The whole idea isn't primarily to keep assets away from potential creditors - that would hopefully be a useful by product.
Here's a summary of the situation I'm thinking of:
1. You own properties in your own name - which are in you own name to take advantage of negative gearing benefits.
2. You want to own shares, but would prefer the shares to be held in a discretionary trust for various reasons, including that there will be no, or very minimal, negative gearing benefits available.
3. You want to fund all (or the vast majority) of share purchases with debt, but don't want to take out any margin loans (margin calls and higher interest rates when compared to borrowings secured against property).
4. You don't want to sell properties in your personal name because of tax considerations.
5. Given the above, I want the trust to borrow money to buy shares with the borrowing secured against the properties in my personal name.
As I said, a by product of this seems to be that the value of assets in my personal name, from a creditor's perspective, is diminished. BUT, as the above suggests, the main reason is to buy shares in a trust structure with cheap and lower risk borrowing.
