions about their future.
What Caroline enjoys most about her work is helping clients create tailored strategies that reflect their unique circumstances and long-term goals. She has a particular focus on intergenerational wealth transfer, guiding families through estate planning, which may include Self Managed Super Funds, and other trust structures. By carefully considering family dynamics, financial arrangements, and future aspirations, Caroline helps clients structure their wealth in a way that provides security today and a lasting legacy for tomorrow.
Caroline has extensive experience advising private clients, family offices, and trustees. She has also worked with one of Australia’s largest professional trustee companies, managing legal matters in estate administration, trust operations, and financial management. She has also served as in-house counsel for an APRA-regulated superannuation fund, focusing on death benefit payments and related legal issues. Before joining Aitken Partners, she established her own boutique law firm, delivering high-level advice and practical solutions to clients with complex needs.
She regularly provides advice in relation to:
- Wills, including complex structures such as testamentary discretionary trusts
- Trust establishment, administration, and amendments
- Enduring Powers of Attorney and binding death benefit nominations
- Superannuation death benefits, SMSFs and compliance
- Estate and trust administration
Caroline is an acknowledged industry leader, having contributed articles to legal and financial journals and presented technical papers at industry conferences for over a decade. In 2017, she was a finalist for Legal Counsel of the Year at the Women in Finance Awards. She is recognised as a Self Managed Super Fund Specialist Advisor® by the SMSF Association and as a Trusts and Estates Practitioner by the international Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners, having been admitted through the London membership committee.
Her academic background includes a Bachelor of Arts, a Bachelor of Laws, and two Master of Laws degrees, with her most recent specialising in Applied Law, focusing on Estate Planning and Wills & Estates.