Trust Deeds

You can call your trust anything you like, however it is good practise to make the name descriptive of what it is. For example, it is better to use ‘The Jones Family Trust’ rather than just ‘Jones’. This makes it much easier for entities that deal with your trust, so they know what it is. Also remember that this name is going to appear on bank accounts, share registers. 

Discretionary and Unit trusts are not registered with a governing body like companies or businesses. Therefore, it is common for there to more than one trust with the same name. For example, if you search for ‘SMITH FAMILY TRUST’ on the Australian Business Register you will find many examples. This is fine, asset management or distributions will never be confused as your Trust’s unique ABN will be used to identify it. 

This will come down to your personal circumstances. Individual trustees are cheaper and easier to start out with, but they can make things more complicated down the track. The drawbacks of individual trustees are:

Liability – The trustee acts on behalf of the trust and manages it. If something goes wrong the individual trustee may be liable.

Clarity – The trustee is the legal owner of any property belonging to the trust. If the trustee ever gets into financial troubles, it can be difficult to distinguish between assets held personally and those held for the trust.

Administration – If the trustee ever changes or dies then it can cause major headaches. The legal title of all assets would have to be changed and it can cause other administrative problems.

Using a company as trustee removes all the issues with individual trustees. Directors and shareholders in the company have the benefit of limited liability, if the sole duty of the company is to be trustee, then there is clarity of asset ownership, and it is easy to change the directors of the company without changing the legal title of assets.

Whether or not you need to pay stamp duty depends on the jurisdiction over the trust deed. Please see the below table on how much stamp duty needs to be paid and the governing office.

Jurisdiction	Office	Stamp Duty	Stamp Duty on counterpart	Due Date
ACT	ACT Revenue Office Plaza Level, Canberra Nara Centre Cnr London Circuit & Constitution Avenue CANBERRA CITY ACT 2600PO Box 293, CANBERRA CITY ACT 2600 (02) 6207 0028	Nil	Nil	N/A
NSW	Office of State Revenue Lang Centre, Cnr Hunter & Marsden Streets PARRAMATTA NSW 2150GPO Box 530, SYDNEY NSW 2001 1300 139 814 (02) 9689 6200	$500.00	$10.00 on each	3 months from date of deed
NT	Territory Revenue Office 4th Floor, Cavenagh House, 38 Cavenagh Street DARWIN NT 0800GPO Box 1974, DARWIN NT 0801 1300 305 353 (08) 8999 7406	$20.00	$5.00	60 days from date of deed
QLD	Office of State Revenue Upper Plaza, 33 Charlotte Street BRISBANE QLD 4000GPO Box 2593, BRISBANE QLD 4001 1300 300 734	Nil	Nil	N/A
SA	Revenue SA State Administration Centre Ground Floor, 200 Victoria Square ADELAIDE SA 5000GPO Box 1353, ADELAIDE SA 5001 (08) 8226 3750	Nil	Nil	N/A
TAS	State Revenue Office 80 Elizabeth Street HOBART TAS 7000GPO Box 1374, HOBART TAS 7001 (03) 6233 3100	$20.00	$5.00	3 months from date of deed
Vic	State Revenue Office Level 2, 121 Exhibition Street MELBOURNE VIC 3000GPO Box 1641, MELBOURNE VIC 3001 Telephone: 13 21 61	$200.00	Nil	30 days from date of deed
WA	Office of State Revenue 200 St George’s Terrace PERTH WA 6845GPO Box T1600, PERTH WA 6845 (08) 9262 1100	Nil	Nil	N/A

The key differences lie in beneficiary control, entitlement, trustee discretion, and the purposes for which each type of trust is commonly used. Discretionary Trusts provide flexibility in distributions, Unit Trusts allocate benefits based on unit holdings, and Bare Trusts grant immediate ownership to beneficiaries. The choice of trust type depends on the specific goals, beneficiaries, and assets involved in the trust arrangement.