Trusts

Trusts can be powerful tools for protecting your assets, providing flexibility around control, planning and taxation, and provide a platform to carry assets between generations.

There are significant financial benefits for you and your family holding assets in trusts. However, setting up a trust can involve legal complexities, and getting it wrong can lead to ongoing issues. It is vital to consult a specialist trusts lawyer to discuss your personal situation, which trust would be right for you, and the benefits a tailored trust deed can provide compared to an ‘off the shelf’ standard trust deed.

How we can help

If you’re considering setting up a trust and need more information on the right type of trusts for your needs, get in touch with our knowledgeable trust lawyers.

We have extensive experience in setting up trusts and in trust administration, including managing all aspects of discretionary, unit and testamentary trusts (For an introduction to trusts and further information, read our Introduction to trusts).

We assist clients in many trust areas including:

trust distributions and drafting distribution resolutions.
ongoing trust administration.
changes to trustees, appointors and guardians, including dealing with decision-making in the event of death and incapacity.
trust variations including variations to trust deeds (both under a power contained in the trust deed and via court order under trust legislation including Trustee Acts and Trust Acts).

intergenerational transfer of wealth and succession of trust control.
present entitlement issues and entitlement advice.
advice regarding trust deed interpretation.
advice regarding lost trust deeds and deeds of confirmation.

advice regarding effectiveness of trust variations and scope of variation and amendment powers.
discretionary trusts.
testamentary trusts.
unit trusts.
special disability trusts.
succession planning trusts.

beneficiary entitlements including rights to trust documents and trust information.
vesting and termination dates (including varying and extending vesting dates).
bespoke drafting of trust provisions to tailor trust deeds to suit particular circumstances, including who can benefit from the trust, income and streaming provisions for tax purposes and foreign beneficiary / person exclusions.

trust disputes (trustee and beneficiary disputes) including exercise of trustee discretion, removal of beneficiaries and rights of beneficiaries to trust documents.
application of duty exemptions, including for distributing properties out of a trust, from an estate into a testamentary trust and changes of trustees.

all aspects of trust taxation, including capital gains tax, duty and other state taxes, and resettlement advice.
trust deed reviews to ensure that your trust deed is up-to-date from a tax, asset protection and succession planning perspective and to ensure your deed has all the investment powers banks require, and income and streaming provisions to ensure the trustee has flexibility.

Trust administration

We understand that in many situations there are complicated family dynamics that come as part of trust administration. We always ensure we provide compassionate and supportive legal services when administering a trust.

Our team of experienced trust lawyers can assist in all aspects of trust administration, both simple and complex, including:

advising on proper exercise of trustee discretion in all aspects of trust administration.
advising on proper process in making distributions to beneficiaries.
advising on lawful variations to trust deeds including adding and removing beneficiaries.
assisting with issues involving trustees and decision making.
dealing with difficult beneficiaries including requests for information and entitlement.
obtaining judicial advice where required on issues including trust interpretation and proposed trustee decisions.

Our trusts experience

Reviewing and updating trust deeds to include income and streaming provisions for tax purposes, and exclude foreign beneficiaries to manage foreign person duty surcharges.
Planning for intergenerational wealth transfers and succession of key control areas including trustees (day-to-day decision making), appointors (power to change trustees) and guardians.
Assisting trustees in obtaining court approval for trust deed amendments where the trust deed does not contain an amendment or variation power, including to extend vesting dates and expand or change trust beneficiaries.
Advising trustees regarding proposed distribution decisions and exercise of discretion, including proper exercise of discretion and seeking information from beneficiaries.
Obtaining duty exemption applications for transfer of assets from an estate into a testamentary trust, and transfers out of discretionary, unit and SMSFs to trust beneficiaries.
Assisting trustees with court applications seeking judicial advice for trust interpretation issues regarding trust terms, trust beneficiaries and variation and amendment powers.
Assisting with changes of trustees from individual trustees to corporate trustees, including duty exemption applications where the trust holds property.
Assisting trustees in defending claims against the trust or trustee including in relation to exercise of trustee discretion, requests for information and removal of trustees.

Get in touch

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