Trusts and Asset Protection Strategies

There are many different reasons as to why someone would consider setting up a trust. One of the main reasons is to provide protection for your assets from events such as bankruptcy, creditors and divorce. Other benefits of using a trust include:

• To provide greater flexibility in tax planning and other tax minimisation strategy;

• To use as a business entity either for investing or trading;

• Aiding transfer of assets between generations, generally through your Will; or

• To separate the owner of the asset (the beneficiary) and control over that asset (the trustee), eg. where the beneficiary is under age or suffers from a disability that affects their decision making.

At Diamond Blue Financial Services we selectively utilise the following trust structures for our clients:

• Discretionary Trusts

• Family Trusts

• Hybrid and Unit Trusts

• Private Ancillary Funds (see Philanthropic Strategy for more details)

We focus heavily on selecting the most appropriate Trust structure by partnering with qualified accountants and solicitors. We do not just stop there, we provide ongoing guidance for our clients to maximise all of the benefits associated with these trust structures.