By Amanda Tully and Jim Main -
Snapshot
- Always check the trust’s vesting date.
- Where appropriate, ensure the trust deed, if purchasing a residential property, excludes foreign beneficiaries.
- Consider whether surcharge duty applies.
You are relaxing by an open fire nursing a mug of warm mulled wine when your phone starts to ring. You look down and see it is work. Although you had asked not to be disturbed on your skiing holiday, after spending most of the day splayed out on the snow in the starfish position unsuccessfully trying to learn how to ski, it is a welcome distraction. You take the call and it is your personal assistant, Lian.
Lian tells you that your longstanding client, Daryl, has called in quite a flap about some advice he received from an estate planning lawyer, Amy, you referred him to a couple of months ago.
You work as a sole practitioner mainly in property law, although you also prepare straightforward estate planning documents. Daryl and his wife, Sal, have quite a complex structure, including numerous landholding family trusts, so you referred them to Amy, as you used to work with her in another firm and she was an excellent lawyer. You kept in touch with Amy and knew she had started to specialise in trusts, taxes, and duties so you were certain Daryl and Sal were going to be in good hands.
The last time you acted for Daryl and Sal was about a year ago when they purchased a residential investment property in the name of their family trust, Castle Properties Trust.
