A family trust is a legally binding arrangement that allows you to protect income-generating assets, reduce taxes, protect property rights and distribute earnings to beneficiaries. Family trusts are also commonly used as underlying structures for family businesses, allowing you to regulate the rights and obligations of trustees and establish a plan for bequeathment.

If handled improperly, a family trust can introduce unnecessary conflict and preventable legal issues that can leave your family asset trust open for dispute.

When it comes to organising your assets, you need an expert family trust lawyer to create a streamlined, ironclad trust. At Green & Associates, our commercial and personal lawyers have handled everything from complex estate plans to discretionary trusts, asset distribution and trust disputes.

Take the hassle out of family and discretionary trusts and streamline the estate planning process with a family trust lawyer from our team. Get in touch with us today. 

Green & Associates Solicitors Experience and Success 

• In addition to the below, we have established family trusts for asset protection and tax advantages, both discretionary and fixed;
• We establish unit trusts for special purpose of joint venture vehicles with multiple business partners, each with their own underlying trustees, then establish shareholders agreements and other constituent documents for governance;
• We handle purchase and sale of properties through trusts;
• We negotiate deeds of family arrangement;
• We have dealt with all aspects of estate planning, from obtaining probate through to final administration of estate;
• We have acted for executors and trustees on behalf of estates for the sale of property, from residential homes through to large opal mines;
• We regularly act for family law firms and their clients to give effect to final family law orders for property adjustment following breakdowns of marriages and relationships;
• We have acted for executors and trustees on behalf of estates for the acquisition of property, including agricultural investment businesses with land;
• We have prepared and secured enduring powers of attorney for property dealings on behalf of clients whilst overseas and before they lose capacity;
• We have obtained and defended applications for financial management orders in NCAT;
•  We handle all estate and succession planning, from Wills and powers of attorney through to succession planning for carrying on of business;
• We deal with family provisions claims, other contests to Wills and estate disputes, including applications for removal and replacement of trustees.

We recently acted for an interstate client who was eager to move his mother in NSW to be closer to him and his family after she faced medical complications during surgery. The potential move required him to act on her behalf to arrange for accommodation, care and other matters, and as such, she needed to empower him to do so with an Appointment of Enduring Guardian and Enduring Power of Attorney. 

The client’s mother was faced with certain effects arising from the medical complications, including a language disorder. A letter of capacity was provided to our firm prior to meeting our client’s mother, however, the language disorder during the initial conference raised some concerns. Nonetheless, our firm worked with social workers to have a further capacity test done. Upon confirmation from the doctor, our firm worked with the rehabilitation centre’s speech pathologist to explain the documents and have the documents successfully executed. The move was then able to be expedited as the client’s mother was also eager to move to be closer to her son and his family.