PASSING ON WEALTH


Estate planning and administration: It’s not about a Will. It’s about people.

Protecting and providing for those we care about is something we all want to do. Expressing your love by helping your children or grandchildren. Giving money to causes that make the lives of complete strangers better. What could be better?

That’s why people are often surprised about their estate planning conversations with Perpetual. Sure the conversation might cover trusts, wills, tax and charitable foundations. But what it’s really about is people. Who can you help? How can you help? What can you leave behind that makes someone else’s life a little bit better?

Your Perpetual adviser can connect you to an appropriate legal firm to draft your will and our internal team of experts can manage the administration, legal, taxation and investment issues involved in helping the people and causes you care for.

So you can do good – even after you’re gone.

Passing on more than memories

family

Are your children ready to manage the family wealth?

Passing wealth to the next generation comes with risk. In fact, over 70% of intergenerational wealth transfers fail1. That is, significant family wealth is often squandered within a generation or two.

The key reason? With no planning or preparation, family members have competing priorities over the family wealth and are unable to manage their new responsibilities. Perpetual has wealth education and mentoring services to help your family understand the value of money – and the values which created your family’s wealth.

Read more about having an estate planning conversation with your family.

Hands in focus

Tax – doing the right thing

A key element of estate planning is tax management. That means paying the tax you should pay, but structuring trusts, wills, bequests and charitable gifts so more of your money goes to the people and causes that matter to you. Whether that’s your spouse/partner, children, grandchildren or a charity or Not-for-profit.

Find out the capital gains tax rules that apply to common types of assets inherited as part of an estate.

Succession planning for my business

Given what you’ve put in, don’t you deserve the best possible outcome when you exit your business? A business succession plan can help protect your interests and help whoever takes it over enjoy a smooth transition.

It can ensure the wealth you’ve worked so hard to create is invested strategically to secure your future lifestyle, transferred to your family tax-effectively, passed to family members in accordance with your wishes, and put to work supporting a charity or cause.

At Perpetual, our investment, accounting and Family Office teams can help you manage the family issues and compromises you may have to make to achieve these multiple aims. Find out more on our business advisory services.

Yellow Flower

Giving to organisations and causes

You know the causes closest to your heart, but do you know the most effective ways to support them?

You can donate to charities on an ad-hoc basis. You can arrange regular payments to a not-for-profit aligned to your goals. Or you can give strategically – by taking into account taxation, the impact of your giving, when and how you give and whether you want your family to be involved.

See how you can structure your giving in a way that aligns with your worldview and has maximum impact.

Find out more on philanthropy with impact.

Handshake with adviser

Managing an estate

It happens to many of us as we get older. Someone trusts us to manage their estate. Sometimes it’s a lifelong friend. Sometimes it’s a loved one. Either way navigating through the process and looking after the interests of beneficiaries is an important responsibility, a significant workload and one you must undertake while dealing with grief. If you appoint Perpetual as the executor, our experts will help ensure the terms of the will are carried out; assume the legal and tax responsibilities and keep your beneficiaries informed at every step.

Thanks to a 130-year trustee heritage, Perpetual can offer you deep expertise in estate planning, trusts, philanthropy, tax management and much more. If you have any questions about receiving or leaving an inheritance, visit our inheritance page.

Client Stories

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Perri McCarthy

Perpetual and Fordham client since 2016

Divorced, remarried and now focused on growing her business, pharmacist Perri McCarthy’s life had changed dramatically. She turned to Perpetual for estate planning advice to protect her children and her business and to make sure she “stayed in control”.
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Peter Falvey

Perpetual and Fordham client since 2008

Africa holds a special place in philanthropist Peter Falvey’s heart so he asked Perpetual to help him structure his giving in a way that made a real difference in some of the world’s poorest countries. Here’s how it happened.
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Bill Cook

Perpetual and Fordham client since 1958

Bill Cook is the third generation of his family to be involved in the family business – Williams Batters, a real estate agent located in South Yarra, Melbourne.
Like many successful business owners, Bill is constantly facing the challenge of integrating his decisions around business and personal finances. Another layer was added to that set of challenges as he looked to protect the legacy of his business, provide for his children and secure his own future.
The successful solution to Bill’s challenge was a Family Office structure – a powerful and integrated suite of services delivered by Perpetual and Fordham, a specialist part of Perpetual.

