An unsigned will, four siblings, and an AU$2 billion estate: the Andrianakos dispute
Melbourne property billionaire Nick Andrianakos died in Greece in March 2025. His children are now fighting over which version of his will is valid.
Nick Andrianakos made his money in property and petroleum across Melbourne, Brisbane, and Adelaide. By the time of his death in Greece in March 2025, his fortune was estimated at AU$2 billion on the Australian Financial Review Rich List. He left behind four children and a problem: two versions of his will, only one of which was signed.
The case has been called “Melbourne’s answer to Succession.” That comparison is overused, but the facts do not make it easy to avoid.
The dispute
The youngest son, Theo Andrianakos, is the plaintiff. He claims that his father revised his will before dying and that the unsigned version reflects Nick’s true intentions for the distribution of the estate.
His three siblings, Paul, Kristina, and Vicky Papamarkou, disagree. They are relying on the original, signed will as the binding document.
The case is now before the Supreme Court of Victoria. A mediation hearing held on 30 March 2026 failed to produce a resolution, meaning the matter will proceed to trial.
What is at stake
The estate includes at least five Victorian properties. Among them: a sprawling mansion in Greenvale and a private penthouse at the Westin Hotel on Collins Street. In 2025, the family’s company acquired a half-stake in Melbourne’s Northland shopping centre for NZ$469 million (roughly AU$385 million).
These are illiquid, high-value assets. Splitting them is not straightforward, and any court-imposed outcome will involve either forced sales or complex buy-out structures between siblings who are unlikely to agree on valuations.
The unsigned will problem
The legal question is narrow but consequential. Can an unsigned document override a signed one? In most common-law jurisdictions, the answer is no. A will must meet formal requirements to be valid: it must be signed by the testator, witnessed, and in many places attested in a specific way. An unsigned draft, however clearly it expresses the testator’s wishes, is ordinarily just a draft.
There are exceptions. Some courts have admitted informal documents under special dispensation rules where the evidence strongly supports the testator’s intent. Whether Victoria’s probate courts will take that route is an open question, and one that estate planners will be watching closely.
The wider lesson
The Andrianakos case is a reminder that wealth does not protect against basic estate-planning failures. A will that is revised but not executed is worse than no revision at all, because it creates a competing narrative without a legally binding document to support it.
For families with significant assets spread across jurisdictions, the risk multiplies. Nick Andrianakos died in Greece but his estate is being contested in Australia. Cross-border deaths raise questions about which law governs the will, whether foreign courts will recognise the local probate outcome, and how assets in different countries interact with different succession regimes.
None of this is surprising to the lawyers who work in this area. All of it is preventable with proper execution.
