Registration of Trusts / Trust Registrasies
Trust Registration Services:
If set up and managed properly, Trusts remain a very useful estate planning tool.
Benefits of Trusts
Many people focus only on the estate duty savings achieved when transferring assets to a trust. This potential benefit should never be considered apart from the other tax and non-tax advantages and disadvantages of trusts.
The most significant non-tax benefits include the following:
The trust’s assets are protected from creditors of the settlor, the trustees and the beneficiaries, as well as the administrative procedures (freezing of accounts, and so on) and costs, such as executor’s fees, incurred at death.
A trust caters for flexibility in a way that no other legal entity can. The trustees decide what and how much to distribute to beneficiaries, depending on changes in both the legislative environment and in the beneficiaries’ circumstances. Indeed, trust assets can be vested in a beneficiary or applied for his benefit, without actually being distributed to him.
Furthermore, whereas the details of one’s deceased estate appear in the liquidation and distribution account which is filed at the Master’s Office, a trust’s financial affairs are never made publicly available.
Many settlors want to know that a competent board of trustees will continue to manage family assets when they are not around. In this way, family members who may not be able or interested in financial matters can be taken care of.
Proper set and management
Having determined if a trust is appropriate for you, you and your financial intermediary need to ensure that the deed is drafted by a specialist and with your specific requirements and circumstances in mind. In addition, you need to ensure that you are advised in relation to the ongoing management and taxation of the trust.
We often find clients making the following mistakes when setting up a trust:
- Setting up trusts and never transferring assets to them.
- Defective trust deeds.
- Not benefiting from the tax advantages.
- Errors in template type trust deeds drafted by non-specialists.
- grant trustees impermissible powers, or powers that if used, would contravene exchange control regulations.
- Potentially crucial mistakes; for example, trust deeds that do not provide for adopted children, or default beneficiaries.
In an increasingly complex legal and economic environment, financial intermediaries should avoid trying to be everything to their clients. Estate planning is a highly technical area and intermediaries will refer their clients to specialists where they have their clients’ best interests at heart.
Trust Registration Service
This service entails the completion of the relevant documents for signature by the Trustees, a consultation with the client and submitting of the relevant documents to the Master of the High Court for the registration of the Trust and appointment of the Trustees.