Trusts
Establishing a testamentary trust offers an avenue to protect your beneficiaries from creditors or other third parties, allows maximum flexibility in the distribution of your income (ie; maximise available taxation concessions) and assets as well as allows you to provide advantageous distributions to your beneficiaries.
- Discretionary Trusts
- Protective Trusts
- Disability Trusts
Our experienced lawyers will provide legal guidance in these areas to achieve the maximum advantage for your beneficiaries.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Why is the role of Appointor important in a Discretionary Trust?
Under a discretionary trust deed, the ability to appoint and remove a trustee is a significant role, as it allows control over the manner in which the trust is to be operated and trust income to be distributed.
Generally, this ability sits with the person or entity nominated as the appointor under the trust deed. As such, it is important both when establishing a trust and when operating a trust, to consider the appropriateness of the person nominated as the appointor.
Duffy & Simon can advise you on the roles and responsibilities of the appointor, as well as the considerations that should be applied when considering the right person for this role.
What is a Trust Will & and do I need one?
A Trust Will is a Will that creates a separate testamentary trust within the Will itself.
This is usually undertaken with a view achieving one or more of the following:
- Protecting the assets of the estate from a claim being made by a person who has been excluded from the Will; and/or
- Providing a mechanism to provide for a person, but to ensure that the control of those assets sit with a third party, such as where there exists a drug dependency issue or where the beneficiary has financial management issues.
Duffy & Simon can advise you on the best course to adopt in drafting your Will and planning the distribution of your estate, including whether a Trust Will is suitable to your needs.
What is a discretionary or family trust, and do I need one?
A discretionary or family trust is an entity established to hold assets on behalf of a selected group of people or family members. Typically, these trusts are established for the purpose of protecting assets that may be at risk in the operation of a business by one or more of the family members, or to allow profits that arise from the operation of a business controlled by the trust to be shared between selected members of the group.
A discretionary or family trust also has the benefit of protecting assets in estate planning, allowing issues associated with the challenging of a will to be avoided.
It is important to understand the benefits, costs and limitations of adopting a discretionary of family trust structure before that trust is established. Duffy & Simon is able to review your circumstances, and advise you on the suitability and benefits of establishing a discretionary or family trust.