πŸ“„Trustees vs Beneficiaries

Beneficiary - A beneficiary is a person or entity that you legally designate to receive the benefits from your financial products. Eg For life insurance, that is the death benefit your policy will pay if you die.

Beneficiaries responsibility

  • Can be a person, company or trustee of another trust

  • have an entitlement to trust income or capital that is set out in the trust deed or they may acquire an entitlement because the trustee exercises a discretion to pay them income or capital.

  • Generally, the beneficiaries are taxed on the net income of a trust based on their share of the trust's income – regardless of when or whether the income is actually paid to them.

Trustee - A trustee takes legal ownership of the assets held by a trust and assumes fiduciary responsibility for managing those assets and carrying out the purposes of the trust.

Corporate trustee - Company that is a trustee

Trustee responsibility

  • Personally liable for the debts of the trusts they administer (not Pty ltd)

  • entitled to be indemnified out of the trust property for liabilities incurred in the proper exercise of the trustee's powers (except where a breach of trust has occurred)

  • Under tax law, the trustee is responsible for managing the trust's tax affairs, including registering the trust in the tax system, lodging trust tax returns and paying some tax liabilities.

indemnified - compensate (someone) for harm or loss.

More info on trusts

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