Our latest insights

Succession planning is a key issue that all will eventually have to face. While some businesses would have considered a family business successor, what is often overlooked are internal risks.

Australia has relied heavily on businesses and consumers to lead the way on emissions reduction to tackle climate change. Several Australian states have had to develop their own policies and roadmaps to progress the clean energy transition and enable private sector investment outside the national framework. This presents risks and challenges if not managed carefully.

If Family Business owners wish for their business to pass on from generation to generation and keep their business within the family, preparation and training should start at birth. This requires a dedication and devotion of education, time and care, and it is important to be proactive with planning.

The term “Family Office” is often misunderstood, so what does it mean? What does it specifically mean to your family and why is it important? Family Office places structure around your investments for the future and ensures that you are asked to consider the important questions.

Across the country, we are seeing a growing trend for shareholder oppression proceedings due to mechanism being used to expediate a deal between disputing shareholders. But how do you value a minority interest held by a shareholder when they have instigated such proceedings? We look at a recent judgment which provides further clarification for valuers in these growing scenarios.

In most cases, some level of assumptions have to be made when developing an expert witness or forensic accounting report. But there are some rules around what assumptions the Courts will accept as part of your findings. From instructed assumptions and assumptions made by the expert and testing their reliability, we explore assumptions in the context of your Expert Witness reports.

A family trust can often be the right vehicle to carry on your family business and manage family wealth. However, careful consideration needs to be given to how the trust is established and administered to ensure that the ultimate control of your income and assets rests in the right hands and is in line with your family strategy. Much time is often spent deciding on who will be the trustee and the beneficiaries of the trust, however the issue of who should be the appointor can often be overlooked.

The use of third party information is a reality of building an expert witness report. Compiling our areas of expertise with that of others can elevate findings and create a well-rounded, comprehensive report. But not all sources of information are created equal – and the Courts have strict requirements for what third party information is acceptable and what isn’t. In this article we look at the growing trend for an expert’s reliance on third party sources and the perception by the Court.

GST compliance requirements for schools are wide-ranging and complex. Nevertheless, it is important to remain on top of your GST compliance obligations to avoid the imposition of financial penalties by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) or reputational damage.

Conflict in family businesses – in fact, all businesses – is a reality of any workplace. Understanding the source of a conflict, and where tension triggers exist, can help businesses pre-empt, spot and manage clashes and turn these differences into positives.

Whether you’re eyeing off the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) role in your current organisation or elsewhere, the intel from CEO, CFO and industry surveys suggests the path from financial controller to CFO is more of a zigzag than a straight line. So what skillsets are organisations looking for in a modern CFO, and do you have them? We’ve put together some advice to take you from CFO-in-waiting to the top job.

Following the announcement of the CPS tripartite audits in November 2020, APRA began issuing notices to regulated entities to undergo the independent assessment. The reviews are part of APRA’s four year strategy to increase the rigor of compliance with CPS 234: Information Security.