In this edition of It Depends, senior associate Keeghan Silcock discusses recent developments in ‘trust world’ across Australia over the past 12 months.
If you’d like to hear more about this topic, be sure to get your tickets to our Annual Adviser Conference on 26 and 27 March 2026.
Video Transcript
Hi, my name’s Keeghan Silcock. I’m a senior associate in the private clients team at Cooper Grace Ward Lawyers and I’m talking about the Annual Adviser Conference which will be held again at the Sofitel in Brisbane on 26 and 27 March 2026.
I’ll be one of the presenters for the ‘What’s up with trusts’ session, which is being held on the first day.
Some of the things that I’ll be talking about during the session are recent developments that we’ve seen, in Australia but also particularly in Queensland in trust world in 2025.
So, one of the more important decisions which has come out of the Federal Circuit Court and the Family Law Court is that of Caldwell and Caldwell. And that’s really highlighted some things that we can potentially do to trust deeds for clients to try and protect the assets of that trust from potential matrimonial disputes. So, we’ll be talking about that.
Another issue which you’ve probably all heard about is the extension to the vesting period in Queensland, which came about in 2025 as well, as a result of the introduction of Property Law Act in August. So, that brought in the vesting period for trusts in Queensland to125 years, so we’ll be chatting through some of the tricks and traps with that extended vesting period and whether potentially clients are eligible to access that.
Another key topic which we are commonly speaking about with advisers and which we’ll touch on during the session, is the use of either gifts or loans when putting in money from individual beneficiaries into a trust, the pros and cons of each approach and how to properly implement those transactions.
So, we really look forward to seeing you all at the conference and we’ll see you there.