Where are you on your journey?


  • Managing wealth

    • Strategic financial advice
    • Investment advice & management
    • Income, savings & debt management
    • Personal insurance
    • Tax & accounting
    • Health & personal injury support
    • Family office
    • Property management
    Perpetual Private

    Exceptional financial advice to protect and grow your wealth. That’s our enduring commitment to you backed by an investment philosophy that has stood the test of time.

  • PLANNING FOR RETIREMENT

    • RETIREMENT & SUCCESSION PLANNING
    • Superannuation & pension management
    • Power of attorney & Lifestyle assistance
    Perpetual Private

    A post-work paradise takes careful planning. We can help you to structure your finances effectively and create an investment portfolio that protects your wealth without jeopardising your lifestyle.

  • GIVING & PASSING ON WEALTH

    • Charitable giving & philanthropy
    • Trust setup & management
    • Wills, estate planning & executorial services
    Perpetual Private

    From the creation of your estate plan through to tax-effective giving structures, our team can help you to create a legacy for the people and causes closest to your heart.

PROTECT WHAT YOU TREASURE MOST IN LIFE

Your family, financial and career story is unique – your estate plan should be too. We spend time getting to know the people and causes closest to your heart. Then provide the personal advice you need to ensure your wishes are carried out.

We can help protect those you care about by connecting you with one of our partner legal firms, who can provide you with a structured estate plan that covers all the bases – superannuation, trust structures, asset protection, business succession planning, charitable bequests and powers of attorney. By arranging your affairs now, you have peace of mind knowing your wealth will be distributed fairly, efficiently and tax effectively.

The administration of a will can be a difficult and long process. Whether it requires managing complex asset structures, or complex family relationships, or both. We can assume all the responsibilities associated with estate administration – from verifying assets and liabilities, managing properties, to calculating tax implications and arranging asset sales, payments and distribution. We also take responsibility for administering any ongoing trusts created in your will. If you are a named executor in a will and find the time and tasks more complex than you expected, speak to us about how we can help.

You’ve spent your life working hard to build your wealth. What happens when you’re gone?

For your legacy to endure, your assets need to be protected and managed in your best interests or on behalf of your beneficiaries. We can help you set up trusts that provide for your family or for charitable causes. A trust is a legal structure authorising a trustee to manage your assets for your beneficiaries. It can be established during your lifetime or through your will. It protects your assets, because they are owned by an entity rather than individual beneficiaries, and it may provide a tax efficient way of managing or transferring these assets. As a professional trustee you can rely that we will always be here through generations to manage and follow the instructions of your trust.

If you have been appointed trustee, perhaps for a family member’s trust, and wish to step back from these responsibilities, we can help you find a replacement in line with the procedures set out in the trust deed.

Trusts are an important part of estate planning – but can be used for a wide range of other purposes including within a business, to hold a shared asset or to protect money set aside for a minor. Here’s a real-life example of how they can be used to safeguard the future of someone who’s suffered a life-changing injury.

You know the causes you feel passionately about and want to support, but do you know the most effective ways in which to give?

We can help you and your family give in the most effective way by matching your philanthropic vision with the right causes and charities, setting up and administering your charitable trust, helping you leave a legacy through your will and growing your donation so that it gives in perpetuity.

Involving your family in a charitable trust also demonstrates the value of saving and investing wisely, as they move closer to being responsible stewards of the family wealth. Our team specialises in: 

  • Philanthropic structuring
  • Grant making
  • Trustee services
  • Secretariat support
  • Impact reporting

Find out more on philanthropy with impact


We prepare your family for their role as stewards of the family wealth by involving them in family governance, family council meetings and philanthropic giving aligned to your family values and vision.

We also provide ongoing education and mentoring to help develop their financial skills, including:

  • Financial advice and investment education and mentoring services
  • Access to well-being programs

 

Our financial advisers – in their own words

Rachelle Arranz Adviser

“In estate planning discussions with a client, we discussed various philanthropic options and decided that an Endowment would allow them to give in a more structured way. Their nominated charities would receive funding in perpetuity through the contributions to the Endowment from their estate.” – Rachelle Arranz, Senior Financial Adviser, Perpetual Private, ACT

Lucy Salaris

“Intergenerational wealth transfer is an area which is becoming increasingly important. I work with clients to make sure their estate has the right legal and financial structures in place and, when the time comes, the next generation are set up for financial success. With over 30 years’ experience in investments, retirement and estate planning, I understand that no two families are the same. I love getting to know my clients and creating solutions for their own unique circumstances.” – Lucy Salaris Senior Financial Adviser, Perpetual Private, VIC

Meet the team

Your best interests at heart

INVESTMENT PHILOSOPHY

Your estate planning will often involve putting money to work for other people and you’re going to need expert investment management to ensure that money achieves your goals.

