A message from our host
I am delighted to invite you to Cooper Grace Ward's 16th Annual Adviser Conference, to be held on 27 and 28 March 2025 at Sofitel Brisbane Central and broadcast live through our event platform.
Scott Hay Bartlem
Partner
Registration options
About the conference
The Annual Adviser Conference is designed to give you the latest updates, practical applications, and cutting-edge developments that will affect you and your clients in the coming year.
You’ll hear from leading legal experts, get tips and tricks to help you and your clients, and have the opportunity to connect with peers and potential partners. Plus, you’ll earn up to 11 CPD points, with sessions accredited through the SMSF Association and Financial Advice Association Australia.
This year’s program highlights include:
- preparing for, recognising and dealing with client incapacity
- SMSF update, including insights into the year’s important cases from the firm that ran them
- family trust election considerations when implementing a client’s succession plan
- pitfalls in family discretionary trusts
- safeguarding family businesses and frameworks for success
- managing employment law issues in family business
- protecting the family business amid family law disputes
- estate planning to avoid disputes
- preparing businesses for a successful sale.
Who is the conference for?
The Annual Adviser Conference is tailored to suit the needs of:
- accountants
- financial advisers
- lawyers
- other professional advisers.
What are the benefits?
Advisers who participate in the conference can expect to:
- hear from leading legal experts
- get practical tips to help you and your clients
- access networking opportunities
- gain up to 11 CPD points with sessions accredited through the SMSF Association and Financial Advice Association Australia.
Registration options
All guests of the 2025 Annual Adviser conference will be able to attend and receive CPD points either live at the Sofitel Brisbane Central or virtually through our online event platform.
The platform is easy to use and will contain program information, resources (including technical papers and slides) and live streaming with Q&A, chat, feedback and polling. Delegates will receive an email containing login details and the resources in the week prior to the event.
If you’ve already bought a ticket to attend in-person but would rather attend virtually, please email [email protected] and we’ll convert the ticket for you.
*** Group bookings of five to ten registrations will receive 5% discount. Group bookings of ten or more registrations will receive 10% discount. Contact [email protected] for information on our group or tailored registration options.
Thursday
Full day one-
Full access to event platform for a month after the event
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Online access to Thursday sessions
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Thursday event resources
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Day catering for those attending at Sofitel Brisbane
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Friday adviser sessions
Friday
Full day two-
Full access to event platform for a month after the event
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Online access to Friday sessions
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Friday event resources
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Day catering for those attending at Sofitel Brisbane
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Thursday adviser sessions
Both days
Full access to day one and two-
Full access to event platform for a month after the event
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Online access to Thursday and Friday sessions
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Thursday and Friday event resources
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All catering and social functions for those attending at Sofitel Brisbane
Event program
Thursday 27 March
8.30 am – 9.00 am | Welcome and introduction
Scott Hay-Bartlem
9.00 am – 11.00 am | Incapacity: how to prepare for it, recognise it and deal with it
Scott Hay-Bartlem, Sarah Camm, Katelyn Gillert and Nathan Rutherford
With an ageing population, client incapacity is becoming something advisers are dealing with more and more.
Incapacity has an extraordinarily diverse range of consequences – some obvious, and some not so.
The past 12 months have seen some interesting court and tribunal decisions about when people do and do not have capacity.
We will explore what having capacity means in different situations, what must happen in SMSF world, what steps advisers should take when they are concerned about a client’s capacity, and how we should protect ourselves.
11.00 am - 11.30 am | Morning tea
11.30 am – 12.30 pm | Insights on the case of Merchant
Scott Hay-Bartlem
We have seen another busy year in SMSF world, and there have been quite a number of important cases with potentially wide-reaching implications for SMSFs and their advisers.
Cooper Grace Ward acted in three of those cases:
• Merchant v Commissioner of Taxation [2024] FCA 498
• Re Rentis Pty Ltd [2023] QSC 252
• In the matter of Gainer Associates Pty Ltd [2024] NSWSC 1138.
So, as well as covering our bread and butter changes like NALI/NALE, pension restarts and Div 296 tax, we will discuss the cases, with insights on the three really important cases from the firm that ran them – insights you will not get anywhere else!
12.30 pm - 1.30 pm | Lunch
1.30 pm – 2.30 pm | Insights on the cases of Rentis and Gainer
Hayley Mitchell
Session continued
2.30 pm - 3.00 pm | Afternoon tea
3.00 pm – 4.00 pm | Other key SMSF cases and developments
Scott Hay-Bartlem and Clinton Jackson
Session continued
4.00 pm - 5.00 pm | Networking and drinks
Friday 28 March
8.30 am – 8.45 am | Welcome and introduction
Scott Hay-Bartlem
8.45 am – 9.30 am | Family discretionary trusts: Potential pitfalls for advisers
Keeghan Silcock and Tom Walrut
Family discretionary trusts are common structures in Australia, yet their complexity poses challenges for both advisers and their clients.
