Future-Proofing Estate Assets: Strategies for Safeguarding Client Legacies – a recorded lunchtime online conference

Session 1: Preparing for the Long Haul: Intergenerational Family Business Planning

Laying the groundwork for an intended long-term family business brings with it significant challenges and forethought. This session will examine some of the options and strategies for this significant estate planning activity, including:

• What does your client really want? Asking the right questions
• Strategies for family consultation, information management and decision-making
• Understanding the pros and cons and what is right for your client of:
  • MOU’s
  • Family Constitutions
  • Shareholder agreements
• Key issues for family businesses including authority and control, operational management and dispute resolution
• Content and drafting guide to key documents and agreements
• What can go wrong will go wrong – tips for pre-empting problems and risk minimisation planning
• Building in the parachute for when all else fails

Session 2: Location, Location: Estate Planning in a Shrinking World

With an increasing number of families having their roots overseas or moving interstate to follow the sun, asset location is becoming a significant issue when it comes to estate planning. This session will look at the challenges, complexities and consequences of planning for the future of assets located outside the domicile of the owner, including:

• Does citizenship impact domicile when it comes to assets overseas?
• Should asset location dictate where a will is made?
• Are moveable assets treated differently to immovable assets?
• Due diligence requirements for assets out of the jurisdiction, including ownership documentation
• Taxation and other consequences for Australian beneficiaries receiving overseas or interstate assets
• The impact of international conventions and treaties on assets outside Australia
• Cases and examples

Session 3: Distribution Dilemmas and Taxation in Trusts: Counting the Costs on the Estate Plan

Family and testamentary trust income distribution continues to be a focus of the ATO and is also the subject of an important High Court decision. This session will examine some of these recent developments and explore the options for practitioners to assist clients achieve a more favourable tax outcome in estate planning through trust structures, including:

• An analysis of the ATO package of draft advice and guidelines on trust entitlements and where to from here
• Will the guidelines provide the greater certainty sought?
• The impact of the ATO’s views on s100A reimbursement agreements
• The treatment of unpaid entitlements and why management of these may need to change
• The implications of the decision in Commissioner of Taxation v Carter [2022] HCA 10 for trust beneficiaries and consequential trust deed review