Bare Trust Deed
A Bare Trust, also known as a Simple Trust or Nominee Trust, is a basic form of trust where the trustee holds legal title to the assets but has no discretion or control over them.
The beneficiary of a Bare Trust has the absolute right to the trust’s assets and income. This type of trust is often used to hold assets for minors or to facilitate a specific purpose, such as holding property for someone else.
Key features
- The trustee holds legal title to the assets but must follow the beneficiary’s instructions,
- The beneficiary has a fixed and absolute entitlement to the trust’s income and assets,
- The trustee’s role is administrative and involves carrying out the beneficiary’s wishes,
- Commonly used for holding assets on behalf of minors, managing specific assets, or facilitating property transactions.
Learn more
You can find more information by visiting – what is a bare trust and setup a unit trust guide.
Bare Trust Deed FAQs
You can call your trust anything you like, however it is good practice 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.
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 changes 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.