While focus is often given to areas that are known to attract attention from the ATO, other aspects of discretionary trusts can be equally problematic if
overlooked.
We look at:
• trust deed powers – who are beneficiaries?
• foreign beneficiaries
• landholder duty and corporate trustee duty
• payroll tax – is every beneficiary connected?
9.30 am – 10.00 am | Family discretionary trusts: Understanding resettlement implications
Steven Cawood
We often get questions about whether changes to a trust deed result in a resettlement.
So, what is a resettlement, what does it mean if a trust is resettled, and how does it apply to SMSFs?
10.00 am – 10.45 am | Family trusts: What are the family trust election considerations when implementing a client’s succession plan?
Linda Tapiolas
’I never thought that would happen in my family’.
Try as we might, we cannot remove the ‘family’ from ’family business’. The fact that you are all family (or friends) does not overshadow the necessity for robust and well documented business arrangements. These next sessions will explore various aspects of how best to safeguard family businesses.
It is important to understand the family trust election issues when considering how to implement clients’ succession planning. This is especially relevant when transferring assets or releasing debts involving a trust which has made an FTE or interposed entity election as part of succession planning, to avoid family trust distribution tax being inadvertently triggered.
This session will cover who is part of the ‘family group’; what ‘distributions’ are; the issues for testamentary trusts needing to make FTEs or IEEs; and dealing with FTEs from a succession planning perspective.
10.45 am - 11.15 am | Morning tea
11.15 am – 12.00 pm | Safeguarding family businesses: frameworks for success
Clinton Jackson and Alfred Jackson
This session will look at essential legal documents and processes that are vital to all businesses, and why family enterprises should not ignore them.
We will cover:
• shareholder agreements/family constitutions
• documenting the rules for the operation of a business
• shareholder or stakeholder agreements – how are they adapted for family businesses and when is a family business or family charter appropriate and useful?
12.00 pm – 12.45 pm | Employment law in family businesses
Gemma Sharp
Family members employed within a business are entitled to the same rights as any other employees. As employment law becomes increasingly complex, with new developments (such as the right to disconnect), it is crucial for family businesses to stay informed and compliant.
This session will look at the necessary arrangements, documents and processes that should be in place for all employees, including family members. We will also discuss the potential consequences of non-compliance and how to effectively manage employment relationships within a family business.
12.45 pm - 1.30 pm | Lunch
1.30 pm – 2.15 pm | Family law: protecting the family business amid disputes
Justine Woods and Craig Turvey
Family law disputes are commonplace, and it is almost inevitable that every family will be affected by disputes in some way.
Where family members have interests in businesses, the outcome of a family law dispute can be devastating for the business. There is also a growing trend of targeting the assets of parents-in-law, especially where there is significantly more wealth.
So, what can we do to protect the business from a family law dispute involving its owners or their family members, and should we involve adult children in their parents’ structures?
2.15 pm – 3.00 pm | Estate planning to avoid a dispute
Hayley Mitchell and Sarah Camm
Death and incapacity can have a serious impact on a business, making it essential to plan for these eventualities. However, with many businesses held in trust and company structures, and business premises in SMSFs, a simple Will is often insufficient.
In this session, we will share war stories of getting the planning right … and wrong! We will also look at circumstances where a dispute cannot be avoided and strategies to minimise the damage.
3.00 pm - 3.30 pm | Afternoon tea
3.30 pm – 5.00 pm | Panel discussion: preparing a business for sale
Laura Gahan, Miranda Klibbe, Annie Smeaton, Charles Sweeney and Linda Tapiolas
Sales of businesses are running hot at the moment, for a variety of reasons, with many clients buying and selling.
Preparation is the key to a successful sale, and can make a significant difference to the price.
This panel will discuss a wide range of issues to consider before listing a business for sale, ranging from tax and liability issues to employment law, and from tidying up contracts to asset ownership.
5.00 pm - 6.00 pm | Networking and drinks
Great to learn from lots of very knowledgeable people and also an amazing opportunity to network with like-minded professionals.
Kearsten James – Addi House Financial Planning
It’s the mix of the technical and the practical that provides me with what I need to know to get my CPD points and look after my clients.
Phillip McKay – SP Consulting Accountants
The list of speakers and topics really excited us. It was a fantastic couple of days and you guys added the fun spin on it all with the case studies!
Therese Scotton – SBB Partners
