Home/Who We Help/Private Clients & Families
Who We Help
For private clients and families
When the family’s wealth sits in a structure someone set up decades ago — and something has finally tested it.
Family wealth in Australia is usually held through a trust, one or two companies and a self-managed fund. It works quietly for years. Then a parent dies, a child moves overseas, an inheritance arrives from abroad, or the ATO writes a letter, and the structure has to answer questions it was never designed to answer.
We act for individuals and family groups on those questions. The work is technical, but the decisions are personal, and the advice has to be readable by the people who have to make them.
What we help with
The work
- ATO audits, reviews, objections and settlements
- Amended assessments, penalties and interest remission
- Trust structures — deeds, resolutions, appointor succession and vesting
- Intergenerational transfers and succession, including farming families
- Deceased estates: CGT, testamentary trusts and distributions to beneficiaries
- Tax residency, departures from Australia and returning residents
- Foreign inheritances and distributions from overseas trusts
- Land tax, including principal place of residence and surcharge land tax
- Stamp duty, including first home buyer exemptions and surcharge purchaser duty
- Self-managed superannuation fund issues with a tax or legal dimension
Common situations
Common situations
A letter has arrived from the ATO or Revenue NSW
The first response matters more than people expect. So does the deadline printed on it.
A concession has been clawed back
First home concessions, principal place of residence exemptions and surcharge exemptions are all reviewed after the fact, sometimes years later.
Someone in the family lives overseas
One non-resident beneficiary can change the tax treatment of the whole structure.
The person who understood the structure has died
Deeds, loan accounts and unpaid entitlements all have to be dealt with, and the will frequently does not control the assets people assume it does.
How we work
How it works
Plain advice. Written advice that a non-specialist can read, with the technical analysis behind it where it is needed.
Cost certainty. A costs agreement and fee estimate before work starts, and phased scoping so you can stop at any point.
Discretion. Family matters stay in the file. We do not publish case studies or name clients — ever.
Common questions
How much does it cost to get advice?
It depends entirely on the issue, which is why we give a fee estimate before starting. Discrete pieces of work — a deed review, a ruling application, an objection — are usually quoted as a fixed fee. Larger matters are scoped in phases with an estimate for each phase.
Do I need a tax lawyer or an accountant?
For compliance and returns, an accountant. For a position that has to be defended, a dispute with a deadline, a document that has to be legally effective, or anything where legal professional privilege matters, a tax lawyer. Most of the time both are involved, and we are used to working alongside an existing accountant.
Related insights
Further reading
Trusts
Trust vesting: the deadline hiding in a 1985 deed
When a trust vests, discretionary powers end, income splitting stops, CGT arises on transfer out, and duty may be triggered by the passage of time alone.
State taxes
“I relied on my lawyer” is not a defence. Proof of advice is.
Reliance on an adviser only supports penalty and interest remission where the retainer, the question asked and the advice received are actually in evidence.
Have a matter you want a straight answer on?
Most engagements start with a short conversation about the issue, what the exposure looks like and what it would cost to deal with it properly. There is no charge for that conversation.