With thanks to the Television Education Network, today’s post considers the above mentioned topic in a vidcast.
As usual, an edited transcript of the presentation is below:
It’s surprising how often we are provided with an original trust deed for a trust that’s been around for 10 or 15 years and are asked to give advice on the terms of the trust, only to have it turn out later that there were subsequent deeds of variation or resolutions which amended the terms of the trust, which everyone had lost or forgotten about.
As a practical tip, clients who are establishing a trust should have some form of trust register or trust folder in which they store copies of all of the trust deeds, trust variations, trust resolutions and any other documents which may impact on understanding what rights and responsibilities attach to that trust.
We also need to understand that beneficiaries can make unilateral decisions, such as deciding to renounce an interest as a beneficiary of a trust.
If an individual who is a beneficiary issues a disclaimer or a renunciation, which says that notwithstanding the terms of the trust deed they have chosen not to be a beneficiary of the trust anymore, that will impact on their standing from a family law perspective, bankruptcy perspective and a tax perspective.