Broadlex founder’s ex-wife loses claim to shares over unpaid family payments
George Tsivis’s former wife, Angela Sakellis, has lost the chance for her estate to inherit valuable shares linked to Australia’s Broadlex cleaning business. Nearly a decade after Tsivis’s death, the NSW Supreme Court ruled that she had not met the condition in his will requiring annual payments to his siblings, leaving his brother Peter with the benefit of the shares for life.
Tsivis and Sakellis founded Broadlex in Sydney in 1969, after marrying the previous year; although they later separated, they continued working together for decades. Tsivis died in 2016 with an estate valued at almost A$28 million, and his will tied Sakellis’s eventual inheritance of the shares to payments matching his A$300,000 annual salary, split between his brother Peter and sister Maria. The judge said the payments were not made and found Sakellis had likely used the annuity as a bargaining chip; the shares will ultimately return to Tsivis’s estate.
- Angela Sakellis’s estate will not inherit the Broadlex-linked shares.
- The will required annual payments to Tsivis’s siblings.
- Peter Tsivis will benefit from the shares for life.
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George Tsivis and Angela Sakellis founded Broadlex, a cleaning business, in Sydney in 1969 shortly after they married. Although the couple later separated, they continued to work together at the company for many years.
When Tsivis died in 2016, his estate was worth nearly A$28 million, with much of that value derived from his shareholdings in Broadlex. His will stipulated that for Sakellis to eventually inherit these shares, she would have to make annual payments to his siblings Peter and Maria, totalling A$300,000 per year.
Years after Tsivis's death, a legal dispute arose over whether Sakellis had made the required payments to his siblings. The case ultimately turned on whether she had fulfilled this condition, which would determine her entitlement to the valuable shares.
Both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Sakellis co-founded Broadlex and worked there for decades, making her essential to the business's success and value. Conditioning her inheritance of shares on substantial annual payments to her ex-husband's relatives seems fundamentally punitive given her role in building the company. Equity principles should protect someone in her position from such disproportionate conditions.
The case against
Tsivis had the right to set conditions on his own property. The condition was explicit and knowable. Sakellis had opportunities to accept it, challenge it, or negotiate, but instead deliberately used non-payment as leverage. Courts must respect testators' wishes about their property and not reward strategic non-compliance.
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Originally published by Daily Mail as “Cleaning empire founder’s heirs locked in real-life Succession war over $28m fortune as ex-wife loses multimillion-dollar inheritance nearly a decade after his death”.