An enduring power of attorney has the power to make a lot of decisions. However, without good planning, they may still not be able to do what you intend them to do. For example, if you appoint your spouse as your enduring attorney they will not be able to do anything that benefits themselves. Find out how to avoid these pitfalls.
A Sweat Equity Agreement is an agreement between a business and someone providing services, whereby the service provider agrees to take equity in the business, rather than cash. Sounds simple? The devil is in the detail…
If you are living permanently outside of Australia, do you still need an Australian Will? Yes. Find out why.
Most people believe that registering a business name means they own that business name – this is not the case in Australia. To obtain the exclusive right to use your business name, you need to register it as a trademark or prove that you hold a trademark at common law.
If you are heading overseas for an extended period of time, and have a SMSF, then you need to do some housekeeping before you leave.
New business owners are often told to operate their enterprises through a 'proprietary limited company' to cap their liability if something goes wrong. This is good advice, but it is nowhere near the end of the story. You also need to protect your assets. How does a...
Think of a lawyer like a ‘Will Kit’ – but with arms and legs.
We previously talked about how the SA land tax changes have had significant impacts on trusts (particularly discretionary trusts) that own land. Those changes meant that trusts saw a substantial increase in their land tax bill from 1 July 2020, unless they nominated...
How does an older farmer exit farming, fund their retirement and keep the family happy? The average age of a farmer in Australia is 50 years old. If you are a farmer and haven’t yet thought about your retirement and succession plan, now is the time. Handing over...
If you want to make sure your ‘furbaby’ is looked after when you’re gone, we can advise you how to best achieve this in your estate planning.
If you own or lease a farm, you have a valuable asset that you need to protect. The key document to make this happen is a well drafted ‘farm lease’.
‘Asset protection’ is the phrase given to strategies that seek to keep assets out of harm’s way. Want to know more about this strategy?
If you hold equipment in one entity, and carry on your business in another, you may be thinking this is a great asset protection strategy. It is, but it is missing one critical part – registration of the arrangement on the PPSR.
The Victorian State Revenue Office (SRO) has announced that from 1 March 2020 it has adopted a new approach in applying the ‘foreign purchaser additional duty’ (FPAD) provisions of the Duties Act 2000 (Vic) to discretionary trusts. Make sure you don’t get caught by this additional 8% of duty.
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