Trusts feel the heat

I keep coming across people who have set up a family trust – and they’re not always super wealthy. Often, they have been advised to take advantage of the tax benefits that are unique to family trusts.

Peter Bembrick, a tax partner at HLB Mann Judd, is a big fan of family trusts. He says they can be a useful vehicle to hold family assets over a long time and allow multiple generations to build up wealth.

Family trusts are usually established as discretionary trusts, he says, meaning that the trustee has complete discretion over distributing the income and capital to various family members and associated