Let’s have a look at what that means:

  • When you set up a trust to benefit your partner, children or extended family, you need to ensure the money is invested so it achieves your goals. You might want the money to generate income straight away. Or you might want it to grow over time so that when your child/grandchild reaches a certain age they have substantial capital in the trust. That will influence your investment strategy and choices.
  • You might set up a charitable trust and need to make sure the investment strategy is aligned. Do you want it to throw off regular cash for the charity? Or grow over time until it’s reached the size where distributions have a real impact?
  • When investing the proceeds of a business sale you might need an investment approach that replaces the income the business used to generate. Or want to grow that capital and pass it on to your family or charity.

Whatever your objective, expert, strategic investment management will give you the best chance of achieving your goals. Our advisers, trust managers and investment specialists will ensure the trusts, foundations and portfolios you set up are structured to meet your specific needs and that all the assets we invest in on your behalf pass Perpetual’s stringent quality investment filters.

Find out more about our investment philosophy.


EARNING YOUR TRUST

Perpetual is an ASX-listed, diversified financial services company which has been serving Australians since 1886 when it was established as a trustee company by a group of businessmen including Sir Edmund Barton, later to be Australia’s first Prime Minister. That trustee heritage – and the culture it created around putting clients first – is what makes Perpetual unique.

We have been earning the trust of our clients for more than 130 years and pride ourselves on our long-standing client relationships – some of which span five generations.

Trust is earned, every day.

Watch Perpetual's CEO, Rob Adams, talk about how trust has to be earned every day and introduces a telling true-to-life example.

HOW WE WORK WITH YOU

Our approach to estate planning starts with a deep dive into your aims. It’s very rarely a sad or difficult conversation and more often a discussion of what really matters to you. When it comes to family that can involve immediate family, extended families or blended families. It could involve discussions about your business and succession planning. And it often involves expert insight into how you can put your wealth to work for charities.

It is at this point that our trustee heritage and the breadth of the Perpetual service becomes important.

We can offer you inhouse access to specialists in investing (across all asset classes), superannuation, estate administration, philanthropy, business advisory services and tax and accounting. We can also connect you with one of our partner law firms who can assist in drafting your will. Everything you need to execute an estate plan that balances your needs and wants and those of your family.

Those ambitions may change over time - so your adviser will conduct regular reviews with you to make sure your plan continues to reflect your wishes – and adapts to changes in the investment markets and legislation.

TAKE YOUR FIRST STEP - contact us on 1800 631 381

Or please submit the form below and a specialist adviser will contact you. 97%* of Perpetual Private clients are happy with the quality of their financial advice. *Perpetual Net Promoter Score Survey (research conducted by Woolcott Research).

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Perpetual Private advice and services are provided by Perpetual Trustee Company Limited (PTCo) ABN 42 000 001 007, AFSL 236643. This webpage contains general information only and is not intended to provide you with financial advice or take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. You should consider, with a financial or other adviser, whether the information is suitable for your circumstances. To the extent permitted by law, no liability is accepted for any loss or damage as a result of any reliance on this information. Perpetual Private advice and services are provided by Perpetual Trustee Company Limited (PTCo) ABN 42 000 001 007, AFSL 236643. This information was prepared by PTCo. To view the Perpetual Group's Financial Services Guide, please click here. The information is believed to be accurate at the time of compilation and is provided in good faith. This information, including any assumptions and conclusions is not intended to be a comprehensive statement of relevant practice or law that is often complex and can change. This article may contain information contributed by third parties. PTCo do not warrant the accuracy or completeness of any information contributed by a third party. Any views expressed in this article are opinions of the author at the time of writing and do not constitute a recommendation to act. No company in the Perpetual Group (Perpetual Limited ABN 86 000 431 827 and its subsidiaries) guarantees the performance of any fund or the return of an investor’s capital. Past performance is not indicative of future performance.

TAKE YOUR FIRST STEP