Frequently asked questions and useful information
You can find answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about registering a company, forming a trust, setting up a super fund, placing an order with us and more below. If you can't find an answer to your question, contact us. We'll be happy to help.
The trustee has the responsibility of running the trust, along with the distribution of trust income and capital.
Any assets held by the trust are held in the name of the trustee, in its capacity as trustee of the trust.
A trustee may at any time resign by serving its resignation to the holders.
A unit trust is a structure that is commonly used:
- when several people wish to start a business or investment scheme
- if the initial unit holders are likely to change over time
- for the distribution of trust income and capital that will be based at a particular rate according to the number / percentage of units held.
A discretionary trust is a structure that is commonly used to:
- allow for easy distribution of trust income and capital, and
- allow for distribution of funds to beneficiaries at the discretion of the trustee
- protect or ’quarantine’ assets from creditor attack
The trustee has the responsibility of running the trust, along with the distribution of trust income and capital.
Any assets held by the trust are held in the name of the trustee, in its capacity as trustee of the trust.
A trustee may at any time resign by serving its resignation to the holders.
A settlor is only involved with a trust when it is being established.
The settlor invites the trustee to accept the position of trustee. After this, the settlor will gift a nominal amount (the Settled Sum – typically about $10) to the trustee to establish the trust.
The appointor is ultimately in control of the trust.
The function of the appointor is to appoint and resign the trustee after the trust has been established, thus ensuring a level of accountability over the trustee.
The position is a non-essential one, but is generally included to give that extra protection and control over the trust / trustee.
A beneficiary can be:
- a person (including a minor)
- a company
- the trustee of another trust
- a charity / church, etc.
The basic description of a beneficiary is any entity who receives any distribution of income or capital from the trust fund by the trustee.
There are typically two types of beneficiary to a trust:
Primary beneficiaries
A primary beneficiary is any entity that is named in the trust deed when it is created. These are entities specifically nominated to receive trust funds from the trustee.
Beneficiaries (general)
A beneficiary is typically a related entity to a primary beneficiary and can include grandparents, parents, siblings, children, stepchildren, grandchildren, nieces and nephews, cousins, etc.
This also includes any of the above related to the spouse of a primary beneficiary.
The trust deed also allows, by default, any further trusts (including superannuation funds) and companies associated with any of the beneficiaries, along with employees of the trust and charities, churches, etc to be a beneficiary.
A unit holder can be either one or more people, a company, a trustee of a family trust or any other trust or a combination of them all.
Much like shares held in a company, units held by a unit holder carry certain rights (the right to receive distributions of income and capital and the right to vote at unit holder meetings).
Some decisions that must be made by the trustee with regards to the operation of the trust must have the consent of the unit holders before they can proceed. These can include changes to the ownership of the trust, changes to the trust deed and changing the trustee.
Minors under law cannot hold units in a unit trust.
Unfortunately, trust deeds are not easily replaced.
Once a set of trust deeds have been signed (and stamped, where required), they form the active trust and all original copies are forwarded to the client.
Rocket doesn’t retain copies of signed trusts.
If you choose to purchase storage for your digital documents, copies of your unsigned trust documents will be available to you online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
If you need to replace your trust deed, we suggest you seek professional advice from your accountant or solicitor to find out exactly how you can re-activate your new copies of the trust deed.