hi Ian,
Testamentary trusts are amazingly beneficial, but you must die to establish one. Income from TT is classed as 'excepted trust income' and this can be passed to children beneficiaries who then pay adult tax rates on this income = approx $16,000 pa tax free per child.
They also have the normal trust benefits - if discretionary then asset protection etc.
Can even protect the assets of the family if a child were to have family law problems later.
I don't know enough about super to comment on transferring the properties direct to a SMSF.
But, I doubt there would be any stamp duty or CGT concessions. You would also have to meet all the requirements about contributing to super.
Is there any reason to transfer assets out of the trust? There was no driver from my end to move assets out of the trust, I think in light of my reply to your last post, my accountant was of the view that perhaps I would give up my job and scale right down to the point of just living of the investments. To this end putting those company & trust assets in my name solely would then avoid any potential tax office concerns with company distributions and payments of money coming out of the trust for me to live off. I'm somewhat embarrassed that I can't provide the conclusive reasoning, as i have been somewhat under the pump and some of the many issues being faced have not received my undivided attention. I will follow up and I will let you know as soon as I get to speak with my accountant again; she is doing a hell of a job as she is also facilitating discussions between solicitors after they both started going off on tangents peripheral to the core matters
What about just changing the trustee? I broached this very fleetingly with accountant and we left the discussion 'on hold' at the time. My thoughts were going down the SMSF path thinking that maybe there would be an avenue to change trustee companies in process of establishing a SMSF. We never finished the discussion, but I will be printing all this thread out and taking key notes to talk through with her hopefully in the next day or two. As far as I see it, I need to explore all avenues to make sure that I come out of this ok, that my sons come out ok and that we put efficient & effective structures in place when doing all these transfers under Consent Orders.
Who is appointor? I am the Appointor of the Family Trust & Sole Company Directorthat is the main thing - guardian too? Up until now I haven't formally appointed a guardian and it is not something I had considered; I will deal with it when the smoke clears a bit. Have been blinkered by Asset Split negotiations & Consent Orders; haven't even begun to look at Child Support formalities yet