Leading Member Discretionary Trust (Individual and Corporate)

About the Product

The Leading Member Discretionary Trust ("LMDT") is a discretionary trust that accords with the Bamford decision and focuses on the succession of appointors to lineal descendants upon death, divorce, dementia or bankruptcy. In addition, lineal beneficiaries are core primary beneficiaries to be distributed to before any non-lineal. The appointor has the power to deem a person, such as their spouse, as lineal. For non-lineal (or non-leading member), the LightYear Standard Discretionary Trust should be used.

One of the most important things for a small business client is to provide asset protection and to pass their wealth and in some cases, their business, to lineal descendants.

► $229.00 (inc GST) - OR provided under your unlimited membership

► The master document has been signed off by Abbott & Mourly and is congruent with Australian law.

General Information

If you are establishing the LMDT with a corporate trustee structure, please have your ACN ready. If you need to establish a new company, please first purchase the LightYear Standard Company.

Benefits

Keeping the trust assets within the lineal descendants just as the British Royal Family does;
Focuses on the succession of appointors to lineal descendants upon death, divorce, dementia or bankruptcy;
Easy to read and understand;
Written by Australia’s foremost legal, technical and strategic expert, Grant Abbott;
Covers off issues arising from the Bamford decision; and
Signed off by Abbott & Mourly.

What are the benefits of using a Corporate Trustee with the LightYear DT?

Corporate Trustee can continue acting as trustee in perpetuity, compared to an individual who can be exposed to death, divorce, etc.;
Legal ownership over assets does not have to change when making changes to directors or shareholders, compared to individuals in which you have to change the legal ownership when they change;
Increased asset protection;
From a land registry, unit and share registry perspective, it provides administration simplicity as the company is the only name on the register and if directors come and go, there is no registry change; and
Liability which is limited to the assets of the company. Corporate trustees generally hold limited assets and are shell companies.

Frequently Asked Legal Questions

How does it differ from an ordinary Discretionary Trust?

The LMDT is based on the LightYear Discretionary Trust with the added value of limiting Trustees, Appointors and Beneficiaries to lineal descendants. This establishes the DT as Leading Member Trust.

Can my existing Discretionary Trust be upgraded to a LMDT?

The issue is resettlement. As there is possibly a change in beneficiaries – limiting to lineal descendants, it may not result in a resettlement. However, if you would like legal advice to that effect, contact our legal team – info@abbottmourly.com.au

How long does this document take to assemble?

Depending on the complexity of the data, this document should take approximately 30-50 secs to assemble. If you experience timing outside of this please contact Support via the Surge app, alternatively please read this article for troubleshooting tips https://info.lightyeardocs.com.au/supportcentre/troubleshooting-longer-assembly-times-timeouts .

Is this document a legal document?

All master documents have been signed off by Abbott & Mourly lawyers. Tony Anamourlis of Abbott & Mourly advises that “at no time, due to inbuilt legal protection and security measures can a user change or amend a document on the LightYear Docs platform that has been signed off by a practicing solicitor. To do so would result in the user drafting a document of a legal nature and engaging in the provision of legal services. In addition, it would be a breach of copyright. In our opinion when completing the form fields through the LightYear Docs platform, users and their employees are merely carrying out an administrative task which is not the provision of legal advice.”

However in some complex areas such as the insertion of a varied range of client instructions into a Will or other such documents the user must be mindful of the extent to which a document is being drafted by the user rather than merely the administrative task of completing a form where the relevant fields are inserted into the reviewed and signed legal document provided by Abbott & Mourly.

The above advice is born out of numerous cases dating back to Re Sanderson, Ex parte Law Institute of Victoria [1927] VLR 394, 397 where the Court held:

“if a person does a thing usually done by a solicitor, and does it in such a way as to lead to the reasonable inference that he is a solicitor – if he combines professing to be a solicitor with action usually taken by a solicitor – I think he then does act as a solicitor.”

Likewise in ACCC v Murray (2002) 121 FCR 428, 448 where Murray was building a franchise business that involved the legal writing and drafting of Wills from scratch based on the client’s personal circumstances. The Court held that this process was legal work.

Is the document easy to read?

All LightYear Docs products are written in plain English and assessed for readability. If at any time you come across any errors, please contact support@lightyeardocs.com.au.

What lawyers sign off on the LightYear Docs documents?

All LightYear documents are prepared and signed off by Abbott & Mourly from Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

Are the LightYear Docs documents reviewed regularly?

All LightYear Docs documents form part of the LightYear Docs internal review process. We review all documents at least annually or when required to do so due to changes in legislation. Further details of this process and a review schedule is include on this website.

Can I get a sample of this document?

Yes, please email support@lightyeardocs.com.au to request a sample document for you to review.

Stamping and Lodgement of Trusts

The fees and stamping requirements for establishing a trust deed vary throughout Australia, and the duty payable also varies depending on the type of property that is held by the trust. Please contact our partners at Eventum Optimum (EO) on info@eventumoptimum.com.au for more information on when stamping is required (in what jurisdictions) and the fees/duties payable. EO are able to provide this service to you.

How does it differ from an ordinary Discretionary Trust?

The LMDT is based on the LightYear Discretionary Trust with the added value of limiting Trustees, Appointors and Beneficiaries to lineal descendants. This establishes the DT as Leading Member Trust.