Hi' An elderly relative, was encouraged to place all her properties & money into a Company & Trust, unfortunately a family upset occurred whereby 2 of the directors acted wrongly against the ladies wishes. The old lady now prefers that her assets & money should be given back to her so that she can distribute them properly as per her will. Is it possible for a person whom transferred or gifted away money & assets in such away to actually take them back if she believes that they are being miss-managed?
Was it a gift or a loan? Gifts are generally non refundable, but it is possible to get the money back in some instances. If she controls the trust then she can sack the company as trustee and appoint herself as trustee. Subject the to wording of the deed, she could then distribute all the assets of the trust to herself.
If the directors of the company are acting illegally they may have breached the corporations act and the trust act and maybe other laws. She may be able to sue them to recover lost money.
I suggest she see a lawyer about this and about winding up the trust and distributing its assets and also see a tax advisor too if the lawyer doesn't do tax as there may be tax issues – depending on how the assets are held there may be CGT, stamp duty and income tax issues too,
Terryw | Structuring Lawyers Pty Ltd / Loan Structuring Pty Ltd
http://www.Structuring.com.au
Email MeLawyer, Mortgage Broker and Tax Advisor (Sydney based but advising Aust wide) http://www.Structuring.com.au
We are not sure if monies or properties were gifted or transferred, will ask wife more and report back, some years back the old lady inherited 3 blocks of land worth near 2 mill plus $300, 000 all within a few months, one of her daughters recommended putting everything into a company & trust because getting the pension meant so much to her, once everything was in there, that particular daughter and her husband took over control, they bluntly refused to report back or advise other directors of what was happening. The old lady is now having difficulty at even paying her way. She has been left with only photocopies of property titles & her bank account passbooks were taken away from her by same persons, obviously the Company & Trust would receive interest on money, value of all assets has grown, a person also claims to be power of attorney over her, the old lady still believes that she legally owns the properties. Obviously this must happen to so many old persons. Many thanks for 1st reply to this message.
Sounds like the daughter may have appointed herself as appointor of the trust as she was involved with its set up. Do you have a copy of the trust deed? And who owns the shares to the company – I assume this is the trusee?
The daughter has probably borrowed against the property or used it as security maybe too.
If the mum is a beneficiary of the trust she could also probably put a caveat on these properties to prevent their sale or mortgage.
Best to get all the info you can together and go see a lawyer.
Terryw | Structuring Lawyers Pty Ltd / Loan Structuring Pty Ltd
http://www.Structuring.com.au
Email MeLawyer, Mortgage Broker and Tax Advisor (Sydney based but advising Aust wide) http://www.Structuring.com.au
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