Skip to main content

Trusts

Do you need a trust?

Over a lifetime you will accumulate assets. How you protect those assets from creditors and control of their future ownership on your death requires both careful consideration and the putting in place of appropriate legal mechanisms to ensure your desired outcomes are achieved.

You also need to address the possibility that your health may fail including the loss of mental capacity.

For your own benefit and for that of your family the sooner you address this the better. Unforeseen events happen.

We can help you in addressing the various matters that should be included in your will for example your executors, your bequests and your funeral arrangements. Wills can be very simple but in complex family situations or where there are extensive assets more detailed documentation may be required.

You may, for a range of reasons, wish to protect your assets by placing them in a family trust. Apart from providing protection from creditors family trusts are a mechanism for ensuring substantial assets are retained and dealt with beyond your death in a manner other than being distributed to beneficiaries of your will.

As our population ages the need for provision for the circumstance of incapacity has never been greater. Enduring Powers of Attorney for both property and personal care and welfare ensure that where your helpful capacity deteriorates your attorneys are able to look after your affairs without need of recourse to the courts for assistance.

We have a dedicated ElderLaw team who provide a specialist service for those nearing or who have reached retirement. We have designed a review process that ensures your legacy is optimised in terms of your estate planning and any entitlement you may have to residential care support.

Our trust and estate lawyers are specialists and we will be happy to assist you in making sure your legal affairs are in order.

 

Read more about the 2019 changes to the Trust Law Act here.