Tax Aspects of Estate Planning: A One Day Masterclass

Tax and the Estate Planning Toolbox

The tax landscape is constantly evolving and the challenges facing advisers continue to grow. This morning’s sessions are designed for lawyers and accountants seeking to deepen their knowledge of estate planning tax issues. Highlights include recent changes to the taxation of testamentary trusts, tax consequences of life interests and keeping funds in super through reversionary pensions.

• Testamentary Trusts: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - Testamentary trusts provide a greater level of control over the management and distribution of assets to beneficiaries, but also bring with them complexity, inflexibility and ongoing cost. This session will look at the requirements of these trusts and the key considerations for determining their relevance to your client.

• The Long Shadow of Unpaid Present Entitlements in the Estate Plan - An increasing number of private family groups have unpaid present entitlements sitting in the group with no strategy in place as to how to eliminate the liability. This session considers how unpaid present entitlements can impact on estate planning

• Keeping the Funds in Superannuation Through Reversionary Pensions - As the superannuation rules tighten, reversionary pensions have become more prevalent and their effective use is in the spotlight. This session explores the effective use of reversionary pensions.

Tax Issues in Business Succession Planning

The tax challenges involved with business succession can be complex, and clients expect their advisers to be ahead of the curve. This afternoon’s sessions will allow you to learn directly from the experts on the latest and greatest issues affecting business succession, including the effective use of buy-sell agreements, restructures of family trusts, and disposal of the family business after death.

• Making the Most of Buy-Sell Agreements - Buy-sell agreements can help business owners lay out clear and well-organised exit plans in the event of the death, TPD or other loss of capacity of co-owners. This session looks at the following: funding, ownership structures and design decisions through a tax lens.

• Effective Restructure of a Family Trust - Although a business may often commence in a family trust structure, this may not be ideal when parties are reviewing their estate plan and considering how it will pass onto the next generation. This session uses a case study to consider options for effective restructure of a family business held in a discretionary trust structure.

• Disposal of the Family Business After Death - There are a range of tax concessions which may apply to reduce tax from the sale of small businesses. However, these have conditions which can be challenging to meet where the business isn’t divested until after the business owner dies. This is a practical session that steps through the tax issues which arise when selling a family business after death.