Estate and Succession Planning for Sole Controllers

Preparing for rough seas – icebergs and how to avoid them in succession planning for your entities

12:30pm – 1:30pm, Wednesday 20 March 2024

A ship without a captain is immediately subject to the perils of the sea. The same can be said of a company without a director, a trust without a trustee and a business without its key person. Whilst it may be possible to toss a buoy to rescue a poorly planned retirement, loss of capacity and death are involuntary events that can often come without notice. Righting a captainless ship in these circumstances can result in damage to the market value of the business, loss of opportunities on investments, breaches of regulatory requirements and in most cases, chaos and resentment for surviving loved ones.
There are a number of strategies that can be implemented now to address succession of your company, business or trust to ensure the smooth transition of management, operations, investments and income streaming to ultimately preserve the value of the company, business and trust, as well as the relationships between loved ones.

The key takeaways from this seminar will be:

  • Identifying various roles of control in companies, businesses and trusts and how a replacement controller can be appointed on retirement, loss of capacity and death.
  • Distinguishing the different approaches that can be taken in relation to self-managed super funds, family trusts, trustee companies and trading companies.
  • Understanding the potential adverse outcomes from failing to appropriately plan for retirement, loss of capacity and death, including cautionary tales and the impact of probate processing times.
  • Understanding the legal requirements to have a controller at all times.
  • Understanding the interplay between succession planning and estate planning.

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