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Parents often put money aside when their children are small and start to invest funds for the future. The strategy can be to diversify the family’s interests so that not all your eggs are in one basket.
Family Office places structure around your investments for the future and ensures that you are asked to consider the important questions:
Currently, we see in Australia a rise in “Accidental Family Office”. This is where a family may acquire assets outside their family business and in many instances start with property, but they don’t consider the best structure for the future. They adopt an entity that makes tax sense and years down the track, when they consider how they want to support the next generation, they restructure.
What we advocate at Grant Thornton, is having an advisor who asks you to visualise your future as well as providing you with a structure to successfully achieve your family goals.
At Grant Thornton, we ensure you have a tax structure in place to achieve your family’s vision for the future. As you plan for your family’s future and you consider education for the youngest generation, as well as assisting family members to enter the property market, you will also need to consider asset protection and estate planning with your vision for the future.
Traditionally, as accountants, we have been required to provide statutory financial statements by legal entity but in Family Office, we report from a family lens. We focus on market value, not cost, and provide a snapshot of overall family wealth, as well as reports on the growth in family wealth so you can track how you are progressing in achieving your family goals.
Contact your local advisor and find out more about Family Office start up.
The announced 30 per cent minimum tax on discretionary trusts creates significant challenges for private groups.
Succession is no longer just about who takes over. Many family businesses are using succession planning as a catalyst to reassess whether their current structure is still fit for purpose. As businesses scale, trust or partnership structures can become restrictive. Issues may include limited asset protection, challenges winning commercial contracts, reduced buyer appeal, and constraints on reinvesting profits to support growth.
In estate planning, the focus is often on technical elements like drafting a will, appointing executors, minimising tax, and ensuring assets pass as intended. While these steps are important, they only form part of the picture.
