Get Up** to speed: companies acting as trustees of wills

One issue that comes up regularly is whether a company can act as an executor and trustee of a will.

While there are a number of issues that need to be taken into account, broadly the position is as follows:

1. Individuals must apply for probate of a will, unless an exempted entity (eg the Public Trustee, Perpetual, ANZ Trustees or NAB Trustees etc) is appointed;
2. There are no such prohibitions at law in relation to who may act as trustee of a testamentary trust;
3. We regularly assist in setting up estate plans with a private company acting as the trustee of a testamentary trust; and
4. There are a range of issues that best practice suggests should be taken into account however – we often for example see the failure to take into account the rules under the Corporations Act prohibiting share self ownership, addressed in two previous posts.

As usual, please contact me if you would like access to any of the content mentioned in this post.

** For the trainspotters, the title of today's post is riffed from the REM song ‘Get up’.

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