Tuesday, June 12, 2012

When do ‘gift and loan’ arrangements need to be refreshed?

As set out in earlier posts, and with thanks to the Television Education Network, today’s post addresses the issue of ‘When do ‘gift and loan’ arrangements need to be refreshed?’ at the following link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuRRvCIx9e8&feature=relmfu

As usual, a transcript of the presentation for those that cannot (or choose not) to view the presentation is below –

There's two real reasons that the top up arrangement can come into effect. 

The first one, and hopefully for most people, even in a post GFC environment, is that the actual underlying asset has gone up in value. 

So in other words, you end up with a gap between the amount that was originally forwarded and the underlying asset value.  So in that instance, there is obviously a desire to ‘catch up’ that gap or to remove that gap and that can be done by effectively recycling or regenerating a debt back to the trust and then making sure that the mortgage arrangements are updated to catch that additional amount. 

The other reason that it might take place, and this particularly can arise in relation to master trusts, is where there's a feeling amongst the family unit that all arrangements are to be on a commercial basis.

In that instance, it's quite often the case that there are interest and principal repayments.  So in that scenario, you'll start to get a gap between the level of security that the trust might have over the particular asset and the debt that’s actually outstanding. 

The critical point in relation to either of those scenarios, so in other words the asset going up in value or the debt being reduced, or for that matter, both things happening at once, is that whenever that gap is removed, you will generally find that there is wealth being moved away from an at-risk individual into a protected environment being the trust.  Obviously in that scenario, in each and every instance that it takes place, you've potentially got to be aware of and advise the client, in relation to the application of the bankruptcy clawback provisions.

Until next week.